Guard House, Redford Cavalry Barracks, Colinton Road, Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Edinburgh

Description

A single-storey and attic, 3-bay guard house by Harry B Measures, built between 1909-1915 with a veranda supported on cast iron columns to the principal northeast elevation and a 2-bay flat-roofed wing to the southwest. The building is of dark, coursed rock-faced rubble with pale ashlar dressings and the windows have projecting cills. The rear elevations have small, high, rectangular windows. One window to the ground floor has vertical metal bars.

The principal elevation to the northeast is asymmetrical. There is an entrance door to the far left with a window to its right. There is another entrance door off-centre to the right with 2 windows to its right and one to the left. There is a pair of large gabled dormers to the attic, both with Diocletian windows.

The glazing is mostly 12-pane glazing in timber sash and case windows.

The interior was seen in 2016. There have been some later alterations to the interior. The early 19th century arrangement of large, brick-lined room with windows at a high level and a corridor with former cells remains.

The pair of tall, rock-faced gatepiers are situated to the immediate northeast of the guard house and are cylindrical with ball caps and an arcaded details below a cornice. They have flanking curved quadrant walls with flat coping between raised corniced piers with ball caps. There are 2-leaf cast iron gates and pedestrian gates to the sides.

A row of cast iron railings with some larger cast iron pillars with hexagonal baluster heads stretches along the roadside southwest from the guard house to the later entrance to the barracks, northeast to the junction of Oxgangs Road North and south along Oxgangs Road North.

Statement of Interest

Dating from 1909 to 1915, the distinctive and well-detailed guard house and gatepiers at Redford cavalry barracks are located in a prominent position at the entrance to the extensive and largely intact barracks site. One of the key buildings on the site, it has good decorative detailing in its veranda, gables and Diocletian windows, and has retained some of its interior spaces, such as the cells, which inform its previous function. Together, with its counterpart guardhouse at the Redford infantry barracks, they were the main entrances to the complex of infantry and cavalry buildings which make up the extensive Redford barracks. The railings help to define the military site. The complex as a whole was the pinnacle of military building prior to the First World War. The building is little altered to its exterior and gives an important insight to the way the military was organised at the beginning of the 20th century.

Age and Rarity

The guard house not only acted as gate lodge, but was important for the security of the barracks and housed all the soldiers who were on guard duty for a specific period. One of the rooms in the guard house would have been used as a recreation and sleeping area for those waiting to go on duty. The guard house also had cells for prisoners and a secure area for storing weapons. Guard houses were normally positioned at the entrances to the barracks sites and at Redford the cavalry barracks and the infantry barracks had separate, but almost identical guard houses.

Redford cavalry barracks was built to replace poor cavalry accommodation at Piershill in Edinburgh. Questions had been raised in Parliament in 1900 about the state of the accommodation at Piershill and, by 1909, the barracks there had been recognised as inadequate. As the military troops based in Edinburgh were also housed in cramped conditions at Edinburgh Castle, the decision was taken by the Government to build a new substantial complex incorporating barracks for both infantry and cavalry and including all the necessary associated buildings on the same site at Redford. Although on the same extensive site, the cavalry barracks (located to the east) and infantry barracks (located to the west) were administered separately.

The cavalry barracks were built to be home to the Royal Scots Greys regiment, who moved to Hounslow as their main base in 1937. Redford Barracks was the largest barracks to be built in Scotland since Fort George in Inverness (1748-1769, Scheduled Monument SM6692). The Redford barracks was the most advanced of its type in Britain at the time and the best equipped, incorporating all the latest developments in training and accommodation. The barracks reflect the military confidence of Britain before the start of the First World War.

The magnitude of the building programme at Redford was so great that the builders, Colin MacAndrew Ltd, built their own railway to transport materials from the main line at Slateford. The Scotsman in 1914 noted 'there is no point at the extensive field at Redford where building operations are in progress which are not served by either the broad or narrow gauge railways'.

All of the cavalry buildings lying to the east of the entire barracks site and include a large barracks block with its associated stables, a guard house with its associated gates and gatepiers, a Commander in Chief's house and stables, (Balaclava House), the Officers' Mess and stables, a former Sergeants' Mess, a band block, an education block, which was originally a school and other auxiliary buildings including further stables, farriers and stores. The cavalry barracks originally included a riding school to the southeast, which is no longer in situ (2016). There were originally married quarters at the centre of the site, but these were demolished in the 1990s. The infantry barracks and all its associated buildings lie to the west of the site.

During the last quarter of the 19th century, the expanding British Empire required more personnel for its administration and its security. To help with the recruitment and training of soldiers, the Secretary of State for War, Edward Cardwell, introduced the Military Localisation Bill in 1872, which introduced new recruiting and training centres around Britain. The majority of the architectural design and planning was carried out by the Director of Design, Major H C Sneddon, and a number of standard types of barracks resulted. Local variations were possible, for example at the Cameron Barracks at Inverness, listed at category B (LB35340) where Scots Baronial architectural features are used. During this period the overall planning and layout of a barracks complex changed from a strict symmetry of buildings around a parade ground to placing the various buildings in the most sensible position according to function.

