Royal Citadel Officers Quarters And Mess

PLYMOUTH

SX4853NW THE BARBICAN 740-1/67/877 Royal Citadel: Officers' Quarters 08/07/98 and Mess

GV II

Officers' quarters and mess in fort. 1895, by T Rogers Kitsell, architect for the War Office. MATERIALS: dressed Plymouth limestone brought to course and with moulded dressings including hoodmoulds and parapet strings; dry slate roofs with coped gables, behind parapet to principal entrance front; dressed stone axial, gable and lateral stacks with moulded cornices. PLAN: large inverted F-shaped plan plus shallow projecting wings; there are 2 stair halls, with a carriageway running under the mess room block (centre bar of the F) and this block is partly built into the perimeter earthwork. The front entrance block has the dining room to its upper floor on the right and there is a smoking room on the left. EXTERIOR: 3 storeys; taller entrance block is 5 bays with projecting gables flanking the central entrance bay. Principal 2nd floor has double-transomed mullioned windows except for the 2 narrow windows flanking the fireplace to each floor of the lateral stack of the right-hand wing. The moulded head of the wide round-arched doorway is corbelled out to support an embattled parapet. Lower range right of the entrance block has cross wing on its right with large double-transomed 4-light mullioned window. Other elevations are similar but with varied window types and sizes, all with original glazing. The mess room has a canted bay providing a lookout window and there are external steps winding up to a porch. INTERIOR: has much original architectural detail including moulded plaster ceilings, doorcases with moulded architraves, marble chimneypieces with iron grates and round arches between linked room spaces. The mess room has a moulded chair rail and arches carried on consoles. The large dining room has similar detail plus a plaster barrel ceiling. Principal stair hall has a large open-well staircase with turned balusters over a closed string. The back staircase is a dog leg with slender turned balusters over an open string. HISTORY: a garrison was based at the Citadel from the late C17. The old quarters were rebuilt under the 1890 Barracks Act, and this is, with the Peninsula barracks in Winchester, a rare example of an architect-designed barracks. Contained rooms for officers and their servants, with mess and dining rooms, and designed to fit into the context of the fine C17

fort. (The Builder: Kitsell TR: Plymouth Citadel - new barracks and recreation block: London: 1898-: 104-105; Woodward FW: Citadel: Devon: 1987-; Saunders A: Fortress Britain: Portsmouth: 1989-).

Listing NGR: SX4803053789