Description

PLYMOUTH

SX4653 DURNFORD STREET, Stonehouse
740-1/66/785 (East side)
01/05/75 Royal Marine Barracks: The Longroom

GV II*

Assembly rooms, then mess, later infirmary, school, now
gymnasium. 1760, officer's mess from 1805, school from 1818;
extended slightly early C19.
MATERIALS: red brick laid to Flemish bond with rusticated
stone quoins; dry slate hipped roofs behind brick parapets
with moulded stone cornices; brick stack towards left. Mid
Georgian style.
PLAN: rectangular plan with double-depth rear section;
entrance hall to centre at either end.
EXTERIOR: main block is 2 storeys over basement and 3-window
range with mid-floor string; rear block is 3 storeys over
basement and under same parapet level; 5:5-window range, the
left-hand 2 bays of rear block a later extension. Original
window openings have gauged brick arches over 6/6-pane sashes,
later openings with segmental arches over similar sashes.
Original symmetrical 3-window entrance front to right-hand
return with moulded architraves to ground-floor window
openings and central distyle Ionic pedimented porch with
dentilled cornices and pulvinated frieze; round-arched doorway
with fanlight.
Rear end rendered with a C19 3-window entrance front including
a central porch with round-arched doorway and blind niches to
the sides, and windows altered mid C20.
INTERIOR: has long room on each floor to main block with a
lateral dogleg stair to the front; central axial early C19
open-well staircase in later part with stick balusters, ramped
rails and turned newels; original joists to white-washed
cellar.
HISTORY: bought from the Corporation in 1805 for use as an
officer's mess, but used as a school for children of NCOs when
the officers moved to the rebuilt officer's mess (qv) in 1818.
The rear was used as an infirmary from c1859, when the nearby
surgeon's house was erected. A markedly similar composition to
the 1761 Guildhall at Poole, Dorset.
Stonehouse barracks was built between 1781-1783. Included for
historic and architectural interest with the main part of the
barracks complex, which is the oldest and most important group
of barracks in England not forming part of a fortification.
(The Buildings of England: Pevsner N: Devon: London: 1989-:
655).

Listing NGR: SX4651653804

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17554288

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.

Recommended Books

• 
  Building Small Projects (New Best of Fine Woodworking)
• 
  Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990: Updated version
• 
  Suffolk: East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Old House Care and Repair
• 
  Old House Handbook 2 Books Bundle Collection (Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair,Old House Eco Handbook: A Practical Guide to Retrofitting for Energy-Efficiency & Sustainability)
• 
  A Buying and Owning a Listed Building: A Brief Guide