Summary
Large, multi-purpose welfare facility for army personnel built in 1928 by the Sandes Soldiers’ Home charity, established in Ireland by Elise Sandes in 1869. The building was designed by the Belfast architects Young and Mackenzie and built by subcontractors and craftsmen almost entirely from Ulster.
Reasons for Designation
The former Sandes Soldiers’ Home in Catterick Garrison is listed at Grade II* for the following principal reasons:
* a striking multifunctional building by Young and Mackenzie, Belfast’s most successful architectural practice of the early C20, and a rare example of their work in England;
* the design uses the sloping site to good advantage, producing a varied but harmonious front elevation that draws freely from English Baroque and Georgian architecture while giving a distinct architectural identity to each of its principal elements, signalling the multifunctional aspect of the building whilst presenting a unified whole;
* for the high quality of its materials and craftsmanship, most clearly displayed with its fittings both internally and externally;
* the plan form is notable, allowing swift access to the building’s wide range of facilities, combined with an efficient system of internal circulation.
Historic interest:
* for its direct association with Elise Sandes and her Sandes Soldiers’ Home organisation, an early and pioneering mental health charity focused on the needs of soldiers, run by civilians and female-led. The Catterick home was the last Soldiers’ Home established under the guidance of Elise Sandes, and is considered to be the most architecturally ambitious centre constructed by the charity;
* as one of the key buildings in the establishment of Catterick as a permanent garrison, the most significant addition to the British Army’s estate following the First World War;
* for its strong Irish connections, demonstrated through its association with Elise Sandes, the architects Young and Mackenzie, and the fact that the building was designed and built almost entirely by contractors and craftsmen from Ulster.
Group value:
* it has a strong functional group value with other listed buildings built for the army at Catterick Garrison.
History
The former Sandes Soldiers’ Home was built in 1928 as a welfare facility for servicemen by the Christian charity started by Elise Sandes in Ireland in 1869. It was built following a request from General Sir Charles Harington and was one of the first wave of new buildings built at Catterick following the decision in 1923 to make the First World War training camp permanent. Catterick Garrison, generally known as Catterick Camp before 1973, originated in the First World War as a temporary training camp, built in 1915 to accommodate two army divisions. The 1923 decision to retain the camp and make it permanent was influenced by the loss training camps in Ireland following the creation of the Irish Free State and resulted in Catterick becoming the most significant addition to the British Army estate as a result of the First World War in a similar way to the establishment of Aldershot after the Crimean War in the mid-C19.
The Sandes Soldiers’ Home organisation
This was founded by Elizabeth Anne Sandes (known as Elise Sandes) (1851-1934) who in 1869, aged 18, invited young soldiers to her mother’s home in Tralee for bible study and literacy lessons. She opened her first Soldiers’ Home in 1877 in Cork to steer young soldiers away from alcohol and to provide a centre for Christian-based support, entertainment and education. Although her charity was one of many established by Victorian women, most were focused on giving support to wives and children of service personnel: the Sandes organisation was pioneering in providing mental health and welfare support to soldiers regardless of rank or religious denomination. By the First World War there were over 30 Homes sited at British Army barracks scattered across both Ireland and India. These aimed to be ‘a home from home’ and were run by women, Elise Sandes becoming known as ‘Mother to the British Army’. The establishment of the Irish Free State led to the closure of many Homes, reducing the number to 16, but the organisation remained very active, opening new Homes at various British Army bases, that at Catterick, the second in England, opened in November 1928, raising the number to 19. Elise Sandes died in 1934 and is thought to have been the first civilian woman to be buried with British military honours, her successor, Eva Maguire, given the same honour in 1967. Maguire, who opened the centre at Catterick, oversaw the continued expansion of the organisation through the 1930s and 1940s. The second half of the C20 saw it decline with the contraction of the British Army and the improvement of the army’s own welfare provisions. The Soldiers’ Home at Catterick Garrison closed in 1983 and the charity’s last five centres closed in March 2023, its historical records being passed to the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland.
