Description

BURY ST EDMUNDS

TL86 OUT RISBYGATE
639-1/13/513 (North side)
14/09/92 Gibraltar Barracks: The Keep
(Formerly Listed as:
OUT RISBYGATE
(North side)
Suffolk Regimental Museum)

GV II

Armoury, guard house and store for the Suffolk Regiment
Localisation depot; now The Suffolk Regimental Museum. 1877,
designed at the War Office by Major HC Seddon RE. Red brick
laid in English Bond with white brick and stone dressings;
flat roof.
EXTERIOR: 3 storeys; two 4-storey towers, one at the
north-west corner and a higher tower at the south-east corner;
rounded corners to the south-west and north-east. 6 windows to
each storey of the north and south facades, all cast-iron,
small-paned, with shaped stone heads and projecting sills. A
band of plain white brick runs at sill level on each storey,
and a white brick band with guilloche ornament links the tops
of all the windows.
The walls are topped by a high crenellated parapet, stepped up
slightly at the north-east corner. Both rounded corners have a
small slit window. The 2 towers, which contain the stairs, are
ornately treated, with a row of 3 narrow stepped windows to
each storey. The top stage is marked by a course of white
brick with guilloche ornament and has diaper patterning in
blue headers.
The projecting top is crenellated above a row of stone
machicolations.
INTERIOR: not inspected but reported to be fire-proof with
open well stone stairs in the towers, and jack arch floors to
iron columns.
HISTORY: this is the only building which survives of a much
larger depot complex. The Barracks ceased to be used in 1960,
following the amalgamation of the Suffolk Regiment into the
East Anglian Regiment in 1959. The remaining buildings were
subsequently demolished. The keep was the characteristic
building of the Localisation depots. These were part of the
Cardwell reforms, which were intended to strengthen the ties
between the regiment and its locality, to assist recruitment.
As such the keep raised the local profile of the barracks, and
provided an emblematic focus for the regiment. One of only
nine surviving examples of this important symbolic building.

Listing NGR: TL8429664526

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26537385

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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