H M Prison

Details

TG20NW NORWICH BRITANNIA ROAD
(north-east side)
1188/4/122
H M Prison

GV II

Barracks guard house, armoury, officers' mess and offices, now prison offices. Dated 1886 and
1887, by RE officers at the Inspector General for Fortifications. Brick with red sandstone and terracotta dressings, ribbed brick lateral and ridge stacks with cornices, and tiled roofs. Artisan Mannerist Revival style.
PLAN: axial plan of left-hand guard house, armoury, offices, and right-hand officers' mess and clock tower.
EXTERIOR: 2 and 3 storeys with attic; 4:2:5:3:4:6:7:1-window range. A long and strongly articulated range has first-floor cill band and moulded eaves, rubbed brick segmental-arched windows with fluted keys and raised aprons to 9/9-pane and 6/6-pane sashes with thick glazing bars, and patterned terracotta tiles to the tops of the main gables. The left-hand guard house has a battered round right-hand corner tower with a doorway at the base and segmental-arched louvred openings beneath an ashlar dome, narrow sashes and a wide truncated external stack. The right-hand side has a timber verandah beneath a small gable, and a 1-window rear gable. To the right the main entrance has elliptical archway with matching left-hand wicket on ashlar piers with imposts, in a gable with moulded coping with ball finial and a round-arched sunken panel with regimental shield. To the right the 3-storey armoury has ashlar cill bands to narrow metal-framed lights, modillion cornice to swept eaves, and 5 small gable dormers; similar rear elevation has segt1lental-arched doorway and standard ground-floor windows, with a right-of-centre external stack. A lower single-storey range to the right has 2 gabled half dormers over paired windows, and a rear with 3 dormers and a projecting single-storey parapeted service block. Tall symmetrical section to the right has a central gable with first-floor clasping pilaster strips, paired first-floor windows and 4 small attic lights, gabled dormers either side, with a left-hand square tower with an octagonal cupola on top with louvred openings and leaded octagonal dome. Rear has a left-hand gable and 2 dormers with a central doorway with C20 door. A lower range to the right has a central first-floor pedimented panel inscribed 1886. The officers' mess to the right has projecting end gables, the left-hand one with a canted 2-storey bay with balustrade, connected by a 5-bay stone verandah with elliptical arches and balustrade to a first-floor balcony, and 3 gabled dormers. The rear has a right-hand flush gable with attic Venetian window, left-hand projecting gable with an ornate canted oriel with fluted ogee base and segmental pediment, 2 round-arched doorways between with plate-glass fanlights, and a large right-of-centre gabled porch with pilasters to a flat-headed doorway with small-paned overlight and 6-panel door, moulded frieze, with a round-arched panel above and raised pediment with ball finial containing a keyed oculus. The range is terminated to the right by a 5-storey square tower with banded plinth and clasping quoin strip to a cornice, top storey with a pedimented panel containing a blue clock, modillion cornice and leaded ogee dome with dormer oculi and weather vane.
INTERIOR: altered mid C20, and without special features: the armoury has a stone stair with jack arch floors.
HISTORY: the most architecturally-sophisticated C19 barracks in England, with a plan not found at any other British barracks. A unique example of the Queen Anne style applied to a barracks, comparable with the work of Norman Shaw or 11 Stevenson at this time, although the identity of tile architect is unknown. Part of a group with the Regimental museum (qv).


Listing NGR: TG2437109434

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

228864

Legacy System:

LBS

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.