Former military band practice room, most recently a chapel, c1962.

MATERIALS: the building is of red brick construction, windows are metal- or wood-framed, and the roofs are covered in sheet material.

PLAN: the building comprises a central dodecagonal drum forming the principal space, with a centrally radiating concertina roof form – the ridges and valleys creating zigzag eaves. A lower flat-roofed range of rooms forms a broken circle which wraps around seven sides of the drum.

EXTERIOR: the entrance to the building is to the north, where a section of the curved outer face is composed of glass held in a timber frame-work. This glass and timber screen spans the width of the entrance lobby and one of the rooms to the west. Elsewhere the curved outer elevation is composed of brick with regularly-spaced horizontal windows lighting the outer rooms, and an eaves band of pebble-dashed concrete.

Where the ring of rooms is broken the brickwork of the drum is exposed. The drum has a clerestory window which runs around its circumference, with a pebble-dashed concrete band above.

INTERIOR: the outer rooms are accessed either from the entrance lobby, or from the central dodecagonal space which forms the main body of the building. One of these rooms has deep timber shelves, possibly original to the building, and likely to be intended for the storage of instruments. Otherwise, the rooms have no fixtures and fittings of note. The principal space is without embellishment, with plain plastered walls and ceiling tiles between the painted structural members of the roof. At present there is a carved Gothic reredos and altar, and a few other pieces of liturgical furniture to the south, with some pieces of panelling fixed to the wall behind. The panelling has been cut down to fit onto the wall, and all pieces have clearly been brought from another building. (1)

<1> English Heritage, 2013, English Heritage (Listing) Advice Report for Former Band Practice Room, Howe Barracks, Canterbury (Unpublished document). SKE26015.