Officers Quarters and Mess, Brock Barracks
OFFICERS QUARTERS AND MESS, 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:
- 1375596
- Date first listed:
- 08-Jul-1998
- List Entry Name:
- Officers Quarters and Mess, Brock Barracks
- Statutory Address:
- OFFICERS QUARTERS AND MESS, BROCK BARRACKS, OXFORD ROAD
Location
Location of this list entry and nearby places that are also listed. Use our map search to find more listed places.
Use of this mapping is subject to terms and conditions .
This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale.
What is the National Heritage List for England?
The National Heritage List for England is a unique register of our country's most significant historic buildings and sites. The places on the list are protected by law and most are not open to the public.
The list includes:
 |
Buildings |
 |
Scheduled monuments |
 |
Parks and gardens |
 |
Battlefields |
 |
Shipwrecks |
Local Heritage Hub
Unlock and explore hidden histories, aerial photography, and listed buildings and places for every county, district, city and major town across England.
Discover moreOfficial list entry
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II
- List Entry Number:
- 1375596
- Date first listed:
- 08-Jul-1998
- List Entry Name:
- Officers Quarters and Mess, Brock Barracks
- Statutory Address 1:
- OFFICERS QUARTERS AND MESS, 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:
- OFFICERS QUARTERS AND MESS, 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 69322 73739
Details
SU 67 SE READING OXFORD ROAD
(south side)
934/16/10015
Officers' quarters and mess,
Brock barracks
GV II
Officers' quarters and mess, now offices. 1877, designed at the War Office by Major HC Seddon, RE, supervising engineer Major Flint RE. Red brick with yellow brick bands, moulded brick heads and stone dressings; lateral and ridge stacks, left-hand end has octagonal shafts, the rest truncated, and tiled cross-gabled roof. Gothic Revival style. PLAN: single-depth axial L-shaped plan, and kitchens to the rear. EXTERIOR: 2 storeys; 10-window range. An asymmetrical range has 3 unevenly-spaced projecting coped gables, with a deep single-storey canted mess room bay to the left of the left-hand gable, and an open ashlar porch with hipped roof to the right, on round columns with stiff-leaf capitals to 2-centre arched openings; the inner doorway has double doors. Bay and gables have paired and 3-1ight windows with narrow segmental-arched transom lights and 2/2-panes sashes; the outer gables have 3-light first-floor windows under a 2-centre arched tympanum with patterned brick infill, and the windows in between the gables and to the sides and rear have flat heads to the ground floor and shouldered lintels to the first. The right-hand end has a hipped porch with tympana to the paired side windows. INTERIOR: has an entrance stair hall with a dogleg stair, rear axial passage to a right-hand end dogleg stair, tiled floors, with original joinery and plaster mouldings. HISTORY: built for officers' accommodation, mess and administration of the Reading Localisation depot. An example of a standard design as at the former Richmond depot, adapted by the local officer. The Cardwell reforms redistributed barracks around the country to encourage local connections, and assist recruitment. The officers' quarters was the best-appointed building in the depot, commanding the parade, and is included as a central part of, with Bodmin, one of the two most complete surviving depots. (Watson Colonel Sir HM: History of the Corps of Royal Engineers: Chatham: 1954-: 157-160).
Listing NGR: SU6932273739
Legacy
The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.
- Legacy System number:
- 469560
- Legacy System:
- LBS
Sources
Books and journals
Watson, H M, History of the Corps of Royal Engineers, (1954), 157-160
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 07-Jun-2026 at 06:28:09.
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.