Victoria Barracks was a military installation at

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 ...

Hampshire, England Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants.) is a ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Berkshire to the north, Surrey and West Sussex to the east, the Isle of Wight across the Solent to the south, Dorset to the west, and Wiltsh ...

. It was sometimes known as Victoria Barracks,

Southsea Southsea is a seaside resort and a geographic area of Portsmouth, Portsea Island in the ceremonial county of Hampshire, England. Southsea is located 1.8 miles (2.8 km) to the south of Portsmouth's inner city-centre. Southsea began as a f ...

History

The barracks, begun in 1880 and built by convict labour, were designed to provide living accommodation for a regiment of infantry. Located on the Southsea side of

Old Portsmouth Old Portsmouth is a district of the city of Portsmouth. It is the area covered by the original medieval town of Portsmouth as planned by Jean de Gisors. It is situated in the south west corner of Portsea Island. The roads still largely follow the ...

, outside the old town fortifications (which were in the process of being demolished at the time), they were completed in 1886. They consisted of a pair of long barrack ranges, linked by arcades at either end to form a narrow quadrangle, with a separate Officers' Quarters and Mess Establishment to the south-west: 'a highly Picturesque, free-style composition, very un-English, which included a central clock tower, stairs in detached, conical turrets, and a billiard room in a sort of Great Hall at the back'. The first unit to arrive was the 1st Battalion, the

South Lancashire Regiment The South Lancashire Regiment was a line infantry regiment of the British Army in existence from 1881 to 1958. The regiment, which recruited, as its title suggests, primarily from the South Lancashire area, was created as part of the Childers Ref ...

(who were transferred there gradually, as the buildings were completed, from the old

Clarence Barracks Clarence Barracks was a military installation at Portsmouth, Hampshire. History The original site for what became Clarence Barracks was the early 17th-century King's Cooperage in Old Portsmouth, owned and operated by the Victualling Commissione ...

which lay within the lines).Smythies, p. 438 The plans for the officers' quarters (dated 1885) suggest that it was intended to transfer the name Clarence Barracks to the new buildings, but in the event the name Victoria Barracks was used. (Clarence became the designation of a new Artillery barracks, begun in 1890; these were built alongside Victoria Barracks to the west, in place of the old barracks and over the now-demolished fortifications). Between the new Clarence and Victoria Barracks a large parade ground was laid out. The central tower of the Officers' Quarters was hit by a bomb and seriously damaged during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. The nearby Guard House was also bomb damaged, and subsequently rebuilt. After the war the barracks were taken over by the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...

and used for seven years as a training establishment for new recruits. The buildings were eventually demolished in 1967. The site was subsequently developed for residential use and is now known as Pembroke Park.

References

External links

Photo: officers' quarters (left), guard house and soldiers' barracks (right)

Photo: the main (soldiers') barracks blocks

Sources

*{{cite book, last=Smythies , first=Captain Raymond R. H. , year=1894, title=Historical Records of the 40th (2nd Somersetshire) Regiment, publisher= Devonport: A. H. Swiss, url=https://archive.org/stream/historicalrecor00smytgoog#page/n26/mode/2up Barracks in England Installations of the British Army