The Catterick Sandes Soldiers’ Home
This is thought to have been the last to have been built under the guidance of Elise Sandes. It also appears to have been the most architecturally ambitious centre built by the charity, certainly amongst those built in Ireland and Britain. At her direction, the building was designed by the eminent firm of Belfast architects Young and Mackenzie and built by builders and craftsmen also from Ulster: the only non-Irish firm involved appears to have been the suppliers of the structural steelwork (this supplied from Glasgow): even the door furniture came from Belfast. The decorative ironwork was supplied by the notable specialist firm Musgrave and Co. Built to an impressively high standard of craftsmanship and materials, it was reported to have cost £60,000 by the time it opened, a further appeal being made for £15,000 in public subscriptions to complete the fitting out. Many of the donations for the Home were made in memory of service personnel killed during the First World War. The Public Record Office of Northern Ireland also holds records of the architectural firm Young and Mackenzie, including a bound volume of papers including detailed specifications, estimates and invoices for the construction of the Soldiers’ Home in Catterick.
Plan form
As a large, multi-functional building it has an extensive internal plan form: this is very well laid out, interconnected internally, but with multiple entrances to provide swift access to the building’s various facilities. The building makes good use of its south-facing aspect and occupies a site that slopes down to the east, taking good advantage of this in the building’s layout. As originally designed the building provided a suite of quiet rooms along the western side of the building (two subsequently combined), benefiting from the afternoon sun: library, sitting room and writing room all accessed off a corridor from an entrance in the front elevation, extending through to offices and service rooms to the rear (north). On the east side of this corridor, stepping down the slope thus resulting in a higher-ceiling room, was a large games room with a teak parquet floor thought to still survive beneath a later inserted raised, raked floor. A mid-C20 photograph shows this in use with five tables for billiards and two for table tennis. This room, originally lit by a large roof light as well as the large south-facing windows, has a pair of internal windows with stained glass to the north wall which provide borrowed light for the rear service corridor. On the east side of the games room is the principal entrance to the building, this bay also containing the main stair hall to the upper floor and access through to the rear service areas. Stepping down the slope again to the east is the former coffee room: a large, bright, high ceilinged hall designed to accommodate 500 people. Again, this room was originally partly top lit and had stained glass windows (now boarded over) borrowing light for the large kitchen to the north. On the east side of this hall, in addition to the door to another entrance lobby, is a small side room: this latterly used as a television room, probably originally intended for bible meetings and other smaller gatherings. The entrance lobby to the east of the coffee hall also provides internal access via stairs to the large hall that forms the east end of the building. This was originally designed as an 800-seat lecture theatre and cinema, the screen being at the north end and the projection box (which still survives) sited immediately below the balcony occupying the southern end of the hall. However, within a year this was converted into an indoor swimming pool, a diving board at the former screen end and changing cubicles built under the side balconies. The principal entrance to the ground floor of this hall is via a separate entrance and lobby beneath the southern balcony, the main access to the balcony being via double doors to the side elevation.
The upper floor of the western three quarters of the building consists of smaller rooms off a corridor forming a figure of eight around the large light wells either side of the central main stair hall. This provided domestic accommodation for staff as well as bedrooms for visiting service men or their families. An article in the Belfast Telegraph (24 November 1928) stated that there were 20 bedrooms for servicemen, although there are over 30 rooms on the upper floor that may have been used as bedrooms. At the west end of the building there is a suite of four large rooms all connected via a west-facing loggia. This is close to a secondary staircase that links to the library and rear service corridors. These may have been further public reception rooms but may have been intended for staff use when off-duty.
After 1983:
After the closure of the Soldiers’ Home in 1983, and following refurbishment, the building was reopened in 1986 as an army training centre (latterly for commanders and staff officers) but became largely disused sometime after 2014. Overall, alterations to the building are minimal: one internal wall has been removed to combine two rooms at the west end of the building; the swimming pool has been infilled or covered over and the changing cubicles have been removed along with the side balconies; the rear service areas have been modified in places and new rooms inserted into the original rear yard (this yard was roofed over sometime in the mid-C20 with a partially glazed roof, the vehicle entrance from the east also being a mid-C20 alteration, these mid-C20 alterations being of some interest, showing the evolution of the building during its use as a Soldiers’ Home). Other alterations made in the 1980s and subsequently, such as the insertion of a raked floor in the games room, the roofing over of the light wells and the installation of suspended ceilings are all considered to be reversable and are expected to conceal original detailing.
Details
Charity welfare centre for soldiers, 1928, for Sandes Soldiers’ Homes, by architects Young and Mackenzie, built by McLaughlin and Harvey using contractors and craftsmen from Ulster.
