Hms Drake, Drake House And Attached Walls And Railings

PLYMOUTH

SX4556NW SALTASH ROAD, Devonport 740-1/32/166 (West side) 08/07/98 HMS Drake: Drake House and attached walls & railings

GV II

Commodore's house, including attached porch on road frontage and flanking walls and iron railings. 1887, Superintendent Engineer Lt-Col P Smith RE. Plymouth limestone brought to course and with limestone dressings; steep dry slate roofs with projecting eaves and decorated barge boards, very steep roof over tower; stone axial, gable and lateral stacks with moulded cornices. Baronial Gothic style and some Classical detail. Irregular plan. EXTERIOR: 2 storeys plus attic; irregular 3-bay entrance front. On the left is a square 3-storey tower with sill string to 2nd floor and moulded parapet entablature; paired lights to upper floors and central window to ground floor. Projecting gabled bay right of tower has double-transomed 3-light windows to upper floors and side walls ramped flanking balcony with cast-iron balustrade and with moulded cornice over projecting ground floor. Right-hand bay has canted attic dormer window over 1st-floor window and L-plan porch to ground floor, a lean-to returned to front and to stuccoed road frontage entrance with stepped tripartite doorway with triangular pediment over central doorway to porch and flanking moulded courtyard doorways, all with moulded hoods, and rusticated terminal piers with plinths, moulded entablature and rounded caps. Other elevations with various details on the theme of the front. Original windows, mostly horned sashes and original panelled doors. INTERIOR: not inspected. SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: Plymouth limestone road-frontage walls with dressed plinths and copings surmounted by wrought-iron railings with trident finials between turned cast-iron stanchions. HISTORY: a building unique to naval barracks, and a striking and original composition. Forms part of the navy's first barracks for sailors, one of the finest and most complete barracks in the country, manifesting the status and importance of the Royal Navy at this time. (The Buildings of England: Pevsner N: Devon: London: 1989-: 655).

Listing NGR: SX4509156684