Up until the beginning of the 20th century, all military fortifications, including barracks were the responsibility of the Royal Engineers. This was reviewed from 1902 and as a result, a civilian department was formed in 1904 under the direction of the Director of Barracks Construction which was responsible for War Department buildings. The new director was Harry Measures. Measures had his own ideas about the design of barracks buildings and he instigated the bringing of various functions under the same roof which had previously had separate buildings. His first project was new cavalry barracks at Norwich, which he designed with all the ancillary and recreational functions in the ground floor of the building with residential accommodation above. This was never built but his ideas on design were realised at Redford.

Following the First World War and over the course of the 20th century, the practice of warfare and the organisation of the military changed. Military accommodation was updated and smaller residential units became standard. Horses were replaced by machinery and Redford cavalry barracks, was amongst the last of its type to be built on such a large scale. Only the Hyde Park Barracks in London, built by Sir Basil Spence in 1970 for the Household Cavalry Mounted Regiment are comparable in size and scale. A number of cavalry barracks in Scotland were demolished in the 1960s, including at Maryhill in Glasgow and at Perth.

The guard house at Redford cavalry barracks and its associated gateway is a good example of its building type which is largely unaltered and has retained its barracks context. Located at the entrance, it functions as a critical link between civilian and military areas. The building contains good architectural detailing and it is one of the key buildings in a complex of infantry and cavalry buildings which make up one of the largest barracks sites ever built in Britain. Redford barracks was the pinnacle of military building prior to the First World War and the complex as a whole is a rare survival.

Architectural or Historic Interest

Interior

The interior of the guard house has remained a functional space with few decorative features. The retention of the cells is of some interest and helps us understand how the building first functioned.

Plan form

The external plan form of the guard house including the veranda is a standard form. Plans for the guard house held at the National Archives of Scotland show that there was a fire engine house and a water meter house accommodated in the flat-roofed sections of the building to the southwest

Internally, the plan form is thought to be a standard form and contained a guard room, detention centres, and an ammunition and weapons store. There is an internal, open exercise yard, which would have been used by the prisoners.

Technological excellence or innovation, material or design quality

The guard house and its gatepiers and gates are distinguished by a number of decorative features used, both in the stonework and in the design. The stone used to build the barracks came from Black Pasture and Doddington quarries in Northumberland, which provided stone for a number of buildings in Scotland. The contrast between the smooth blond stone used in the ground floor and the margins with the rock-faced darker stone used in the rest of the building gives the building a characteristic appearance. There are external bars on the window of the former ammunition store.

A number of design features are incorporated into the building, including the use of gabled sections along the entrance elevation and the Diocletian windows used in the gables. The veranda was a design feature regularly used by the military in its buildings in Britain and also in the colonies. It can be seen, for example in the 1800-1804 guard house at Wyvern Barracks in Exeter (listed at Grade II, Ref 1109979) and also at the Guard house at the 1937-9 guard house at Dreghorn Barracks, Edinburgh, (listed at category C, LB49566).

There are plans of the elevations of the guard house held at the National Archives of Scotland. The external detailing has been little altered since the barracks were built.

The tall gatepiers with their distinctive round caps and rock-faced masonry have a commanding presence at the entrance to the site and the round caps echo the rounded tower on the main barrack blocks.

Harry Bell Measures (circa 1862-1940), was based in London and was the first (and only) holder of a new civilian post, Director of Barrack Construction, which was created in 1904 in order to free the Royal Engineers for other, more military, duties. He designed a number of stations for the Central London Railway, several of which survive as current London Underground stations, including Oxford Circus (listed at Grade II). In terms of barracks buildings, however, Douet (1998) suggest that Measures rethought the layout of barracks buildings and 'abandoned the long-entrenched principles of subdivision and separation of the various elements and functions'. Redford Barracks appears to be one of the few barracks sites he completed with his only other large military building the New College at the royal Military Academy at Sandhurst, listed at Grade II (Ref no 1390374

Setting

The guard house at Redford cavalry barracks is situated at the entrance to the barracks site, close to its distinctive gatepiers and gates. The building has retained its military context and its position clearly identifies it as a guard house. It is one of a pair of entrance lodges on the periphery of this extensive site and is one of the key buildings in a wider complex of military barracks buildings and their ancillaries that make up Redford barracks.

Some of the earliest buildings in the Redford site, including the married quarters which lay to the east of this building have been demolished and replaced with modern military accommodation. While there have been some later alterations to the group of buildings at the barracks site, the majority of the 1909-1915 buildings remain, however, and the integrity of the site continues to help our understanding of the organisation of the military in the years leading up to the First World War.

The guard house, gatepiers, gates and railings are located within the Colinton Conservation Area.

Regional variations

There are no known regional variations.

Close Historical Associations

Thgere are no close historical associations known at present.

As a major military base in Scotland, Redford barracks has provided accommodation and services for a number of Regiments which have been involved in the defence of the United Kingdom over the course of the 20th and 21st centuries.

Statutory address and listed building record revised in 2017 as part of the Redford Barracks Listing Review. Previously listed as Colinton Road, Redford Cavalry Barracks With Officer's Mess, Balaclava House, Guard House, Gates, Gatepiers, Sergeant's Mess, Former Band Block, Education Block, Former Stables, Stores And Other Ancillary Buildings.

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External Links

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