Royal Citadel Main Barracks

PLYMOUTH

SX4853NW THE BARBICAN 740-1/67/875 Royal Citadel: Main barracks 08/07/98

GV II

Soldier's barracks and recreation block. 1897 and 1899 datestones; by T Rogers Kitsell, architect for the War Office; altered internally and to rear mid C20. MATERIALS: dressed Plymouth limestone brought to course; dry slate roofs with projecting eaves; dressed stone axial, gable and lateral stacks to the ends and front walls of the barrack rooms, all with moulded entablature. PLAN: U-shaped plan, with a central recreation block, flanked by 2 pairs of barrack blocks with central stairs and barrack rooms each side, the outer ones forming the sides of a courtyard and terminated by single-storey wash houses. EXTERIOR: 2 storeys; near symmetrical unaltered front with taller 8-window central recreation block flanked by 2:2:2-window barrack blocks forming cross wings at the end. Original horned sashes or mullioned windows. Central block has 5 transomed 1st-floor windows, the central window a wider 3-light mullioned window above a porch with moulded parapet cornice and a 4-centred arched doorway with square hoodmould. There is another doorway in the right-hand angle. Outer gables set forward with 5-light double transomed mullioned windows over group of 3 small windows. There are double strings forming an entablature to the central bays and sill strings elsewhere. The 4 barrack blocks have similar details each with central gables with outer doorways, outer pairs of windows separated by a lateral stack. Ranges terminated by a single-storey parapeted wash house with a round-arched arcade to the front with return arches. The outer elevation to the ramparts is straight, the central section is punctuated by the gables of the cross wings flanking a round-arched open doorway, now to a C20 terrace, beneath an oriel with 3-light transom and mullion window and a round gable containing a coat of arms. The doorway has a rusticated arch springing from ashlar jambs with moulded cornices; spoked fanlight over later pair of glazed doors. INTERIOR: not inspected. HISTORY: a garrison was based at the Citadel since the late C17. The old quarters were rebuilt under the 1890 Barracks Act, and they are, with the Peninsula barracks in Winchester, a rare example of an architect-designed barracks. The

individual barracks are standard units which, with the recreation block, forms an interesting composed range, carefully designed to fit into the context of the C17 fort. A fine example of its type, and part of a good group of 1890s-1900s barracks buildings at this important C17 fort. (The Builder: Kitsell TR: Plymouth Citadel - new barracks and revreation block: London: 1898-: 104-5; Woodward FW: Citadel: Devon: 1987-; Saunders A: Fortress Britain: Portsmouth: 1989-).

Listing NGR: SX4813853844