Officers Mess And Stables, Gaza Barracks

Officers' Mess and Stables, Gaza Barracks

A British Army Officers' Mess built in 1938 in neo-Georgian style, located at Catterick Garrison. The building forms part of Gaza Barracks' Second Reconstruction Plan, a major scheme of rebuilding permanent facilities undertaken from 1938, and cost £25,000 to construct. It replaced a smaller building on the same site shown on the 1933 Ordnance Survey map, and is shown part completed on the 1939 Ordnance Survey map of Catterick Camp, with its full footprint depicted on the 1941 map which also shows the associated stable block to the north east.

The building is constructed of red brick laid in stretcher bond with a Westmoreland slate roof laid to diminishing courses with close mitred hips. The porch is of Portland stone ashlar. Windows are timber with exposed sash boxes and slim glazing bars.

The plan is arranged in a C shape, formed around a rear north-facing service yard. The main central block contains a central south-facing porch opening into a central entrance and stair hall flanked by large reception rooms with bed-sitting rooms above. This central block is flanked by lower side wings that are slightly set back, the west wing having a further smaller reception room on the ground floor. Cross wings extend to the rear of these side wings, completing the C plan and containing further bed-sitting rooms on the upper floor with various auxiliary rooms below. Axial corridors lie on the side closest to the central courtyard, with communal toilet and washing facilities in rear projections on the opposite sides of these corridors. A secondary staircase leads to an external door at the end of the eastern cross wing.

The south elevation is symmetrical with a nine-bay central block flanked by three-bay side wings which are stepped back with lower storey heights, producing a stepped roofline. The central block has a broad central bay framed by ridge stacks with a Tuscan-style ashlar porch. On the first floor above is a triple arrangement of sash windows: a central twelve-over-twelve light window flanked by half-width six-over-six light windows. This central bay is flanked by four bays on each side framed by prominent rainwater downpipes. The first floor windows are the same as the central window; those on the ground floor are taller sixteen-over-sixteen light windows with segmental arched heads. The three-bay side wings have shorter and narrower six-over-nine light windows, those to the ground floor having flat arch lintels of gauged brickwork. The side wings each have a projecting end stack and a ridge stack framing the three bays.

The side elevations show rear projecting wings that are slightly set back and set down from the south-facing side wings, which have a single bay of windows either side of the projecting end stack. The rear projecting wings have nine bays of similar windows to those of the side wings, grouped in threes. The east rear wing is extended by a further two broad bays, including a secondary door recessed in a 1930s-style moulded brick door case.

The rear and courtyard elevations are similarly detailed to the side elevations with the same style of windows.

The interior fixtures and fittings are generally of high quality, with much likely to be original but typical of the mid-twentieth century. The entrance stair hall is of particular interest, featuring parquet flooring, a pair of fluted timber columns, and a part-glazed oak lobby screen with double entrance doors.

The Officers' Mess is a good, well-preserved example of the style of Officers' Mess built at many army barracks and RAF stations nationally in the 1930s. Its neo-Georgian style had been approved by the Royal Fine Arts Commission, which had been charged with overseeing the design of new military buildings in response to concerns raised by the Council for the Protection of Rural England about the large numbers of new military establishments, mainly airfields, being built on green field sites in the 1930s. The building was constructed during the build-up to and start of the Second World War, yet displays high quality construction and design with no suggestion of urgency or compromise, demonstrating the confidence that the British Army felt for the future.