Officers Mess and Stables, Gaza Barracks, Catterick Garrison, North Yorkshire

Description

HIPSWELL

1198/0/10007 HIPSWELL ROAD
19-MAY-09 CATTERICK GARRISON
(Off)
OFFICERS' MESS AND STABLES, GAZA BARRA
CKS

II
British Army Officers' Mess, 1938. Neo-Georgian style.

MATERIALS
Red brick laid in stretcher bond. Westmoreland slate roof laid to diminishing courses with close mitred hips. Portland stone ashlar porch. Timber windows with exposed sash boxes and slim glazing bars.

PLAN
C plan formed around a rear north facing service yard. The main central block has a central south facing porch opening into a central entrance/stair hall flanked by large reception rooms with bed-sitting rooms above. This central block is flanked by lower side wings that are slightly set back, the west wing having a further, smaller, reception room on the ground floor. Extending to the rear of these side wings there are cross wings completing the C plan. These have further bed sitting rooms on the upper floor with various auxiliary rooms below. Axial corridors lie on the side closest to the central courtyard with communal toilet and washing facilities housed in rear projections on the opposite sides of these corridors. There is a secondary staircase leading to an external door at the end of the eastern cross wing.

EXTERIOR
South Elevation: This is symmetrical with a 9 bay central block flanked by 3 bay side wings which are stepped back and have lower storey heights producing a stepped down roofline. The central block has a broad central bay framed by ridge stacks with a Tuscan style ashlar porch. On the first floor above there is a triple arrangement of sash windows, a central 12 over 12 light window flanked by half width 6 over 6 light windows. This central bay is flanked by 4 bays each side framed by prominent rainwater downpipes. The first floor windows are the same as the central window, but those on the ground floor are taller 16 over 16 light windows with segmental arched heads. The 3 bay side wings have shorter and narrower 6 over 9 light windows, those to the ground floor having flat arch lintels of gauged brickwork. The side wings each have a projecting end stack and a ridge stack which together frame the 3 bays.

Side Elevations: The rear projecting wings are slightly set back and set down from the south facing side wings which have a single bay of windows either side of the projecting end stack. The rear projecting wings are of 9 bays of similar windows to those of the side wings, but with the windows grouped in threes. The east rear wing is extended by a further two broad bays, including a secondary door recessed in a 1930s style moulded brick door case.

Rear and Courtyard Elevations: These are similarly detailed to the side elevations with the same style of windows.

INTERIOR
The interior fixtures and fittings are generally of high quality, and much is likely to be original but generally typical of the mid-C20. Probably of greatest interest is the entrance stair hall which has parquet flooring, a pair of fluted, timber columns and a part glazed oak lobby screen with double entrance doors.

HISTORY
The surviving pre-war buildings at Gaza Barracks were built from 1938 as part of Catterick's Second Reconstruction Plan: a major scheme of rebuilding permanent facilities at Gaza and Bourlon Barracks, totalling £1,000,000. The Officers' Mess cost £25,000 and is shown part completed on the Ordnance Survey map of Catterick Camp published in 1939, with its full footprint depicted on the map published in 1941 which also shows the associated stable block just to the north east. The mess replaced a smaller building on the same site shown on the 1933 Ordnance Survey map. The Officers' Mess at Gaza is a good, well preserved example of the style of Officers' Mess built at many army barracks and RAF stations nationally in the 1930s. Its neo-Georgian style had been approved by the Royal Fine Arts Commission which had been charged with overseeing the design of new military building. This was in response to the concerns of the Council for the Protection of Rural England about the large numbers of new military establishments, mainly airfields, being built on green field sites in the 1930s.

SOURCES
"Catterick Camp - not to be published" Ordnance Survey 1:10,560 map 1939
"Catterick Camp - not to be published - War Department Revisions to December 1940" Ordnance Survey 1:10,560 map 1941
"History of Catterick Camp" Lt Col Howard Cole 1972 (Forces Press, Aldershot)

REASON FOR DESIGNATION:
Gaza Barrack's Officers' Mess is designated at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

* The Officers' Mess is a good example of 1930s neo-Georgian style military architecture. The building displays a quality design with well considered external façades with the visual mass of the building reduced by the varied roofscape and breaks in the elevations, all unified by the use of symmetry and the choice of architectural detailing.
* The materials and craftsmanship, such as the carefully finished roof covering, are of high quality
* The mess was built during the build-up and start of the Second World War, yet displays high quality construction and design with no suggestion that it was built at a time of national emergency - demonstrating the confidence that the British Army felt for the future.

Reasons for Listing

Gaza Barrack's Officers' Mess is designated at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

External Links

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