Royal Military College Of Science, Beckett Hall

Beckett Hall, Royal Military College of Science

Built in 1830-1 by Thomas Liddell, the Honorary architect, after designs by William Atkinson for the 7th Viscount Barrington, this is a substantial Elizabethan-style house constructed of coursed rubble stone with ashlar dressings. The building features gabled stone-tiled roofs with rows of three or four tall ashlar stacks.

The structure comprises two storeys and an attic, with three main fronts and a servants hall forming the fourth side. A full-height hall runs across the centre of the building.

The east entrance front has five bays with a striking gabled central feature flanked by octagonal buttresses capped by openwork, ogee-topped stone cupolas. The gable displays a coped finish with shoulders and pinnacles, surmounted by a crenellated parapet with corner pinnacles. Below are four two-light gabled dormers with pinnacles, and three-light cross-mullioned windows with hood moulds to the sides. A central moulded Tudor arch with carved spandrels and hood mould frames the entrance, with a canted first-floor oriel bay displaying the Barrington arms carved in a panelled base. Two-light attic windows are positioned above.

The south front has five bays with projecting end gables and a centre attic gable. Similar coping, pinnacles and crenellation appear as on the east gable. Two dormers light the upper storey, while below are two-storey large canted bays to each wing, panelled between floors and crenellated above with cross-mullioned windows. Three-light centre windows and a central first-floor oriel with a two-light attic window complete the composition.

The west front is symmetrical with five bays and a slightly projecting central gable, with an additional projecting gable at the north end. The main range features three-light cross-mullioned windows, a two-light central attic window and four dormers. A centrally placed ground-floor three-sided bay window with a crenellated top occupies the centre, with no windows to the south side but three windows to the north. The projecting north end gable resembles the gabled wings of the south front, but has two-light centre windows rather than three-light windows.

A two-storey north servant block with attic has an east end coped gable with three finials.

Interior: Ground-floor rooms are disposed around three sides of the central hall. Plaster ceilings feature moulded square panels, some coved, with moulded plaster bosses at the intersections of ribs and deeply undercut foliage plaster friezes. Double doors with Gothic tracery to panels access the rooms. Fireplaces are predominantly heavy stone or wood in Jacobean style, though some are very fine 18th-century marble surrounds, possibly salvaged from a previous house on the site.

The east front low hall features a billiard room to the north, while the library occupies the southeast corner with Jacobean-style former bookcases, fluted piers with ball finials, and a fine late 18th-century marble fireplace with an ox skull centre motif.

The south front central saloon has plaster pendentives to the ceiling. The southwest corner drawing room contains a fine 18th-century fireplace with carved fruit and flower swags. The west front centre morning-room has a coved ceiling, with the dining-room adjoining and featuring a north end serving bay with hexagonal panels to the ceiling. The northwest corner office displays a moulded ceiling.

The central hall rises the full height with a three-section roof, with a flat glazed centre. Square panels with moulded ribs and ornate plaster bosses punctuate the ceiling. Five bays are divided by large curved ribs on corbels with ornate spandrels. A cornice with moulded bosses and a frieze of armorial panels runs around the hall. Three first-floor arched openings connect from north and south passages. Jacobean-style wooden galleries cross the east and west ends, with formerly elaborate niches in the end walls. Moulded Tudor arched openings lead to the ground floor.

The staircase off the hall to the north is heavy Jacobean style with octagonal newels and a top skylight with armorial panels.

The first floor features a fine marble fireplace with winged putti in relief in the east front centre room. The southeast corner room has a circa 1820-30 marble fireplace, while the south centre room retains a late 18th-century fireplace.