Summary
Former Headquarters of the 50th (Northumbrian) Division, built 1935, architect unknown.
Reasons for Designation
Baden Powell House, Peronne Lines, Catterick Garrison, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
Architectural interest:
* a good example of the high standard of military architecture in the 1930s, in a restrained classical revival style evocative of the C18;
* a striking combination of a classical exterior and Art Deco interior, marrying two popular and influential styles of the interwar years;
* the use of high-quality materials and the display of good craftsmanship in the detailing throughout, including many of the fixtures.
Historic interest:
* built as the headquarters of the 50th (Northumbrian) Division, it was the principal administrative building at Catterick Garrison, the most significant addition to the British Army’s estate following the First World War;
* it represents the expansion and administration of the territorial army at Catterick Garrison early in the period of national rearmament after 1934.
Group value:
* it has a strong functional group value with other listed buildings at Catterick Garrison.
History
Catterick Garrison, south of Richmond, North Yorkshire, was known as Catterick Camp before 1973. It was the most significant addition to the British Army estate as a result of the First World War, comparable in significance to the establishment of Aldershot in Hampshire after the Crimean War. Robert Baden-Powell (1857-1941), during his tenure as Inspector-General of Cavalry, is believed to have first considered the site, originally an area of farmland, for a military training camp in 1908-1910 but it was only in late 1914 that it was identified for a temporary training camp to accommodate two Army divisions (40,000 men). The Scotton Hall estate was acquired in 1915 and construction was begun by March 1915 under the supervision of Colonel Simeon Hardy Exham (1850-1927), a retired Royal Engineer. The pre-existing road system was retained for the Camp, with Moor Lane (later Horne Road) and Scotton Road running roughly north-west to south-east, and Catterick and Hipswell Roads running roughly west to east. The camp was divided into Scotton Division south of Catterick road and Hipswell Division to the north. The first soldiers arrived in October 1915. In this initial phase of construction, which continued well into 1916, about 2,000 huts were built. These were constructed using a steel frame, either with walls of concrete blocks or metal formwork plastered in cement. Scotton Hall was used as a residence for senior military personnel. In 1923, partly as a result of the loss of British Army training camps in Ireland, the decision was taken to make the camp permanent. Hipswell Lodge, which had been used as quarters for senior officers, was acquired, along with its estate, from the Prior Warnesford family and another house, Pin Hill (demolished), also requisitioned for army use.
The contracts for the creation of the large, permanent camp was given by the War Office to Messrs John Laing & Son of Carlisle for a sum of £450,000, and to Messrs A & S Wheater Limited of London, for £600,000. The temporary huts were upgraded with brick facings and improved heating and sanitation. The Yorkshire Post reported in 1924 that 'The most advanced portions of the undertaking are the "R", "S", and "T" lines, lying beyond the Scotton Garrison Church. When finished, these will be taken over by the Royal School of Signals, which is to be moved from Maresfield to liberate land taken during the war'. This transfer, along with those of other units, prompted the construction of a series of buildings in the second half of the 1920s, generally designed in a Wren or neo-Georgian style. The architects of these buildings, apart from the Sandes Soldier’s Home, are not generally known but were perhaps designers employed within the War Office. The withdrawal of the British Army from the Rhineland in 1929 saw further expansion and redevelopment at Catterick through the 1930s, a phase known as the Second Reconstruction Plan, culminating in the construction of a series of large purpose-built ‘Sandhurst’ barrack blocks replacing the First World War hutting. Further extension took place during and after the Second World War. During the first two decades of C21, many of the earlier barrack buildings were demolished and replaced by blocks with 'single-occupancy' rooms as a part of the Single Living Accommodation Modernisation (SLAM) project, completed in 2018.
Baden Powell House was built in 1935, as a two-storey headquarters building within the Peronne Lines. It was built to a high-quality neoclassical design, with good-quality Art Deco-style internal fittings and fixtures that befitted the status of a Headquarters. The building acted as the headquarters of the 50th (Northumbrian) Division between 1935 and 1961. In 1961 the division became a district headquarters of the 50th (Northumbrian) Division/District and in 1967 was disbanded as a part of the reduction of the Territorial Army (TA) into the Territorial and Army Volunteer Reserve. The District Headquarters then formed the core of North East District, under HQ Land Forces in 1972. The building was then used as the Headquarters Training Brigade Royal Signals in 1973, until it passed to the 4th Armoured Brigade (The Desert Rats) in 1997, who have since evolved into the 4th Infantry Brigade. The building is now (2024) used as the Defence Primary Health Care (DPHC) Regional Headquarters, Medical and Dental.
