Description

PORTSMOUTH

SZ6698NE CROMWELL ROAD, Eastney
774-1/27/154 (East side)
25/09/72 The Royal Marines Museum
(Formerly Listed as:
CROMWELL ROAD, Eastney
The Officers' Mess, Eastney Barracks
(Royal Marines))

GV II

Includes: The Royal Marines Museum EASTNEY ESPLANADE.
Officers' quarters and mess, now museum. c1865, designed by
William Scamp, for the Admiralty Works Department; converted
1980s. Red brick in Flemish bond with yellow brick frieze and
rusticated quoins and pilasters; ashlar faced centrepiece and
ground and 1st-floor bands, cornice, blocking course and
coping. Slate roofs, hipped at centre, mansard over wings,
with deep multi-flue corniced cross-ridge chimneys.
PLAN: double-depth plan with a large central stair hall.
EXTERIOR: 3 storeys with basement and attic. Centrepiece, of 7
bays, is slightly recessed and has Tuscan-pilastered
Italianate galleries to ground and 1st floors. Galleries
segmental-arched on ground floor, round-arched above, and on
1st floor having double-pilastered slightly-projecting centre;
architraves with imposts and console keystones; balustrade
across arches and above entablature forming 2nd-floor balcony.
Imperial stair (with 2 flights becoming one) with similar
balustrade rises to 1st floor entrance which has part-glazed
double-door and side-lights. Tripartite sashes to ground
floor; round-arched sashes to 1st and 2nd floors, the latter
in keyed architraves. Eaves cornice with central
console-bracketed pediment which is carved with Royal Coat of
Arms and initials and signed "C.R. Smith".
Side-wings of 8 bays each have innermost 3 bays breaking
forward slightly and 4-pane sashes in reveals with segmental
brick arches.
Rear: central block, of 2 storeys, projects and has
full-height 3-bay bow.
INTERIOR: lavish, including panelled doors in enriched
architraves; decorative fireplaces; ceilings, some
compartmental, with decorative friezes, cornices and
plasterwork. Of particular note is the former dining room,
which has decorative pilasters; a heavy coved ceiling with
rich plaster decoration and chandelier roundels; and a triple
entrance with arches above giving onto a minstrels' gallery.
Also of special note is the stair hall in which rises a

cantilevered stone Imperial stair, the elaborate balustrade
alternately having columnar balusters supporting spheres
depicting the world and balusters formed of decorative
openwork panels with a fouled anchor at the base; at foot of
stair carved columns support lamps. The decorative motifs and
features make use of symbols associated with and the motto of
the Royal Marines who originally occupied the barracks.
HISTORY: the centrepiece of this complete Marines barracks,
and among the most architecturally distinguished officers'
barracks in England. William Scamp was the assistant director
of the Admiralty Works Department, and associated with works
in the Royal Dockyards at this time. The carefully laid-out
site beside the seashore reflects its use by Marines; it is
also the last large defensible barracks in the country. Part
of the best and most complete barracks of the post-Crimean war
period.
(The Buildings of England: Pevsner N & Lloyd D: Hampshire and
the Isle of Wight: Harmondsworth: 1985-: 429-430; PSA Drawings
Collection, NMR, Swindon: 1866-: PTM/2153-2167).

Listing NGR: SZ6658898977

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26666757

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

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