ROYAL CITADEL GOVERNOR'S HOUSE AND STEPS TO DOORWAYS

Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places

Overview

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: II*
List Entry Number:: 1067143
Date first listed:: 08-Jul-1998
List Entry Name:: ROYAL CITADEL GOVERNOR'S HOUSE AND STEPS TO DOORWAYS
Statutory Address:: ROYAL CITADEL GOVERNOR'S HOUSE AND STEPS TO DOORWAYS

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Official list entry

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: II*
List Entry Number:: 1067143
Date first listed:: 08-Jul-1998
List Entry Name:: ROYAL CITADEL GOVERNOR'S HOUSE AND STEPS TO DOORWAYS
Statutory Address 1:: ROYAL CITADEL GOVERNOR'S HOUSE AND STEPS TO DOORWAYS

This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.

Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.

For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.

For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

Location

Statutory Address:: ROYAL CITADEL GOVERNOR'S HOUSE AND STEPS TO DOORWAYS

The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.

District:: City of Plymouth (Unitary Authority)
Parish:: Non Civil Parish
National Grid Reference:: SX 48008 53878

Details

SX4853NW 740-1/67/871

PLYMOUTH THE BARBICAN Royal Citadel: Governor's House and steps to doorways 08/07/98 GV II* Governor's house at fort, now offices. 1667-75, extended c1770 for the Board of Ordnance; altered mid-late C20. MATERIALS: coursed Plymouth limestone with granite drip courses and dressed granite doorways; dry slate parallel roofs with bracketed eaves and six wide roof dormers, the central former valley now with shallow lead roof; original stone rubble axial and gable stacks later heightened with brick and large brick lateral stack at rear left. PLAN: large double-depth plan built in two phases, the original larger building (the former Governor's house) on the right and the former Lieutenant-Governor's House on the left; each part with a central entrance hall leading to a stair hall; small wing at rear left of centre. EXTERIOR: Three storeys over basement; overall six-window range consisting of two symmetrical fronts: a two-window front on the left and a four-window front on the right. Original moulded round-arched doorways with square hoodmoulds, each doorway central to its original front; blocked opening above the earlier doorway towards the right. Paired horned sashes with glazing bars in modified openings. INTERIOR: has its original staircase to each part: c1670 staircase is open-well with closed string, heavy turned balusters, turned pendants and square newels which are linked from floor to floor; c1700 staircase has alternate turned and twist balusters but is in other ways similar to the 1670 staircase. There are some nineteenth century panelled doors, and the C17 timber-framed spine wall survives beneath late C20 linings. SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: flight of steps with low ramped and shaped balustrades with ball finials over the newels in front of each doorway. HISTORY: this is a very rare surviving example in a national context of an early military building, one of the earliest examples of military accommodation in the country. With the contemporary store and guard house (qqv), it is associated with the most outstanding example of a C17 fort in Britain, built to the designs of Sir Bernard de Gomme.

Listing NGR: SX4800853878

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:: 473143
Legacy System:: LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Saunders, A D, Fortress Britain, (1989)
Woodward, F W , Plymouth's Defences, (1990), 9
Woodward, F W , Citadel, (1987)

Legal

This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.