Details
Military headquarters building, 1935, originally for the 50th (Northumbrian) Division; architect unknown. Neoclassical style externally and Art Deco internally.
MATERIALS: dark-brown brick laid in stretcher bond. Ashlar Portland Stone plinth, sill band, eaves band, sills, pilasters, central pediment, and porch. Timber sash windows with exposed sash boxes and slim glazing bars. The roofs are laid in slate with metal flashing, drained by metal rainwater goods with square-section downpipes, and large moulded and canted storm boxes. Decorative brick ridge stacks with ashlar cornices and capped flues. The library/conference room has a concealed asphalted flat roof.
PLAN: the Headquarters has an 'E'-plan. The main two-storey range faces south-west and has a 17-bay elevation; it has an eight-bay north wing and a six-bay south wing, which both terminate in three-by-one bay return ranges, with projecting toilet blocks to the rear. A rectangular-plan stair hall and library/conference room projects centrally into the courtyard to the rear.
A detached plant room* and a C20 office range* attached to the rear of the north wing are not of special interest and are excluded from the listing.
EXTERIOR:
FRONT ELEVATION: the main range has a symmetrical 17-bay two-storey front elevation raised on a moulded ashlar plinth, with a continuous ground-floor sill band and deep, painted, moulded timber eaves cornices and a central pediment. The three central bays project out from the wall line with four ashlar lesenes or pilaster strips with stylised ashlar plinths and capitals supporting a moulded ashlar pediment. Within the tympanum is a central clock face in a concentric brick surround, with black painted wrought-iron Roman numerals. The ground floor has a canted ashlar porch with a moulded architrave and a tripartite keystone, housing recessed double half-glazed timber doors with a narrow rectangular fanlight that has curved segmental glazing bars. The moulded cornice of the porch has cusped sides and is surmounted by a stylised graduated date stone, inscribed 1935. The first-floor central ashlar panel above the entrance is occupied by a six-over-nine timber sash window with exposed sash boxes, set within a moulded architrave. The outer two wall panels are of brick and have similar windows to each floor, beneath flat brick lintels. The six-bays to either side of the entrance have recessed panels with identical fifteen-light sashes to each floor, set between projecting brick piers that give the appearance of pilaster strips. Each end of the elevation terminates in a slightly projecting and wider bay, which gives the appearance of being a pavilion, with a ground-floor 15-light sash window set in an ashlar moulded architrave with a pediment that is raised on scroll brackets and rests on carved acanthus leaves, with a recessed brick apron panel beneath the sill.
SIDE ELEVATIONS: the two-storey, 8-bay north wing and the 6-bay south wing project to the north-east from the main range, with the western-bay of each elevation matching the main elevation. Both side elevations have a similar appearance to that of the main elevation but lacking the central pediment. Like the main elevation, both end bays of each wing projects slightly to give the impression of pavilions. The north-eastern ends of the two wings each form three-by-one bay returns, allowing for the width of the toilet blocks. The first-floor north-east elevations of both return wings have three sash windows.
REAR ELEVATIONS: these are similar in detail to the side elevations with the same style of windows and ashlar plinth and sill band. The ground-floor rear walls of the north and south wings are pierced by three-light water closet windows. The walls all show traces of a painted wartime temperate camouflage. The rear elevation of the south wing is entered by a doorway flanked by a pair of sash windows, with three to the first floor. The door has a moulded broad-shouldered Art Deco-style ashlar surround, with raised bronze lettering on the wide keystone, which reads: ENTRANCE. The base of the rear wall of the north wing is obscured by an attached late-C20 office range that is not of special interest and is excluded from the listing*. The central two-storey stair hall with attic room projects out to the rear, with an attached corrugated asbestos bicycle shelter* (the bicycle shelter is not of special interest) against the northern wall, and a rectangular-plan, tall single-storey library/conference room attached to the east wall. The northern and southern elevation of this room each have a central, 24-light sash window flanked by two brick pilaster strips, and the eastern elevation is lit by three sashes. The walls are carried up to form a parapet wall with raised and shouldered ashlar coping, which obscures a flat asphalted roof with a central rectangular roof light. The roof is drained through concentric semi-circular brick openings in the side walls into plain cast-iron storm boxes and round-profile downpipes.
