Royal Army Veterinary Corps Laboratory, Fitzwygram House, Aldershot, Hampshire

Description

991/0/10045 GALLWEY ROAD
30-MAR-09 Royal Army Veterinary Corps Laboratory
, Fitzwygram House

II
Fitzwygram House, Veterinary School, Lecture Theatre and Horse Theatre. 1899, designed by Lt Col. W. Pitt. Constructed of red brick, sandstone cills, Staffordshire blue plinth moulding, slate roofs with decorative red clay ridge tiles. L-shaped plan: the main arm of which is double storey, with single storey to the east of the front door (turning to form the short arm of the 'L'), also single storey.

EXTERIOR: The double storey part of the building has a front door at its east end, with fan light and side lights, and twelve light sash window above. There are a further ten sash windows with gauged red brick flat arches window heads in this elevation, four above and six below, divided by a double terracotta nailhead course. Between the west window and the remaining four in the upper storey is a small square window. The front door leads straight through to the back door. The west end of the rear elevation has four large sixteen-light windows, two above and two below, lighting what were the demonstration rooms. In the upper storey there are a further four twelve-light sash windows, and two small eight-light windows, while downstairs there are two twelve-light windows, far apart, and a small four-light to the east of the back door. The west end elevation has two sixteen-light windows in the upper storey placed either side of a chimney. The single storey section of the main arm of the L has a regular arrangement of five twelve-light windows and a door which appears to be a later insertion at its east end. The single storey east elevation has seven similar windows. This forms the rear elevation of the short arm of the L, which encloses on two sides a brick paved yard. Opening from the yard in the front elevation of this arm of the L are large double wooden doors under a wide segmental arch of gauged brick. Immediately to the south of the door is a sixteen-light window. All roofs are pitched slate, with decorative ridge tiles and three sets of chimneys to the main two storey block, and a single stack in the centre of the rear wing.

INTERIOR: The double storey section of the building consisted of demonstration rooms, a lab, and offices, now all offices. The front door gives access to the entrance lobby, and then into the hall through a wooden semi partition with side lights from floor to ceiling: between the upper side lights is a wooden plaque carrying the inscription "This school was founded through the representations of James Collins esq, Principal Veterinary Surgeon to the forces and Major General Sir Frederick Fitzwygram, Bart FRCVS commanding the Cavalry Brigade, Aldershot, 1st June 1880". The passage that runs beside the stairs to the back door has decorative terrazzo paving which incorporates a foliate design around a medallion encircling the letters AVS. Turning left from the entrance hall is a corridor, either side of which are offices, and a large well lit room at the end. This pattern is repeated upstairs, which is reached by a stair leading straight from the entrance hall. The stair rises in two sections, and has plain capped newel posts, plain hand rail and turned banisters.

The single storey section of the main arm of the L is now a library. From the yard to the rear, the double doors open into a horse theatre/demonstration room, a large open space with high ceiling and tiled floor. The north wall contains blocked windows; above these are two projecting metal bars, either side of which are small metal hooks.

HISTORY: In 1852, 8,000 acres of low cost heathland at Aldershot were purchased as the site of the first permanent training ground for the army, large enough to run regular summer exercises for 10 to 12 battalions at one time. In 1854 work had started on the construction of permanent barracks, and by 1856 North and South Camps, consisting of regular grids of wooden huts, had been erected. In 1880 a programme was begun to replace huts in Aldershot and the other main camps, Shorncliffe and Colchester. The establishment of the Army Veterinary School and Fitzwygram House falls into this phase of the camp's development.

The Army Veterinary Service was founded in 1796 in response to public outrage at the number of horses lost to poor farriery and ignorance. Initially, graduates were recruited from the London Veterinary College, founded in 1791, and fell under the authority of the colonel of the regiment they joined. It was not until 1880 that veterinary officers were brought under the direction of the newly formed Army Veterinary Department. In the same year the Army Veterinary School in Aldershot was founded: the event is commemorated on a wooden plaque in the entrance hall of Fitzwygram House which reads "This school was founded through the representations of James Collins esq, Principal Veterinary Surgeon to the forces and Major General Sir Frederick Fitzwygram, Bart FRCVS commanding the Cavalry Brigade, Aldershot, 1st June 1880". Major General Fitzwygram was a published authority on farriery and the care of horses. Fitzwygram House was purpose built, designed with laboratories, library and teaching and demonstration rooms. Its realisation paralleled developments at what was by then the Royal Veterinary College, built on the present day site of the college's Camden Town Campus, which during the same period, the 1890s, transformed itself from an infirmary into a research and teaching establishment with lecture and dissecting rooms. However, little of the original fabric of the Royal Veterinary College on Royal College Street, Camden, survives, having been largely rebuilt in the mid 1930s.

The buildings associated with the Army Veterinary School seem to fall into two phases of construction. Fitzwygram House itself post-dates the four ancillary buildings which provided stabling and storage, the earliest of which are identified as 'Infirmary Stables' on the 1874 OS map. These are shown set within a trapezoidal enclosure, and are on a different alignment to Fitzwygram House, which was completed by December 1899. Both Fitzwygram House and the calf/cattle stalls on the same alignment can be seen on the 1911 OS map.

In 1903 the Army Veterinary Corps was formed to unite nearly all Veterinary Officers under one badge, and to provide a trained soldier support base. In 1918 King George V conferred the title 'Royal' on the Corps in recognition of the enormous contribution it made in World War I. The buildings at Aldershot remain in use by the RAVC today.

SOURCES: Ingram Consultancy, 2002. Project Connaught: Aldershot Garrison Historic Building Assessment
Web site: www.army.mod.uk/medical/royal_army_veterinary_corps/ravc_history/
Cherry, B and Pevsner, N (1998): Buildings of England London 4 North.

REASONS FOR DESIGNATION:
Fitzwygram House is designated in Grade II for the following principal reasons:
* It is a rare survivor, illustrative of the development of veterinary science, research and training in the late C19 and early C20, a parallel in a military context to the growth of the Royal Veterinary College, very little of the original fabric of which survives.
* It has special historic interest as the home of the Army Veterinary School; this is illustrated by its highly functional and thoughtful design.
* All elements of the building survive intact, including plan form and decorative detail.

Reasons for Listing

Fitzwygram House is designated in Grade II for the following principal reasons:
* It is a rare survivor, illustrative of the development of veterinary science, research and training in the late C19 and early C20, a parallel in a military context to the growth of the Royal Veterinary College, very little of the original fabric of which survives.
* It has special historic interest as the home of the Army Veterinary School; this is illustrated by its highly functional and thoughtful design.
* All elements of the building survive intact, including plan form and decorative detail.

External Links

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