Royal Citadel Governor'S House And Steps To Doorways

The Royal Citadel Governor's House, located within The Barbican in Plymouth, is an early military building dating from 1667 to 1775. It was extended around 1770 for the Board of Ordnance and altered in the mid-to-late 20th century.

The building is constructed of coursed Plymouth limestone, with granite drip courses and dressed granite doorways. The roof is dry slate, with bracketed eaves and six wide roof dormers, the central former valley now covered with a shallow lead roof. Original stone rubble axial and gable stacks were later heightened with brick, and there’s a large brick lateral stack at the rear left.

The building is arranged around a large double-depth plan built in two phases: the original, larger block (the former Governor's House) on the right and the former Lieutenant-Governor’s House on the left. Each part features a central entrance hall leading to a stair hall, with a small wing at the rear left of centre.

The exterior presents a three-storey-over-basement appearance, with an 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 have square hood moulds, each central to its original front; a blocked opening sits above the earlier doorway towards the right. Paired horned sashes with glazing bars are set within modified openings.

The interior retains original staircases: the circa 1670 staircase is open-well with a closed string, heavy turned balusters, turned pendants and square newels linked from floor to floor; the circa 1700 staircase has alternate turned and twist balusters, but is otherwise similar. There are some 19th-century panelled doors, and a 17th-century timber-framed spine wall survives under late 20th-century linings.

In front of each doorway is a flight of steps with low, ramped balustrades and shaped balustrades topped with ball finials over the newels.

This Governor's House is a rare surviving example of an early military building, one of the earliest examples of military accommodation in the country. It is associated with the Royal Citadel, Britain's most outstanding example of a 17th-century fort built to the designs of Sir Bernard de Gomme.