A detached, single-storey, flat-roofed brick-built plant room* situated immediately to the rear of the library/conference room is not of special interest and is excluded from the listing.
INTERIOR: the central entrance porch leads into a vestibule with a glazed oak screen, which has ten-light glazed double doors with brass doorknobs decorated with a Catterick (Tudor) Rose in relief and a lock escutcheon with a stylised insect design, brass kickplates, glazed side panels, and rectangular fanlights with intersecting lancet glazing bars. The vestibule leads into a hallway and an axial corridor, which divides to either side and is aligned north-west to south-east, against the rear north-east wall, and turns 90 degrees at each end into the two side wings; a similar axial corridor is situated directly above on the first floor sub-divided by glazed fire partitions* give access to office rooms. The corridors have plain skirting boards and cornices, with good-quality painted architrave surrounds and six-panel doors. The range and quality of the doorknobs of these offices suggest a hierarchy in the rank of their occupiers. The offices are decoratively restrained with simple moulded door cornices and picture rails. Some of the offices have moulded timber fire surrounds with tiled inserts, hearth edges, and enamelled grates, while others have a cast-iron fire surround with a moulded mantle shelf, beaded panelled pilasters and a frieze panel decorated with three Catterick Rose rosettes. Some of these fireplaces are flanked by fitted timber pigeon-hole shelves and cupboards in the adjacent alcove. Two of the offices on the first floor have internal connecting doorways, these have a central brass escutcheon and padded sound-proofed linings, and one room has a bell call indicator box attached to the wall.
A segmental-arched open doorway directly opposite the main entrance leads into a rectangular hallway giving access to the main staircase to its left, and directly forward through a narrow passage lined with brass coat hooks to a pair of Art Deco panelled oak doors with brass levers into the library/conference room. A painted timber plaque above the door reads 'Library' and a framed 'conference in progress' notice is attached to the left-hand door; internally, the door has a broad-shouldered Art Deco-style oak surround. The library is a high-status room lined in Art Deco panelled oak wainscoting, moulded dado rails, panel dividers, window reveals, and picture rails, with plain friezes and simple plaster cornices to the ceiling. The ceiling has four rectangular deeply coved panels and a large framed rectangular skylight with a central cross beam, and an arched Art Deco iron rooflight frame. The walls to each side of the side windows are lined with tall, fitted oak glazed bookcases, raised on cupboards.
An Art Deco closed-well staircase with an open string rises on the left-hand side of the hallway against the wall of the northern axial corridor, which has two segmental-arcaded openings to allow borrowed light into the corridor. The staircase has a moulded skirting on one side and a ramped moulded brass handrail carried on a balustrade of paired reversed cast-iron lightning-shaped balusters, with an end spiral terminating in a ribbed-column newel post on a stepped circular curtail plinth. There is a single-panel door located beneath the soffit of the upper flight. The upper flight of the main stairs rises from a half-landing to a mezzanine landing, which leads to the left to room 27, to a small mezzanine room, and a winder stair that rises to a pair of second-floor attic rooms lit by skylights. Returning to the mezzanine landing, to the right three steps rise to the first-floor axial corridor, the central area of which takes the form of an arcaded loggia overlooking the staircase, with two matching balustraded openings. The north and south wings each have a rear dog-leg staircase at their north-eastern ends. These staircases are of a simpler design than the main stairs, with only one lightning strike baluster per step, and a moulded timber handrail that terminates in a swirl over a ribbed-column newel post, set on a semi-circular curtail step. The south wing has both ground and first-floor toilets, whereas the north wing has only ground-floor toilets. These are entered by half-glazed panelled doors and have white glazed wainscoting with moulded dado rails. Each toilet cubicle has a six-panel timber door fitted with brass grab handles and modern sanitary ware.
* Pursuant to s1 (5A) of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas ) Act 1990 ('the Act') it is declared that the plant room, C20 office range, bicycle shelter, and internal glazed fire partitions are not of special architectural or historic interest, however any works which have the potential to affect the character of the listed building as a building of special architectural or interest may still require Listed Building Consent and this is a matter for the Local Planning Authority to determine.
