Royal Citadel Main Barracks

This is a soldier's barracks and recreation block, built in 1897 and 1899. It was designed by T Rogers Kitsell, who was the architect for the War Office. The building has been altered internally and to the rear in the mid-20th century. Constructed from dressed Plymouth limestone brought to course, it features dry slate roofs with projecting eaves and stacks of dressed stone with moulded entablatures at the ends and front walls of the barrack rooms.

The building follows a U-shaped plan, with a central recreation block flanked by two pairs of barrack blocks. Each barrack block has a central staircase and rooms on either side, forming a courtyard. The outer blocks define the sides of the courtyard, and are terminated by single-storey wash houses. The front elevation is near-symmetrical, with an eight-window central recreation block flanked by two six-window barrack blocks. The recreation block’s central window is a wider three-light mullioned window above a porch with a moulded parapet cornice and a four-centred arched doorway with a hoodmould. There’s another doorway in the right-hand angle. The outer gables project forward, displaying five-light double transomed mullioned windows over a grouping of three smaller windows. The building incorporates double strings forming an entablature to the central bays, along with sill strings elsewhere. The barrack blocks share similar detailing, each with a central gable and outer doorways, with outer window pairs separated by a lateral stack. The building terminates with a single-storey wash house featuring a round-arched arcade to the front, including return arches. The outer elevation to the ramparts is straight, with the central section punctuated by the gables of the cross wings, flanking a round-arched open doorway leading to a 20th-century terrace. An oriel with a three-light transom and mullion window sits above a round gable containing a coat of arms. The doorway has a rusticated arch springing from ashlar jambs with moulded cornices; a spoked fanlight sits above a later pair of glazed doors. The interior remains uninspected.

A garrison has been based at the Citadel since the late 17th century. The old quarters were rebuilt in response to the 1890 Barracks Act, making this complex, along with the Peninsula barracks in Winchester, a rare example of architect-designed barracks. The individual barracks are standard units that, together with the recreation block, create an interesting and composed range, carefully designed to integrate into the setting of the 17th-century fort. It’s a fine example of its type and forms part of a larger group of barracks buildings dating from the 1890s and 1900s at this important 17th-century fort.