Former Portland Drill Hall, boundary walls, mounting blocks and adjacent workshop

Former Portland Drill Hall, boundary walls, mounting blocks and adjacent workshop

A castellated Gothic Revival drill hall built in 1868 to designs by George Rackstraw Crickmay of Weymouth (1830-1907), extended in 1884 and again in 1900 by Crickmay and Sons. The building is constructed of Portland stone coursed rubble with ashlar dressings, roofed in slate. A small brick addition with a bitumen roof at the north-east corner, attached external disabled ramps, a detached concrete-frame building to the south, and the rear and side walls are excluded from the listing.

The building has a T-shaped footprint on an east-to-west alignment, comprising offices to the west, the drill hall to the east, and the former instructor's house to the south. The front two-storey range is decorated with machicolations and a crenelated parapet. At the centre is a projecting single-bay entrance with large double doors set within a rounded stone-voussoir arch; the glazed door light has been removed. Above this is a glazed embrasure and a corner turret on a moulded corbel at parapet level.

The south tower features matching three-bay west and south elevations with round-headed metal windows to the ground floor and first-floor glazed arrow-openings with ashlar surrounds. The lower north tower has three ground-floor and two first-floor round-arched windows. Behind the crenelated front is the pitched-roof drill hall with roof lights. The north elevation contains seven bays, each separated by a buttress and containing a painted timber two-pane casement window (temporarily boarded up internally). The south elevation includes a mid-20th-century fire exit (a modified window), while the west end is obscured by the two-storey instructor's house, which has a crenelated west gable end. The house's south elevation features two gable dormers and a later pitched-roof porch. Windows in the house and front office range are metal casements, mostly replacing earlier iron frames. At the south-east end of the drill hall is a late-20th-century side entrance with a partially-rendered single-storey toilet and boiler room. A single-storey lean-to and another toilet block run along the east elevation. The east gable end of the drill hall contains a set of triple lancets, partially truncated when repositioned from lower in the elevation.

Internally, the west-end two-storey range contains offices. At the centre is the internal vehicular entrance with a mounting block on the left side, divided from the drill hall by double doors. To the south is an office with a corner brick fireplace; to the north is the former armoury. Beyond the double doors lies the main drill hall, featuring a steel-truss A-frame roof and a pine-block parquet floor bedded in bitumen. A first-floor timber gallery is accessed by stairs next to the former armoury. The gallery balcony is painted timber with a central removable section. A small office occupies the north tower's first floor. To the south, through partially glazed timber doors above three curtail steps, is the former billiard room and bar, where the billiard table and bar have been removed but timber wainscot, chimney breast, remains of gas pipes, and a central glass ceiling lantern survive. At the east end of the drill hall are a disabled toilet (former female toilets), a gallery and refreshment space (former armoury), and an earlier male toilet block at the north-east corner.

The former instructor's house to the south has a three-room plan arranged around a central dog-leg staircase with plain timber banister. The former kitchen and pantry have been extensively reordered, all fireplaces have been removed, and late-20th-century internal fire doors have been installed throughout.

The subsidiary features include a Portland-stone front wall with square piers, the internal face of which has undergone repairs in breeze block. Two stone tethering blocks stand in front of the main entrance.