Baden Powell House, Catterick Garrison

Baden Powell House is a military headquarters building constructed in 1935, originally built for the 50th (Northumbrian) Division. The architect remains unknown. The building presents a Neoclassical exterior whilst featuring Art Deco styling internally.

Materials and Construction

The building is constructed of dark-brown brick laid in stretcher bond. Architectural detailing includes an ashlar Portland Stone plinth, continuous sill band, eaves band, individual window sills, pilasters, a central pediment, and entrance porch. The windows are timber sashes with exposed sash boxes and slim glazing bars. Slate-covered roofs feature metal flashing and are drained by metal rainwater goods with square-section downpipes and large moulded, canted storm boxes. Decorative brick ridge stacks are finished with ashlar cornices and capped flues. The library and conference room has a concealed asphalted flat roof.

Plan

The headquarters follows an E-shaped plan. The principal two-storey range faces south-west with a 17-bay elevation. An eight-bay north wing and a six-bay south wing extend from this main range, each terminating in three-by-one bay return ranges with projecting toilet blocks to the rear. A rectangular-plan stair hall and library/conference room project centrally into the rear courtyard.

A detached plant room and a 20th-century office range attached to the rear of the north wing are not of special interest and are excluded from the listing.

Exterior

Front Elevation

The main range presents a symmetrical 17-bay, two-storey front elevation raised on a moulded ashlar plinth, with a continuous ground-floor sill band and deep, painted, moulded timber eaves cornices crowned by a central pediment. The three central bays project forward from the main wall plane, defined by four ashlar lesenes or pilaster strips with stylised ashlar plinths and capitals supporting a moulded ashlar pediment. Within the tympanum sits a central clock face set in a concentric brick surround, with black painted wrought-iron Roman numerals.

The ground floor features a canted ashlar porch with a moulded architrave and tripartite keystone, housing recessed double half-glazed timber doors with a narrow rectangular fanlight containing curved segmental glazing bars. The porch's moulded cornice has cusped sides and is surmounted by a stylised graduated date stone inscribed 1935. Above the entrance at first-floor level, a central ashlar panel contains a six-over-nine timber sash window with exposed sash boxes, set within a moulded architrave. The outer two wall panels are of brick and feature similar windows on each floor beneath flat brick lintels.

The six bays to either side of the entrance have recessed panels with identical 15-light sashes on each floor, set between projecting brick piers that create the appearance of pilaster strips. Each end of the elevation terminates in a slightly projecting and wider bay designed to resemble a pavilion, with a ground-floor 15-light sash window set in an ashlar moulded architrave with a pediment raised on scroll brackets resting on carved acanthus leaves, with a recessed brick apron panel beneath the sill.

Side Elevations

The two-storey, eight-bay north wing and six-bay south wing project north-east from the main range, with the western bay of each elevation matching the main elevation's design. Both side elevations follow a similar appearance to the main elevation but lack the central pediment. As with the main elevation, both end bays of each wing project slightly to give the impression of pavilions. The north-eastern ends of both wings form three-by-one bay returns, accommodating the width of the toilet blocks. The first-floor north-east elevations of both return wings feature three sash windows.

Rear Elevations

The rear elevations are similar in detail to the side elevations, with the same style of windows and ashlar plinth and sill band. The ground-floor rear walls of the north and south wings are pierced by three-light water closet windows. All the walls show traces of painted wartime temperate camouflage.

The rear elevation of the south wing is accessed by a doorway flanked by a pair of sash windows, with three windows at first-floor level. The door has a moulded broad-shouldered Art Deco-style ashlar surround, with raised bronze lettering on the wide keystone reading "ENTRANCE". The base of the rear wall of the north wing is obscured by an attached late 20th-century office range that is not of special interest and is excluded from the listing.

The central two-storey stair hall with attic room projects to the rear, with an attached corrugated asbestos bicycle shelter (not of special interest) against the northern wall, and a rectangular-plan, tall single-storey library/conference room attached to the east wall. The northern and southern elevations of this room each have a central 24-light sash window flanked by two brick pilaster strips, and the eastern elevation is lit by three sashes. The walls rise to form a parapet wall with raised and shouldered ashlar coping, which conceals a flat asphalted roof with a central rectangular roof light. The roof drains through concentric semi-circular brick openings in the side walls into plain cast-iron storm boxes and round-profile downpipes.