MATERIALS: Fireproofed steel frame construction faced in red brick with extensive Bewerley stone dressings, Buttermere slate roof, cast iron rainwater goods. Extensive use of decorative plasterwork and teak joinery with brass fittings. Staircases feature terrazzo and decorative ironwork.
PLAN: a complex, interconnected interior, the building having multiple front entrances to provide swift access to the building’s various original facilities – see History.
EXTERIOR:
FRONT (SOUTH) ELEVATION: the building’s long south elevation can be divided into four sections by three of the main entrances: each has a slightly different architectural treatment, but each is linked to each other via the materials and architectural details employed. These four divisions make positive use of the building’s sloping site, the architectural detailing including various horizontal features acknowledging the changing levels whilst unifying the elevation.
The first westernmost section is the most domestic in scale, like part of a country house originally containing the library and other west-facing rooms. It forms a forward-projecting cross wing, the gable-end detailed like a large open-based pediment supported by very large, finely-carved teak console brackets. The pediment’s tympanum is covered with hung slates. Below, there is a broad two-storey canted-bay with stone ashlar surrounds to the windows, with five sash windows to each floor, all with glazing bars. This section is unified with the second section by a first-floor stringcourse of moulded stone and a deeply oversailing eaves to the roof.
The second section (originally including a large games room) is of six bays with an additional half-bay to the west end for an entrance serving the western two sections of the building. The entrance is a single door with a projecting stone porch supported by a carved stone bracket. Above this there is an overlight set back within a segmentally arched opening with a keystone. First-floor windows extend an extra pane upwards to the eaves (relative to the first section), and apart from the single window to the entrance half-bay, are regularly arranged in pairs with central mullions. The ground-floor windows are much larger, having a lower sill relative to the first section as well as being broader, each divided into three lights by mullions and further subdivided with glazing bars. These windows are linked by a sill band and are segmentally arched; the arches having keystones. The low-pitched roof has brick-built end stacks and a central stack rising from the rear pitch.
The elevation's third section is of eight bays framed by end chimneystacks; the bays at the two ends being entrances, and the ground floor of the other six bays forming the coffee/dining hall. The windows match those of the second section, except those to the first floor are segmentally arched. This section steps down the hill from the west so that the ground-floor sill band continues the general line of the ground surface of the second section, with the first-floor window sills aligning with the first-floor stringcourse. The ground floor is set slightly forward to produce a shallow continuous balcony in front of the first-floor windows; the balcony has a low parapet of decorative brickwork rising from a stone stringcourse to a stone coping. The low-pitched roof is concealed behind a further brick parapet that rises from a moulded stone stringcourse to a moulded stone coping, which aligns with the eaves line of the second section. Linking the stringcourse to the coping are two large stone consoles, which originally framed a sign reading ‘Sandes Soldiers’ Home’.
The entrance bay on the west side of the third section, which also leads to the main stair hall, is built of stone ashlar, forming a two-storey ornate Baroque-style canted bay topped by a panelled stone parapet. The wide entrance has a modern replaced door* (the modern door is not of special interest), but retains its original decorative lintel and semi-circular fanlight with ornamented glazing bars. The entrance is flanked by engaged columns supporting an enriched scrolled pediment framing a cartouche.
The entrance bay on the east side of the third section breaks forward and is brick-built, except for the stone dressings that continue the banding, stringcourses and copings of the rest of the third section. The entrance is reached by an external set of steps and is double-doored beneath a large monolithic lintel with carved decoration. Above this is an overlight with decorative leaded glazing flanking a timber louvre* for an inserted ventilator* (this louvred ventilator is not of special interest).
With the falling ground surface, the fourth easternmost section (the former cinema, converted to a swimming pool in 1929) is of three tall storeys; a stone band marking the second floor being aligned with the first-floor parapet of the third section. The elevation is symmetrical, divided into three by brick pilasters, with a hipped roof topped by a ventilation turret with a swept pyramidal leaded roof. At the top of the central part of the elevation there is an open-based pediment framing a stone cartouche. The pediment is supported by paired giant stone corbels that flank a second-floor loggia. This loggia is in the form of an unglazed, moulded stone-framed Venetian window; the central section having a projecting stone balcony supported on carved stone brackets. To the first floor below are three window openings with keystoned brick flat arches with stone sills; the openings retaining original metal-framed windows with margin glazing. On the ground floor is a double-doored entrance beneath a keystoned wedge lintel. Flanking this middle bay are broad bays with two small, widely separated windows to each floor; the lower four windows to each side lighting staircases internally and thus being stepped in height. These windows have brick flat arches (but without keystones) and also retain metal-framed windows.
