Royal Citadel Governor'S House And Steps To Doorways

SX4853NW 740-1/67/871

PLYMOUTH THE BARBICAN Royal Citadel: Governor's House and steps to doorways

08/07/98

GV II* Governor's house at fort, now offices. 1667-75, extended c1770 for the Board of Ordnance; altered mid-late C20.

MATERIALS: coursed Plymouth limestone with granite drip courses and dressed granite doorways; dry slate parallel roofs with bracketed eaves and six wide roof dormers, the central former valley now with shallow lead roof; original stone rubble axial and gable stacks later heightened with brick and large brick lateral stack at rear left. PLAN: large double-depth plan built in two phases, the original larger building (the former Governor's house) on the right and the former Lieutenant-Governor's House on the left; each part with a central entrance hall leading to a stair hall; small wing at rear left of centre.

EXTERIOR: Three storeys over basement; overall six-window range consisting of two symmetrical fronts: a two-window front on the left and a four-window front on the right. Original moulded round-arched doorways with square hoodmoulds, each doorway central to its original front; blocked opening above the earlier doorway towards the right. Paired horned sashes with glazing bars in modified openings.

INTERIOR: has its original staircase to each part: c1670 staircase is open-well with closed string, heavy turned balusters, turned pendants and square newels which are linked from floor to floor; c1700 staircase has alternate turned and twist balusters but is in other ways similar to the 1670 staircase. There are some nineteenth century panelled doors, and the C17 timber-framed spine wall survives beneath late C20 linings. SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: flight of steps with low ramped and shaped balustrades with ball finials over the newels in front of each doorway.

HISTORY: this is a very rare surviving example in a national context of an early military building, one of the earliest examples of military accommodation in the country. With the contemporary store and guard house (qqv), it is associated with the most outstanding example of a C17 fort in Britain, built to the designs of Sir Bernard de Gomme.

Listing NGR: SX4800853878