Description

PLYMOUTH

SX4654SW DURNFORD STREET, Stonehouse
740-1/60/776 (East side)
01/05/75 Royal Marine Barracks: Archway Block

GV II*

Guard house, officer's quarters and divisional offices,
school, now chapel, including entrance block to marine
barracks. 1867-71, by Colonel G Greene, Director of the
Admiralty Works Department.
MATERIALS: Plymouth limestone ashlar with limestone dressings;
dry slate roofs: roofs of main blocks hipped to returns and
with dormer windows behind stone parapets with moulded
cornices, pedimented front and rear of taller central bays and
with steep ramped pyramidal roofs to towers surmounted by
weather vanes; ashlar lateral and end stacks.
STYLE: Baroque Revival.
PLAN: double depth block with central archway and chapel over,
single depth connecting sections with rear arcades link
double-depth outer accommodation cross-wings, that to the N
deeper.
EXTERIOR: 2-storey carriageway block, 3-storey-plus-attic
flanking blocks, 2-storey pavilions and 3-storey cross-wing
end blocks, the left hand block with basement. Road front has
central pedimented block projecting with fine carved coat of
arms. An impost string links an arcade of 5 round arches with
architraves over original hornless sashes with fanlight heads.
There are mid-floor strings and rusticated quoin strips.
Ground floor has channelled rustication surrounding small side
arches and with large central round carriage arch rising into
flanking ashlar masonry above which frames 2 round medallions
with carved upper torsos. Flanking blocks have quoin strips at
the breaks, plain stone architraves and ground floor with
pilastered openings and pedimented porches.
Courtyard front has simpler detail to the similar carriage
entrance block but otherwise is the principal front with
3:5:3-bay flanking blocks with square towers to central bays;
2-storey; 5-bay linking sections with projecting round-arched
open loggias to ground floor and 3-bay pedimented end blocks
with projecting central bays under segmental pediments linked
to full-width triangular pediments behind. Each tower is
ramped in to a narrower upper stage with a clock face to each
side and swept pyramidal roof. The right-hand clock gives wind
direction. The windows are mostly original hornless sashes
with glazing bars; tripartite sashes to ground floor of cross
wings flanking segmental arched doorways to the central bays.

INTERIOR: contains former apartments and offices with 6-panel
doors and panelled shutters with plaster cornices, some stone
fireplaces boxed in; a stone cantilevered open well stair to
the S of the through arch with iron stick balusters. 5-bay
through arch with round-arched vaults, and entrances each side
to offices and guard house; above, former school, now chapel
has a shallow barrel vault with plaster decoration, and late
C19 fittings including an organ.
HISTORY: originally housed the 1st and 2nd Commandant either
side of the archway, with first-floor schoolroom, now chapel,
above it, 24 subalterns in the N end range, and office and pay
office off the inner arcades. The drawings were signed by
Greene, who was responsible for several important buildings in
the royal dockyards including the Sheerness boatstore. Forms a
strongly articulated and richly decorated range with the
contemporary additions to the N and S, extending to the W and
closing the C18 parade ground.
Stonehouse is the oldest and most important group of barracks
in england not forming part of a fortification, a very rare
example of C18 planning, and a complex of great historic
value.
(The Buildings of England: Pevsner N: Devon: London: 1989-:
655; Random Records of the Royal Marines: Eastney: 1931-: 184;
Dixon Lt Col R: Two Hundred Years of Stonehouse: 306-311;
Plans: 1860-: PRO/ADM/140/309-310).

Listing NGR: SX4636454053

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17554197

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Gloucestershire 1: The Cotswolds: Cotswolds Pt. 1 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair
• 
  Listed Buildings and Other Heritage Assets
• 
  Devon (Pevsner Buildings of England)
• 
  Oxfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Churches: An Architectural Guide (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)