Description

PLYMOUTH

SX45NW SALTASH ROAD, Devonport 740-1/4/175 HMS Drake: Wardroom, Officer's 01/05/75 quarters and Mess

GV II*

Formerly known as: (HMS Drake) Wardroom Blocks SALTASH ROAD Devonport. Officer's quarters and wardroom blocks. 1898-1902, Superintendent Engineer Major Monro Wilson, RE. MATERIALS: Plymouth limestone rock-faced ashlar to ground floor, otherwise dressed limestone brought to course and with limestone dressings; dry slate hipped roofs; stone partly external end stacks, axial and lateral stacks, all with panels and moulded cornices. STYLE: Free Classical. PLAN: central double-depth wardroom linked by 1st-floor passages on 2-span bridges to double-depth quarters blocks at right angles to rear wings. EXTERIOR: 3 storeys; slightly asymmetrical 1:2:1:2:1-bay centre block flanked by symmetrical 2:1:2-bay fronts which are similar to the fronts of the rear wings. All blocks have pilasters dividing bays to upper floors, window architraves, moulded hoods above 1st-floor windows, apron entablature to 1st floor, moulded sill string to 2nd floor and moulded parapet with lower cornice; original horned sashes with glazing bars to top halves and original panelled doors. Central block has tall entrance tower which rises 2 stages above main parapet level. Tetrastyle Ionic porch is approached by a double L-plan staircase; 2 central windows above, then cornice linked to parapet cornice; 4 pilasters and central round-arched window to next stage and entablature below octagonal cupola with round arches and Ionic columns plus further entablature sloped in towards dome with turned finial. Left of the tower is the staircase bay with tall double-transomed 3-light round-arched window over 3-light flat-headed window; right of the tower are paired sashes, then next bays on either side have tall sashes. The end bays are canted with 3-light bay windows. Other fronts have tripartite entrances and 1st-floor balconies with roudelled balustrades carried on moulded brackets. Below triangular parapet pediment to each entrance bay is a tall round-arched transomed 3-light stair window above a squat 3-light window. INTERIOR: wardroom has a richly-decorated interior with a fine central entrance hall divided by marble columns with a large

open well stair with moulded balusters, decorated mess rooms each side with pilasters, cornices and wainscot, and the rear central dining room with panelled walls, large fireplaces with painted panels; axial corridor with bedrooms on upper floors. HISTORY: part of the second phase of the barracks, the officers were housed in Howard and Seymour blocks (qqv) before it was built. Sailors lived in hulks until the first barracks were built for them here at Devonport, then Chatham and Portsmouth. This is probably the finest and most ambitious officers mess on an English barracks, executed in a bold Free Style manner, with careful attention to detail and compositional quality, and forming the centrepiece of a complete planned group. More richly decorated though of similar plan form to the equivalent buildings at HMS Pembroke at Chatham and HMS Nelson at Portsmouth. Part of a complete complex, manifesting the status and importance of the Royal Navy at this time. (The Buildings of England: Pevsner N: Devon: London: 1989-: 655 & 656; PSA Drawings Collection, NMR Swindon: PLM 248-284).

Listing NGR: SX4499756685

External Links

• Wikidata Q17554570

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