A detached, single-storey, flat-roofed brick-built plant room situated immediately to the rear of the library/conference room is not of special interest and is excluded from the listing.

Interior

The central entrance porch leads into a vestibule with a glazed oak screen featuring ten-light glazed double doors with brass doorknobs decorated with a Catterick (Tudor) Rose in relief and a lock escutcheon with a stylised insect design, brass kickplates, glazed side panels, and rectangular fanlights with intersecting lancet glazing bars.

The vestibule opens into a hallway and an axial corridor that divides to either side, aligned north-west to south-east against the rear north-east wall, and turns 90 degrees at each end into the two side wings. A similar axial corridor is located directly above on the first floor, subdivided by glazed fire partitions, providing access to office rooms. The corridors have plain skirting boards and cornices, with good-quality painted architrave surrounds and six-panel doors. The range and quality of the doorknobs in these offices suggest a hierarchy in the rank of their occupiers.

The offices are decoratively restrained with simple moulded door cornices and picture rails. Some offices feature moulded timber fire surrounds with tiled inserts, hearth edges, and enamelled grates, whilst others have a cast-iron fire surround with a moulded mantle shelf, beaded panelled pilasters and a frieze panel decorated with three Catterick Rose rosettes. Some of these fireplaces are flanked by fitted timber pigeon-hole shelves and cupboards in the adjacent alcove. Two of the first-floor offices have internal connecting doorways with a central brass escutcheon and padded sound-proofed linings, and one room has a bell call indicator box attached to the wall.

A segmental-arched open doorway directly opposite the main entrance leads into a rectangular hallway providing access to the main staircase on its left, and directly forward through a narrow passage lined with brass coat hooks to a pair of Art Deco panelled oak doors with brass levers into the library/conference room. A painted timber plaque above the door reads "Library" and a framed "conference in progress" notice is attached to the left-hand door. Internally, the door has a broad-shouldered Art Deco-style oak surround.

The library is a high-status room lined in Art Deco panelled oak wainscoting, moulded dado rails, panel dividers, window reveals, and picture rails, with plain friezes and simple plaster cornices to the ceiling. The ceiling features four rectangular deeply coved panels and a large framed rectangular skylight with a central cross beam and an arched Art Deco iron rooflight frame. The walls to each side of the side windows are lined with tall, fitted oak glazed bookcases raised on cupboards.

An Art Deco closed-well staircase with an open string rises on the left-hand side of the hallway against the wall of the northern axial corridor, which has two segmental-arcaded openings to allow borrowed light into the corridor. The staircase has a moulded skirting on one side and a ramped moulded brass handrail carried on a balustrade of paired reversed cast-iron lightning-shaped balusters, with an end spiral terminating in a ribbed-column newel post on a stepped circular curtail plinth. There is a single-panel door located beneath the soffit of the upper flight.

The upper flight of the main stairs rises from a half-landing to a mezzanine landing, which leads to the left to room 27, to a small mezzanine room, and a winder stair that rises to a pair of second-floor attic rooms lit by skylights. Returning to the mezzanine landing, to the right three steps rise to the first-floor axial corridor, the central area of which takes the form of an arcaded loggia overlooking the staircase, with two matching balustraded openings.

The north and south wings each have a rear dog-leg staircase at their north-eastern ends. These staircases are of simpler design than the main stairs, with only one lightning strike baluster per step, and a moulded timber handrail that terminates in a swirl over a ribbed-column newel post set on a semi-circular curtail step.

The south wing has both ground and first-floor toilets, whereas the north wing has only ground-floor toilets. These are entered by half-glazed panelled doors and have white glazed wainscoting with moulded dado rails. Each toilet cubicle has a six-panel timber door fitted with brass grab handles and modern sanitary ware.

Pursuant to section 1(5A) of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990, it is declared that the plant room, 20th-century office range, bicycle shelter, and internal glazed fire partitions are not of special architectural or historic interest. However, any works which have the potential to affect the character of the listed building as a building of special architectural or interest may still require Listed Building Consent, and this is a matter for the Local Planning Authority to determine.