Description

This list entry was subject to a Minor Amendment om 11/11/2019

SU86SE
674-1/18/164

SANDHURST
LONDON ROAD (north west side)
Old College with attached lamps, Royal Military Academy

(Formerly listed as Old Building with attached lamps, Royal Military Academy)

20/12/72

GV
II*
Military academy and barracks. 1807 and finished 1812. By John Sanders, architect for the Barrack Department, trident plan rear accommodation wings dated 1862 on hoppers, canteen c1910.

MATERIALS: stucco with hipped slate roof, yellow stock brick rear barrack ranges.
PLAN: symmetrical, axial plan with central chapel and rear canteen, wings set back and 1862 trident plan barracks behind.

STYLE: Greek Revival style.

EXTERIOR: two storeys and attic, 3:7:12:6:12:7:3-window range. Long symmetrical front with first floor cill bands, cornice and parapet, has steps up to projecting central hexastyle Greek Doric portico with coat of arms in pediment over large six-panel double door. Flanking twelve-window ranges each side with end three windows set forward. Recessed 6/6-pane sashes with ground floor cornices and first floor shouldered architraves. Outer single storey five bay colonnades link with seven bay blocks and end three-window pavilions each side. Rear cadets' accommodation three storeys with 6/6-pane sashes. Central early C20 canteen to rear.

INTERIOR: central range has flagged axial corridor with rear cantilevered open well stair with cast iron balusters, central flagged hall with chapel off to rear with segmental vault and Ionic corbels, flanking mess rooms, with panelled wainscotting, two-panel doors with reeded panels, Greek key frieze. Central first floor room with shallow domed ceiling, reeded fireplace with decorative panles. Canteen similar to that at the New Building (qv), four bays with glazed tiled walls.Trident wings have cantilevered dogleg stairs with column newels and stick balusters.

SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: attached corner cast iron open work lamps.

HISTORY: the RMC at Sandhurst was established in 1799 as a junior officers' training college on the lines of the RMA for artillery at Woolwich. First designed by James Wyatt, surveyor to the Office of Works, and started by Alexander Copland, thelarge barracks contractor. Both were removed from the job; Sanders altered Wyatt's design, enlarging the portico.

An impressive and early example of the Greek Revival, set overlooking a parade square and fine landscaped grounds, and part of a group with the other historic college buildings at Sandhurst (qqv).

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17534458

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

• 
  The Victorian House Manual (2nd Edition): How They Were Built, Improvements & Refurbishment, Solutions to All Common Defects - Includes Relevant ... ... Properties (Haynes Manual) (Haynes Manuals)
• 
  Kent: North East and East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  [(Cumberland and Westmorland)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1967)
• 
  Yorkshire West Riding: Leeds, Bradford and the North (Pevsner Architectural Guides / Buildings of England)
• 
  Sussex: East with Brighton and Hove (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Essex: Buildings of England Series (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)