Description

TQ 3078 SW MILLBANK

1900/111/10188 Officers' Mess and
Commandant's House, Royal
Army Medical Corps

GV II

Officers' Mess and Commandant's House at medical college. 1904-7 by J.H.T Wood and W. Ainslie for the Royal Army Medical Corps. Brick with some red brick and mostly Portland stone dressings and horizontal banding; basement and angle quoins of grey granite; eaves cornice of Westmorland slate; Westmorland slate roof; tall brick stacks with stone banding.
PLAN: NW range has commandant's house in wing to north-east, connected by axial corridor to similar north-west wing giving a broadly symmetrical plan with NW-projecting outer wings, facing Royal Army Medical College (qv). SE-facing range with principal mess rooms to upper ground-floor level progressively stepped forward around south garden area towards the river.
EXTERIOR: A prominent composition in French Renaissance style which is stepped forward towards Millbank. Principal elevation to Millbank, of 2 storeys with full basement and attic storey to Mansard roof, consists of central 3-bay Ionic frontispiece, crowned by balustrade and with upper 6/6-pane sashes and lower arched windows lighting stairhall and landing, flanked by 3-bay sides; keyed segmental-arched basement windows in plain stone surrounds; tall mullioned and transomed windows to principal upper ground floor with tall cross windows (small-paned casements above transom) with segmental canopies; 12/12-pane sashes to second floor set in shouldered stone architraves, and similar sashes set in dormer windows which are flat-roofed to centre and segmental-pedimented to sides; projecting first-floor bay window of stone to right-hand corner next to Atterbury Street (where there is similar bay window on corner), with swag set under small open segmental pediment projecting up from centre. Other elevations in similar style, with on south side a stone bay window with cross windows to Ante-Room set in Gibbs surrounds articulated by pilasters rising to balustrade and the westernmost range (facing SE) with ground-floor bay window and upper two floors articulated by red brick pilasters and with sashes set in red brick surrounds alternating with stone voussoirs. The 3-storey Atterbury Street elevation is composed around a SE-facing garden, the central two bays in the garden court being brought forward with ground-floor windows recessed in tall stone arches which carry upper storeys articulated by swagged red brick pilasters with Venetian windows to ground floor. The Commandant's House has tripartite ground-floor windows set in Gibbsian surrounds and linked by broken segmental pediments to bold string course; doorway with open pediment set on Ionic columns to left of north elevation with similar red brick pilasters to upper storeys lit by sashes set in shouldered surrounds. Plain NW elevation facing Royal Army Medical College (qv).
INTERIOR: generally plain, with the exception of the mess rooms on the upper ground floor. These are distinguished by striking application of late-17th-century-style panelling and plasterwork in the principal rooms, including stone chimneypieces and bowed balustrade to gallery in mess room which is linked to ante-room by set of folding doors. Fine staircase with turned balusters and carved detail.
HISTORY: This building presents an imposing river elevation, close to the Tate Gallery (1898) which was built on the same Millbank Penitentiary site. Built as accommodation for the commandant, 76 officers and associated mess rooms in association with the building of the Royal Army Medical College (qv).

Listing NGR: TQ3009778454

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q27086069

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

• 
  Development and Design of Heritage Sensitive Sites: Strategies for Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas
• 
  Renovating Old Houses: Bringing New Life to Vintage Homes (For Pros By Pros)
• 
  Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990: Updated version
• 
  Suffolk: West: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Northumberland (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Somerset: North and Bristol: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)