Hms Drake Howard Building

SX4556NW 740-1/32/167 08/07/98

PLYMOUTH SALTASH ROAD, Devonport (West side) HMS Drake: Howard Building

GV II

Officer's accommodation, now administration block. 1879-86, Superintendent Engineer Lt-Col P Smith, RE; extended to SW 1929. MATERIALS: rusticated Plymouth limestone to basement, otherwise limestone brought to course and with limestone dressings; dry slate mansard roof behind parapet with 3 pilastered and segmental-pedimented dormer windows and roof hidden behind balustraded parapets of flanking attic storeys. Free Classical style. PLAN: articulated rectangular plan plus small plan projection to centre of each end. EXTERIOR: 2 storeys plus attic, or attic storey, over basement; symmetrical 1:3:1-bay front. Keyed segmental arches and band to basement, sill string above and pilasters dividing bays; mid-floor entablature plus roundelled balconies on shaped brackets; architraves to openings, moulded hoods on consoles above French windows and moulded parapet entablature; 3-bay attic storeys with pilasters dividing bays and side bays blind. Original 12-pane horned sashes and French windows and original panelled doors to central doorway surmounted by segmental pediment on shaped brackets. Other elevation with similar detail where inspected. INTERIOR: not inspected. HISTORY: this was the original officer's accommodation when the barracks was first occupied. They moved into the Wardroom (qv) when it was completed in 1902. Sailors lived in hulks until their first barracks were built here at Devonport, then Chatham and Portsmouth. They followed the same designs, but HMS Drake was the only one built in ashlar. Part of one of the finest and most complete barracks complex in England, manifesting the status and importance of the Royal Navy at this time. (The Buildings of England: Pevsner N: Devon: London: 1989-: 655 & 656).

Listing NGR: SX4497756719