Officers Mess, Jellalabad Barracks (Building No 73)

An officers’ mess and quarters of 1905 with later additions to the rear wings.

MATERIALS: built of red brick laid in English bond with rubbed brick dressings, brick ridge stacks and stone dressings. The roofs are covered in tile.

PLAN: a single-depth plan, the mess has a rectangular front range with rear quarter and service wings.

EXTERIOR: of two storeys with a central block of ten bays with set back end sections of five (left) and four (right) bays. The façade has a plat band. The central section is taller and has a central entrance bay with an open pediment containing a Coat of Arms with ER 1905 and a crown in relief. Below is an Ionic diastyle-in-antis brick porch with entablature and parapet with front balustrade, and open sides. JELLALABAD is inscribed in the fascia. The round-arched doorway with fanlight and keystone has double six-panel doors with side lights. The right-hand return has a doorway with architrave and cornice. Either side of the porch is a canted three-light bay with a blocking course. There are rubbed brick heads to plate-glass horned sashes, and six-over-six horned sashes to the left-hand return, which is hung with mid-C20 composite tiles. To the rear are two-storey quarter blocks and single-storey service blocks. The roofs are hipped with oversailing eaves with brackets to the centre, and ridge stacks.

INTERIOR: the wide entrance lobby has a mosaic floor inscribed ER 1905 and is lit by three windows high in the rear wall and a tall sash to the rear left. An axial passage leads to mess rooms either side. The front left-hand mess room has a timber fireplace and pilasters to a plaster cornice. There is a stone fireplace in the right-hand mess room. At each end are rear dogleg stairs with curtail and timber balustrade. To the rear are kitchens, sitting rooms and the quarter blocks. Across the building are panelled doors, dado rail and skirting, and other joinery.

Pursuant to s.1 (5A) of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 (‘the Act’) it is declared that the modern fixtures and fittings are not of special architectural or historic interest.