Listed Building record TQ 77 SE 1189 - THE BARRACKS

Summary

Grade I listed building. Main construction periods 1717 to 1718 Elizabethan fortification, early 18th century barrack block, now store 1717-18.

Location

Grid reference TQ 75810 70501 (point)
Map sheet TQ77SE
County KENT
Civil Parish FRINDSBURY EXTRA, MEDWAY, KENT
Unitary Authority MEDWAY

Map

Type and Period (2)

Full Description

The following text is from the original listed building designation:
TQ 7570 SE FRINDSBURY EXTRA HIGH STREET, Upton
(North side)
Description from record TQ 77 SE 1305:
Used to protect magazine complex ie housing troops and later police.
Owner : Public
Publicly accessible : Yes
How accessed for survey : Open to public (English Heritage / Medway Council).
Tourism Potential : Already tourist attraction.
Condition : good
Date of visit : 07/07/15

Description from record TQ 77 SE 37:
High Street, North Side, Upnor. The Barracks. Barrack block, now store. 1717-18 in the Vanbrughian Ordnance Baroque Style. Red brick in English bond. Plain tiled roof. Double depth plan with twin span roof. [Full architectural description] LISTED GRADE II*. (1)

1797/15/52
The Barracks, Upnor Castle
14.11.1986
GV I
Barracks, now store and museum. 1717-18, for the Board of Ordnance. Red English bond brick with ridge and gable stacks, and tiled valley roof Double-depth plan, divided into 3 separate sections by spine and central rear transverse walls.
EXTERIOR: 3 storeys and attic; 5-window range. Symmetrical front has a plinth, rusticated brick quoins to a second floor cornice, attic with wooden eaves cornice, parapet and paired, coped gables. Flat-roofed porch with cornice and parapet, steps up to round-arched doorways each side, a small segmental-arched window in the front, and a segmental-arched doorway with panelled double doors; segmental-arched 6/6-pane sashes and smaller second-floor windows, the outer ones paired with a lead downpipe and dated hopper between. Left-hand double basement doors in the plinth. Cornices extend to returns with paired gables, 2 attic sashes to the front gable and 2 oculi to the rear, each with a doorway to the rear. The rear left-hand gable has a weather vane.
INTERIOR: entrance lobby to a dogleg stair with uncut string and plain rail to a first-floor landing with trap door; the rear sections each have dogleg stairs up from the side entrances; collar truss roof with through purlins. Cast-iron C19 fireplaces, and wooden clothes racks in former bedrooms.
HISTORY: accommodated the garrison for Upnor Castle (qv), from 1668 one of the largest powder stores in the country. In the early C19 it housed 2 officers in the front section, and 64 soldiers in the rear. One of the first purpose-built barracks in England, in the style associated with Hawksmoor and the Ordnance Board at this time, and part of a Erne group with the Castle.
(English Heritage Handbook: Saunders A D: Upnor Castle, Kent: London: 1985-: 15).
Listing NGR: TQ7581070504 (2)

Additional reference (3-5)


<1> DOE(HHR)City of Rochester upon Medway, Kent. 14 (14.11.86) (OS Card Reference). SKE41289.

<2> English Heritage, List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest (Map). SKE16160.

<3> David Evans, 01/01/06, Arming the Fleet (Article in monograph). SKE14473.

<4> MMRG, 07/07/07, Upnor Castle Barracks (Photograph). SKE14536.

<5> Peter Kendall, 2006, Historic barracks in Medway (Unpublished document). SKE15939.

Sources/Archives (5)

  • <1> OS Card Reference: DOE(HHR)City of Rochester upon Medway, Kent. 14 (14.11.86).
  • <2>XY Map: English Heritage. List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest. [Mapped feature: #29325 Listed building, ]
  • <3> Article in monograph: David Evans. 01/01/06. Arming the Fleet.
  • <4> Photograph: MMRG. 07/07/07. Upnor Castle Barracks.
  • <5> Unpublished document: Peter Kendall. 2006. Historic barracks in Medway.

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Record last edited

Mar 28 2024 5:33PM