Keep and Attached Walls and Gateway, Brock Barracks
KEEP AND ATTACHED WALLS AND GATEWAY, BROCK BARRACKS, OXFORD ROAD
Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places
Overview
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II
- List Entry Number:
- 1156392
- Date first listed:
- 22-Dec-1975
- List Entry Name:
- Keep and Attached Walls and Gateway, Brock Barracks
- Statutory Address:
- KEEP AND ATTACHED WALLS AND GATEWAY, BROCK BARRACKS, OXFORD ROAD
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Location
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Discover moreOfficial list entry
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II
- List Entry Number:
- 1156392
- Date first listed:
- 22-Dec-1975
- Date of most recent amendment:
- 08-Jul-1998
- List Entry Name:
- Keep and Attached Walls and Gateway, Brock Barracks
- Statutory Address 1:
- KEEP AND ATTACHED WALLS AND GATEWAY, BROCK BARRACKS, OXFORD ROAD
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
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.
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
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.
Location
- Statutory Address:
- KEEP AND ATTACHED WALLS AND GATEWAY, BROCK BARRACKS, OXFORD ROAD
The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.
- District:
- Reading (Unitary Authority)
- Parish:
- Non Civil Parish
- National Grid Reference:
- SU 69293 73761
Details
SU 67 SE READING OXFORD ROAD
(south side)
934/16/621
Keep and attached walls and
gateway, Brock barracks
(Formerly Listed as:
22.12.75 OXFORD ROAD
Brock Barracks: Keep and
attached gatehouse)
GV II
Armoury, guardhouse and store, disused. Dated 1877, designed at the War Office by Major HC Seddon, RE, supervising engineer Major Flint RE. Red brick with terracotta bands and stone dressings, lateral stacks and asphalt roof Fortress Tudor Gothic Revival style. PLAN: square, with ground-floor guard room and detention cells, corner stairs, stores on upper floors. EXTERIOR: 4 storeys; 5-window range. A regular, square block with opposite square stair towers rising above the roof, other 2 corners chamfered with raised parapets, with terracotta sill and lintel bands, dentil eaves and crenellated parapet. Battered ground floor to a weathered band, narrow metal-framed windows with stone lintels, stepped in threes to the stair tower. A glazed iron verandah to the guard house beside the entrance. INTERIOR: not inspected, but noted as having a fire-proof construction of iron columns to jack arches and stone open well stairs, and a standard plan with guard house, cells and various stores. SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: attached dwarf walls with iron railings extend 15m to the SE and SW of the front tower, and the former main entrance gate attached to the NW corner has a stepped parapet to a segmental arch, wickets either side. HISTORY: the keep was a secure armoury, store, guard house and lock up, and the characteristic building of the Localisation depots. They were part of the Cardwell reforms, which redistributed barracks around the country to encourage local connections and assist recruitment. As such, the keep raised the local profile of the barracks, and provided an emblematic focus for the regiment. Only ten examples survive, that at Brock also part, with Bodmin, of one of the two most complete surviving depots. (Watson Colonel Sir HM: History of the Corps of Royal Engineers: Chatham. 1954).
Listing NGR: SU6929373761
Legacy
The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.
- Legacy System number:
- 39102
- Legacy System:
- LBS
Sources
Books and journals
Watson, H M, History of the Corps of Royal Engineers, (1954)
Legal
This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.
Map
This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale. This copy shows the entry on 02-Jul-2026 at 23:07:04.
Download a full scale map (PDF)End of official list entry
All text content is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0 , except where otherwise stated. Any supplied maps are © Crown Copyright [and database rights] 2026 OS AC0000815036 and may not be reproduced without permission.