Britannia Royal Naval College, main complex and attached walls

Britannia Royal Naval College, main complex and attached walls

A training college for naval officers built between 1899 and 1905 by Sir Aston Webb, with the foundation stone laid in 1902 by King Edward VII. A further addition was made around 1914. The buildings are constructed in Flemish-bond brick with Portland ashlar dressings, slate roofs with brick and stone-dressed chimney stacks, and feature walls of granite and local limestone ashlar. The style is Wrennian with a Palladian layout.

The plan comprises a central entrance block flanked by long wings that terminate in asymmetrical pavilions. The wings contain offices to the front, with an axial corridor behind giving access to the gun room in the south-west pavilion (which also houses the ward room) and the Anglican chapel in the north-east pavilion (which also contains the captain's house). A rear centre wing at right angles contains the great hall, flanked by classrooms, accommodation and service blocks. The addition of around 1914 is built to the rear north-west. A parade ground in front of and below the main range features an imperial stair rising to the entrance block and is flanked by curving drives.

The exterior is carved with appropriate Royal Naval motifs including lettering, crowns and projecting carvings of historic ships' prows of different dates. The entrance block rises three storeys plus two tiers of attics. The main range comprises thirty-seven bays plus the pavilions, each with an associated tower, and is symmetrical except for the pavilions. The entrance block has five bays, flanked by three-bay engaged porticos, then thirteen-bay wings. The ground floor features stone with channelled rustication to the wings and vermiculated rustication to the entrance block, with stone mullioned windows with high transoms. The entrance block has a deep hipped slate roof, balustraded parapet, stone-banded chimney shafts and stone bands at second-floor sill level and below the parapet. The centre bay projects forward; the outer bays are flanked by pilasters. The centre bay has composite pilasters and half columns to the upper storeys with a tympanum containing the Royal Arms above and a large stone cupola incorporating a clock. A central round-headed doorway with a keystone sits beneath. The flanking bays have round-headed windows on the ground floor, with upper windows flanked by giant stone pilasters. The outer bays have paired two-light ground-floor windows divided by mullions with heavy vermiculated rustication. All first-floor windows have broken pediments; below the outer windows are panels carved with the names of Drake, Hawke, Howe and Nelson. Under the parapet runs the inscription: "It is on the navy under the good providence of God that our wealth, prosperity and peace depend". Three-bay, two-tier porticos flank the entrance block, with rusticated bases of the columns engaged to single-storey blocks with parapets.

The outer bays of the thirteen-bay wings have wide pilasters. The bays towards the centre of the range each have a broken pediment with carving, cupolas and a canted bay on the ground floor. The bays at each end have balustraded parapets and canted ground-floor bays. The centre bay of each wing contains a round-headed doorway flanked by pilasters that rise above the roofline. The remaining bays are regular and divided by stone pilasters with an entablature at second-floor level: three-light windows on the ground floor, two-light on the first floor, and second-floor windows of two lights with broken pediments.

The right-hand pavilion (the captain's house) is two storeys and attic in the same style, set forward from the main range with an entrance on the inner return. It has domed corner projections and an asymmetrical entrance elevation with a grand pedimented doorway. A chapel tower with a domed roof rises beyond it.

The left-hand pavilion contains the ward room, with a tower and domed roof beyond. The ward room is single-storey with a roof hipped to the front with a balustraded parapet. Its three-bay front has pilasters and massive windows with two tiers of transoms. The parade ground in front of and below the main range has round-headed arches with keystones in the terrace wall. The other elevations of the main college buildings are a plainer version of the front, and the addition of around 1914 is designed to match.

Internally, the galleried great hall is four bays with a half bay at each end. It has an open timber roof with moulded transverse stone arches with oculi in the gables. The trusses are supported on wall plates with timber brackets carved with naval devices in the centre of each bay. The galleries bow out in the centre of each bay with a wrought-iron balustrade. The north-west end wall has four tall round-headed slit windows above a central niche and, in a recess below, a full-size white marble statue of Edward VII dated to 1910 on a plinth signed by Hamo Thornycroft.

The chapel has a four-bay nave with a tie-beam truss roof joined by longitudinal timbers, with vestigial aisles. A round-headed chancel arch leads to a barrel-vaulted chancel roof with a transverse stone arch. The five-light traceried east window is flanked by a chequerboard frieze and panels of Italian marble on either side of a seven-bay carved reredos. The west end has an internal three-bay narthex with a gallery over. The chapel contains Kempe Studio windows dated to 1907 to 1911.

The gun room, to the rear of the ward room, is galleried at the south-west end and has a barrel-vaulted roof with transverse ribs decorated with crowns, roses, thistles and the Royal Arms. At each end, the upper half of the wall is filled with a massive twelve-light window with two moulded king mullions and a transom. High-set round-headed windows occupy each side. Chandeliers in the form of sailing vessels are hung, and glass in the windows incorporates dolphins in the leading. The corridor running between the gun room and chapel is said to be one of the longest in any European building. It has a vaulted roof and a dado of glazed bricks. The ward room was not inspected.

Historically, in 1863 the Admiralty stationed HMS Britannia in the Dart as a training ship for naval cadets. HMS Hindustan joined her in 1865. By 1875 it was decided to build a land-based college, but the land was not acquired until 1896. Webb began work on the terraces for the main college in 1898, but after two cadets died of influenza aboard Britannia, the sanatorium was built first. Edward VII laid the foundation stone of the college in 1902. HMS Hindustan was towed to Plymouth in 1905, but HMS Britannia remained until 1916.