Governor's House and attached railings, former Her Majesty's Prison Gloucester

Governor's House and attached railings, former Her Majesty's Prison Gloucester

This is a two-storey house with attic and basement, constructed of brick laid in Flemish bond with ashlar dressings, brick chimney stacks, and a slate-covered roof. The building has a rectangular double-depth plan which projects slightly forward of the south flank of the prison's perimeter wall. The east side of the house is connected to an octagonal tower.

The principal elevation faces south and is arranged as three bays beneath a hipped roof with slate roof tiles and wide boxed eaves. The basement has a stone capping to its offset wall, which turns down on either side to meet the base of the central doorcase. A stone cill band runs at first-floor level, and raised and chamfered stone quoins mark the corners. The central double-doorway, which is partially glazed, is set within a stone doorcase of pilasters with Doric capitals and a moulded semi-circular arched head with a raised keystone. The fanlight has radiating glazing bars. The doorway is flanked by ground-floor windows, and three windows occupy the first floor. All are six-over-six sash windows beneath flat-arch lintels with keystone and voussoirs. To each of the outer basement bays is an eight-over-eight sash window beneath a segmental stone-arched lintel with raised keystone. Three low-pitched gabled dormer windows pierce the roof, each with plain barge boards and a pair of casements with single horizontal glazing bars.

The west side elevation has three bays with cill band and window details similar to the principal elevation. Between the second and third bay stands a brick chimney stack rising above the eaves with a stone-capped plinth and stone cornice. A dormer window is positioned to the left. The north rear elevation features an iron stair window. The east side elevation has a stone cill band and central six-over-six sash windows to ground and first floors, with an additional first-floor window to the left, all with details similar to the principal elevation.

The two-storey east wing is lower than the main house and has a tall ashlar plinth with an offset base course and moulded capping. The octagonal tower features a stone plat band and raised stone quoins at the angles, topped by a bull-nose crowning cornice with stone parapet. Both floors contain twentieth-century fixed light or hopper sashes in openings with stone flat-arched heads with raised keystones and voussoirs to either side. The windows to the right side are blind. A tall brick stack rises on the east side of the tower.

The basement contains the former kitchen, which had a mid-nineteenth-century cast-iron range set into an opening spanned by a stone flat arch with a projecting keystone (documented in 1973, now concealed by boarding as of 2013). Further service rooms occupy the basement, including one heated by a corner stack. The ground floor contains two large reception rooms with a smaller room and stair at the rear, with a similar arrangement repeated on the first floor. The attic provides former servant's accommodation with two mid-nineteenth-century cast-iron fireplaces. Much of the original joinery survives to the ground and first-floor rooms, including skirting boards, moulded cornices, and door and window joinery. The doors have been replaced with twentieth-century fire doors, and the fireplaces have been removed except those in the attic. The principal staircase has been boxed in and concealed. A mid-nineteenth-century staircase serves the basement.

To the front of the house are mid-nineteenth-century cast-iron railings with spearheads. A stone bridge of three stone steps spans over the basement area to the central entrance doorway.

Twentieth-century interior fittings are not of special architectural or historic interest.