The Red Barracks, formerly the Royal Marine Infirmary, was a military installation located in Frances Street, just south of

Woolwich Dockyard Woolwich Dockyard (formally H.M. Dockyard, Woolwich, also known as The King's Yard, Woolwich) was an English Royal Navy Dockyard, naval dockyard along the river Thames at Woolwich - originally in north-west Kent, now in southeast London - whe ...

, in London, England. It was commissioned as an infirmary for the

Royal Marines The Royal Marines provide the United Kingdom's amphibious warfare, amphibious special operations capable commando force, one of the :Fighting Arms of the Royal Navy, five fighting arms of the Royal Navy, a Company (military unit), company str ...

and later became accommodation for the

British Army The British Army is the principal Army, land warfare force of the United Kingdom. the British Army comprises 73,847 regular full-time personnel, 4,127 Brigade of Gurkhas, Gurkhas, 25,742 Army Reserve (United Kingdom), volunteer reserve perso ...

History

Royal Marine Infirmary

The building was commissioned as an infirmary to serve the Royal Marine Barracks, Woolwich. It was (along with Blackburn Infirmary) one of the first two

pavilion In architecture, ''pavilion'' has several meanings; * It may be a subsidiary building that is either positioned separately or as an attachment to a main building. Often it is associated with pleasure. In palaces and traditional mansions of Asia ...

-plan hospitals to be erected in England in the wake of the

Crimean War The Crimean War was fought between the Russian Empire and an alliance of the Ottoman Empire, the Second French Empire, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and the Kingdom of Sardinia (1720–1861), Kingdom of Sardinia-Piedmont fro ...

. Construction started in 1858. It was designed by William Scamp in the

neoclassical style Neoclassicism, also spelled Neo-classicism, emerged as a Western cultural movement in the decorative and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture that drew inspiration from the art and culture of classical antiquity. Neoclassici ...

, built in red brick with stone dressings and was completed in 1860. The design of the three-storey building involved a symmetrical main frontage of 13 bays facing onto Frances Street. The central section of three bays, which was projected forward, featured three round headed openings on the ground floor and a tetrastyle

portico A portico is a porch leading to the entrance of a building, or extended as a colonnade, with a roof structure over a walkway, supported by columns or enclosed by walls. This idea was widely used in ancient Greece and has influenced many cu ...

spanning the first and second floors. The portico was formed by huge

Ionic order The Ionic order is one of the three canonic classical order, orders of classical architecture, the other two being the Doric order, Doric and the Corinthian order, Corinthian. There are two lesser orders: the Tuscan order, Tuscan (a plainer Doric) ...

columns supporting an

entablature An entablature (; nativization of Italian , from "in" and "table") is the superstructure of moldings and bands which lies horizontally above columns, resting on their capitals. Entablatures are major elements of classical architecture, and ...

and a

modillion A modillion is an ornate bracket, more horizontal in shape and less imposing than a corbel. They are often seen underneath a Cornice (architecture), cornice which helps to support them. Modillions are more elaborate than dentils (literally transl ...

pediment Pediments are a form of gable in classical architecture, usually of a triangular shape. Pediments are placed above the horizontal structure of the cornice (an elaborated lintel), or entablature if supported by columns.Summerson, 130 In an ...

. The wings of five bays each were fenestrated by round headed windows on all three floors. The wings were decorated by banded

pilaster In architecture, a pilaster is both a load-bearing section of thickened wall or column integrated into a wall, and a purely decorative element in classical architecture which gives the appearance of a supporting column and articulates an ext ...

s supporting a

balustrade A baluster () is an upright support, often a vertical moulded shaft, square, or lathe-turned form found in stairways, parapets, and other architectural features. In furniture construction it is known as a spindle. Common materials used in its ...

at roof level. The main barracks behind were laid out in a square with four-stage towers surmounted by

spire A spire is a tall, slender, pointed structure on top of a roof of a building or tower, especially at the summit of church steeples. A spire may have a square, circular, or polygonal plan, with a roughly conical or pyramidal shape. Spire ...

s at each corner. The infirmary, situated on a hill, was "the most conspicuous and striking feature of the town of Woolwich."Survey of London, p. 13

Red Barracks

After the closure of the Dockyard in 1869 the infirmary also passed to the British Army.Survey of London, p. 14 Renamed Red Barracks, reflecting the original red brick design, the old infirmary building accommodated the Army Ordnance Corps (later the

Royal Army Ordnance Corps The Royal Army Ordnance Corps (RAOC) was a corps of the British Army. At its renaming as a Royal Corps in 1918 it was both a supply and repair corps. In the supply area it had responsibility for weapons, armoured vehicles and other military equi ...

) until October 1921, when the corps moved its headquarters to Hilsea Barracks near

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port city status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Hampshire, England. Most of Portsmouth is located on Portsea Island, off the south coast of England in the Solent, making Portsmouth the only city in En ...

. From 1885 Red Barracks also accommodated Artillery College (known as Ordnance College from 1899 to 1918). After the departure of the RAOC the college expanded to fill the whole of Red Barracks; renamed the Military College of Science in 1927, the college moved to

Shrivenham Shrivenham is a village and civil parish in the Vale of White Horse, Oxfordshire, England, about south-west of Faringdon. The village is close to the county boundary with Wiltshire and about east-northeast of the centre of Swindon. The 201 ...

in 1939. Red Barracks then became the home of the Inspectorate of Armaments (later the Quality Assurance Directorate (Weapons)) and also accommodated the

Royal Artillery The Royal Regiment of Artillery, commonly referred to as the Royal Artillery (RA) and colloquially known as "The Gunners", is one of two regiments that make up the artillery arm of the British Army. The Royal Regiment of Artillery comprises t ...

Record Office from 1940. The building was decommissioned by the British Army in 1967 and used as a venue for the comedy film, '' The National Health'', which was released in 1973. Despite being a

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

, it was demolished in 1975. The perimeter walls, which date back to the 1850s, survive. The site was subsequently redeveloped for housing.

References

Sources

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Woolwich Barracks in London

Royal Royal may refer to: People * Royal (name), a list of people with either the surname or given name * A member of a royal family or Royalty (disambiguation), royalty Places United States * Royal, Arkansas, an unincorporated community * Royal, Ill ...

Barracks in England Installations of the British Army