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Latitude: 51.883 / 51°52'58"N
Longitude: 0.894 / 0°53'38"E
OS Eastings: 599275
OS Northings: 224451
OS Grid: TL992244
Mapcode National: GBR SN4.YN2
Mapcode Global: VHKFZ.FXZW
Plus Code: 9F32VVMV+5J
Entry Name: Former Sergeant's Mess, Royal Artillery Barracks (also known as Le Cateau Barracks)
Listing Date: 8 July 1998
Grade: II
Source: Historic England
Source ID: 1375581
English Heritage Legacy ID: 469545
ID on this website: 101375581
Location: Colchester, Essex, CO2
County: Essex
District: Colchester
Electoral Ward/Division: New Town and Christ Church
Parish: Non Civil Parish
Built-Up Area: Colchester
Traditional County: Essex
Lieutenancy Area (Ceremonial County): Essex
Church of England Parish: Colchester St Botolph with Holy Trinity (LEP)
Church of England Diocese: Chelmsford
Tagged with: Architectural structure
This list entry was subject to a Minor Enhancement on 30 July 2025 to amend the name, address, description and to reformat the text to current standards
TM 9924 SE
584/18/10014
COLCHESTER
LE CATEAU ROAD
Royal Artillery Barracks (also known as Le Cateau Barracks)
Former Sergeant's Mess
(Formerly listed as Former Sergeants' Mess, Le Cateau Barracks, Colchester Garrison, LE CATEAU ROAD)
GV
II
Former sergeant’s mess, built in 1874-75 to a design by Lieutenant General Charles Brisbane Ewart RE, Deputy Director of Works for Barracks at the War Office
MATERIALS: red brick with yellow brick and limestone dressings, brick ridge and lateral stacks and slate cross-gable roof.
PLAN: single-depth, T-shaped plan.
EXTERIOR: two storey; 2:3-window range. Projecting left-hand gable, yellow brick plinth, cill and lintel bands, brick eaves cornice and coped gables, ashlar flat heads to 6/6-pane sashes, which are paired on the ground floor of the projecting gable, beneath a tripartite upper window with Caernarvon arch containing simple plate tracery. A single-storey porch in the re-entrant has a raking roof and plain flat-headed doorway. The roof has a square lantern with pyramidal roof and finial.
INTERIOR: not inspected.
HISTORY: Part of the Le Cateau barracks, which were the second permanent barracks at Colchester after the Calvary Barracks which were built in 1862-64. The Gothic detail exhibits an unusually ornamental approach to barracks design. Le Cateau is the last surviving example of the new layout of cavalry barracks developed at Aldershot in the 1850s for large scale training camps.
SOURCES: PSA Drawings Collection, NMR, Swindon: Colchester: CTR 130-158; Dietz P: Garrison Ten British Military Towns: London: 1986: 3-22.
Listing NGR: TL9927524451
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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