The Macdonald Stewart Pavilion

Details

PIRBRIGHT

291/0/10013 The MacDonald Stewart Pavilion, Bisley
28-MAY-03 Camp

II

Residential club building. Built in 1897, following a competition of 1896, by the firm of C J Saxe and R M Rodden of Montreal to provide a headquarters for the Canadian team for the National Rifle Association championships at Bisley every July. The specifications included the use of Canadian woods to show their adaptability for inside finish and decoration and to resemble as far as possible a Canadian house surrounded on the front and sides by a verandah. The building is constructed of cedar, maple and pine on a brick plinth, clad in red cedar shingles with mansard roof now covered in C20 tiles. Two storeys: four windows to front, two to sides and T-wing forming service wing with irregular fenestration.
EXTERIOR: Front elevation has four windows, the central first floor windows sashes with eight panes to the upper parts only. The end windows are four-light canted bays with pyramidal roofs and six-panes to the upper parts only. The ground floor has a central double door flanked by sidelights with large diamond panes and two French windows. The left side elevation has a first floor five-light window under a cornice to the Adjutant's Quarters. The right side first floor has two first floor double sashes with six panes to the upper parts only and both sides have double sashes without glazing bars below. The ground floor has a wide verandah supported on wooden posts with carved heads on three sides and has a pediment over the central entrance. The service wing has mainly casement windows .
INTERIOR: Central hall with central chimneypiece of narrow yellow bricks and elaborate keystone with encaustic tiled band above. The walls are panelled with vertical boarding to the top, panels to the centre and criss cross design to the base. Double doors on each side connect with adjoining rooms and are designed to retract inside the internal partition walls. The front left room has a boarded ceiling, panelling to the walls and pilasters. The rear left room has plainer vertical boarding and an inserted 1980s bar. The right hand side has two interconnecting rooms currently used as dining rooms with boarded ceiling and walls with vertical boards above dado rail, panels below and pilasters. A necessary provision was the gun room to the rear, now with C20 lockers. There is a single flight staircase with stick balusters and square newel posts. The Commandant's Room is larger than the others and has a cornice. The other bedroms are smaller, the only fittings being shelves with hooks.
HISTORY: This building was built closely to the specifications of 1896 with many materials donated. The hall was to have a fireplace of pressed bricks and there were to be sliding doors between the hall, the reception room, reading and messrooms. A gun room and smoking room were part of the specifications. Upstairs there were to be two bedrooms for the Commandant and Adjutant and 12 rooms for the team, each with a shelf with coat hooks. As the building was only occupied for about six weeks each year the only form of heating was the central fireplace in the hall. A comparison of the architects' drawing with the existing building shows the loss of an octagonal chimney and possibly some criss-cross decoration to the lower part of the verandah if this was actually as built.

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

490174

Legacy System:

LBS

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