The Staff College

The Staff College is a college building constructed in 1862 by Pennethorne, designed in the Victorian Country house style. It is built of stock brick on a stone plinth, featuring channelled rustication on the ground floor, with decorative dressings, quoins, and a prominent central feature. The building has a mansard slate roof and stands three storeys tall with attics, which include flat roof sash dormer windows. Notable architectural details include a decorative plat band over the ground floor, a cill band at the second floor, and a heavy cornice with modillions and brackets at the eaves. The building has a twenty-five bay front with sash windows set in moulded architrave surrounds, while the ground and first floor windows are topped with hoods on brackets.

At each corner of the building, there are four-storey pavilions with angle piers and a distinct order on all four storeys: Tuscan columns on the ground floor, Ionic columns on the first floor, and antae on the second and third floors. The top of the pavilions features a balustrade with panelled piers. The left corner pavilion includes a round turret with a glazed drum and an ogee dome. The main frontispiece is three bays wide and four storeys tall, featuring a pedimented aedicule that displays military trophies and is topped with a flagpole above the main cornice. The second floor has a tripartite window, while the first floor has a single window with a triangular pediment on brackets. The entrance consists of central double panelled doors flanked by half columns in antis, with a cornice projecting on either side supported by two full columns.

Inside, the library features Edwardian panelling with Ionic pilasters. The central Roman entrance hall is two storeys high and includes an encircling gallery, a black and white stone floor, and a Doric order below with an Ionic order above on columned screens. A fine Ionic columned staircase adds to the interior's grandeur.