WEST ELEVATION: this is of six bays and has a chimneystack at the north gable-end and two ridge stacks; the moulded stringcourse to the first floor continuing from the south elevation. To the first floor there is a three-bay loggia with very large openings featuring ornate-shaped timber brackets. To the ground floor there is a blocked window opening and doorway. Other window openings are detailed in a similar way to various window openings to the front elevation and still retain their original timber sashes with glazing bars. Attached to this elevation are various pieces of modern equipment* and cabling* that are not of special interest.
EAST ELEVATION: this is the side elevation of the former cinema/swimming pool. It is of seven bays of pier and panel construction, with an additional lean-to bay at the north end (stage end). The elevation is divided into two: a slightly higher three-bay section to the south (for the stairs and main balcony internally); and the four-bay hall with a run of large first-floor picture windows with oeil-de-boeuf windows above and two doorways below, these now bricked up. The southern slightly taller section is mainly blind, but still retains its original openings with fittings, including the part-glazed double doors accessing the main stairs to the balcony. To the top of the central panel is a large copper sign with the embossed text ‘Sandes’ in white enamel, although this originally extended downwards with the additional text ‘Soldiers’ Home’.
REAR ELEVATION: this is more utilitarian, but still features some stone dressings, such as a first-floor stringcourse to the western cross wing. It retains its chimneystacks and nearly all of its original openings complete with joinery, the altered openings now being internal within the rear yard that was roofed over in the mid-C20.
The addition of various modern features such as communications equipment*, security lighting*, cabling*, modern ventilation* and heating equipment* which is mainly found to the rear of the building is not of special interest. The link corridor (and the large modern building that this leads to) that extends north from the former open yard is not included in the listing, nor is a small flat-roofed extension adjacent to the flat roofed extension at the east end of the former open yard forming a vehicle entrance.
INTERIOR: Survival of original internal features is extensive throughout the building, including decorative plasterwork and high-quality joinery generally retaining original brass fittings. The main and secondary staircases, as well as the short flight between the main entrance and the coffee hall, are terrazzo with teak handrails and decorative iron balustrading incorporating curtail steps. Other staircases are enclosed between walls and have simpler brass handrails. The principal entrance lobby has an elaborate Classical decorative treatment in plasterwork including raised panels featuring festoons above the doorways to the former games room and coffee hall, the doors here being good quality replacements. The games room has a ceiling with decorative strapwork and rosettes now largely concealed by an inserted suspended ceiling* (the suspended ceiling is not of special interest); this decoration also applied to the north wall flanking a pair of lunette windows that incorporate decorative leaded glazing, including stained glass. Similar windows may survive in the coffee hall, now boarded over. The former games room has a modern inserted raked floor* and has been partly subdivided with modern stud partitions* (the modern floor and partitions are not of special interest). The coffee hall retains decorative tile work, which has been overpainted. It also retains an original pair of part-glazed doors set in a doorcase with a frieze and cornice, all the joinery being teak. It also includes a modern canteen servery*, which is not of special interest. The former library at the west end has a later raised floor* and a suspended ceiling*; the latter concealing an original ornamented plaster ceiling (the later floor and suspended ceiling are not of special interest). The former cinema/swimming pool also retains its decorative plasterwork, including that to the front of the main balcony. The side balconies have been removed and the northern balcony (which was access for the diving board) has been altered. It is not known if the swimming pool has been infilled or survives beneath later flooring. The rear service areas have undergone more internal alterations and includes a modern kitchen* and other modern equipment* that are not of special interest. The former open rear service yard has a light-weight mid-C20 roof of some interest. This rear yard space now includes modern inserted partitions* and rooms* and other features, such as an access ramp* that are not of special interest.
The decorative treatment to the first floor is simpler, but generally intact, incorporating some dados in addition to cornicing; the most elaborate being the large room to the south-west corner. Doors to the bedrooms off the northern corridor are part glazed (for borrowed light into the corridor) with leaded obscure and coloured glass. Fireplaces have been lost, although chimneybreasts remain.
* Pursuant to s1 (5A) of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 (‘the Act’) it is declared that the aforementioned features 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 historic interest may still require Listed Building Consent and this is a matter for the Local Planning Authority to determine.
