Survey Data
Reg No
15618007
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Historical, Social
Original Use
Barracks
In Use As
Museum/gallery
Date
1770 - 1840
Coordinates
272746, 108149
Date Recorded
21/10/2008
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Detached five-bay two-storey officer accommodation block or officer barrack, extant 1840, on a symmetrical plan originally attached centred on single-bay single-storey flat-roofed projecting porch to ground floor; three-bay two-storey rear (east) elevation. Occupied, 1901. Vacant, 1911. Burnt, 1922. In ruins, 1933. Reconstructed, 1939. Vacated, 1986. Renovated, ----, to accommodate alternative use. Hipped slate roof with concrete ridge tiles, rendered chimney stacks centred on rendered chimney stack having stepped capping supporting terracotta pots, and replacement uPVC rainwater goods on eaves boards on roughcast eaves. Roughcast walls on rendered plinth with rendered quoins to corners. Square-headed central door opening. Square-headed window openings with concrete or cut-granite sills, and concealed red brick block-and-start surrounds framing timber casement windows. Set in shared grounds including relandscaped parade ground.
Appraisal
An officer accommodation block or officer barrack contributing positively to the group and setting values of the Duncannon Fort complex with the architectural value of the composition suggested by such attributes as the symmetrical footprint centred on an expressed porch; and the diminishing in scale of the openings on each floor producing a graduated visual impression: meanwhile, aspects of the composition clearly illustrate the near-total reconstruction of the officer accommodation block or officer barrack at the outbreak of "The Emergency" (1939-46). Having been well maintained, the form and massing survive intact together with quantities of the original fabric, both to the exterior and to the restrained interior: however, the piecemeal introduction of replacement fittings to the openings has not had a beneficial impact on the character or integrity of an officer accommodation block or officer barrack forming part of a self-contained ensemble making a dramatic visual statement overlooking Waterford Harbour.