Description

ALDERSHOT
SU 85 SE
QUEEN'S AVENUE
(South East side)
991-0/2156
Fox's Gymnasium
20.8.79

GV II

Gymnasium. 1894, for Colonel Fox of the Army Gymnastic Staff; extended mid C20. Brick with slate roof. Rectangular plan with front office and N side changing rooms. EXTERIOR: single-storey; 5-bay gable and 19-bay sides. Gables have stepped corbelled brackets, and round-arched openings. Ends articulated by buttresses between sunken bays, the entrance gable has a porch with matching gable with round-arched entrance to recessed door, round-arched windows rising with the eaves, and a central oculus, the rear gable has 4 round-arched windows and a left-hand round-arched door. N side has end and central projecting gabled porches with clasping buttresses and eaves corbels, as the ends: the central porch has a round-arched doorway with splayed sides and double doors and small flanking lights beneath an oculus, end gables with 3 ground-floor and a first-floor Venetian window, and parapeted linking ranges with 6 round-arched windows; metal-framed windows. Opposite side articulated by deep buttresses, with small round-arched lights, with a central gabled porch. Front gable and rear end of N side have mid C20 single-storey extensions. Roof has large ridge lantern. INTERIOR: has front offices and side changing rooms, balcony to entrance end on cast-iron columns, and wide, light wrought-iron trusses with paired struts and curved bottom tie. HISTORY: built for the Army Gymnastic Staff, founded in 1860, as part of the rebuilding of the first temporary camps. The first of 3 similar gyms at Aldershot including the Maida Gym (qv), the second generation of army gyms, built to develop gymnastics to improve the condition of the soldiers. (Oldfield E A L: Army Gymnastic Staff- 1952-: 5; Childerhouse T: Military Aldershot, the first fifty years: London: 1990-).

Listing NGR: SU8596151712

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26449917

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.

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