Royal Marine Barracks North Barrack Block And Attached Basement Railings

PLYMOUTH

SX4654SW DURNFORD STREET, Stonehouse 740-1/60/787 (East side) 01/05/75 Royal Marine Barracks: North Barrack Block and attached basement railings

GV II*

Formerly known as: N & E Blocks, Officers Mess, Dining Hall & Single Officers Accom. DURNFORD STREET Stonehouse, R M Barracks. Barrack block at Marines barracks. c1860, designed by Colonel G Greene, Director of the Admiralty Works Department; altered late C20. MATERIALS: Plymouth limestone rubble with limestone dressings; dry slate roofs on 2 levels, hipped end on right and coped gable ends to slightly taller later block on the left, all behind a coped rubble parapet over a dressed stone band; 2 truncated stone stacks. PLAN: single-depth plan, the left-hand part slightly broken forward. EXTERIOR: 3 storeys over basement; 17:12-window range. Horned sashes with glazing bars replacing original hornless sashes, all within plain stone architraves; bands above basement and ground floor. Segmental-arched doorways and enclosed stone porch with parapet and side windows, on left. To the rear at the W end is a square stair tower with a pyramidal roof. INTERIOR: not inspected but reported to have been rebuilt internally. SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: late C19 latticed and scrolled wrought-iron railings surrounding forecourt and flanking steps up to doorways. HISTORY: built to match the 1783 barrack, after the former N officers' wing was demolished when the barracks was enlarged by Greene in the 1860s, to enclose the C18 parade ground. Originally with single-depth rooms flanking entrance stair halls, with sergeant's mess and library at the W end and men's day room and billiard room at the E. Stonehouse is the earliest and most important barracks in England not forming part of a fortification, a rare example of C18 planning, and a complex of great historical value. (The Buildings of England: Pevsner N: Devon: London: 1989-: 655).

Listing NGR: SX4639154128