20th century use of Milton Barracks built in the 1860s off, and entered from, Wellington Street Gravesend. Its rectangular brick-walled enclosure contained 20 single-storey brick barrack blocks, an armoury and officers mess in the south half of the site, and an open space and playing fields to the north, which gained a new hospital in about 1870 and, in the 20th century, garages for motor vehicles with in the 1920s or 30s a new two-storey brick officers' mess. The barracks were regularly garrisoned by visiting regiments until closure in 1970. For most of the First World War the barracks were used as a district recruiting unit at the end as a hospital, after which it resumed its function as in infantry depot. During the Second World War the barracks were used variously as a training and holding depot, local HQ for units of the anti-invasion defences and for storage of vehicles, guns and equipment. Demolition began in the 1980s for housing development, leaving only the perimeter wall and several of the buildings such as the old and new officers mess, armoury, gymnasium and water tank, intact.