Barrack Road, Fenham Barracks, sergeants mess

This building was listed Grade II in 1971 with the following description:
'Artillery barracks officers' quarters, later sergeants' mess, now student accommodation. 1804-06, by James Wyatt, Surveyor General to the Ordnance Board, converted c1994. English bond brick with brown sandstone dressings, brick ridge stacks and slate hipped valley roof. Late Georgian style. Single-depth plan. EXTERIOR: 2 storeys and basement; 12-window range. Near symmetrical front with ashlar basement and plinth, first-floor cill band and eaves frieze and cornice, with the 1-window end sections set forward; right-of-centre round-arched entrance has panelled jambs, imposts and keyed arch, with late C20 plate-glass fanlight and half-glazed door. Round-arched late C20 ground-floor horned 2/2-pane sashes, the end ones set within matching arched recesses, and segmental-arched first-floor horned 2/2-pane sashes, with smaller 3/3-pane basement sashes; matching rear with no entrance, the 3-bay returns have round-arched ground-floor recesses, the outer ones containing matching sashes, and in the centre a late C20 doorway with radial fanlight and double 12-panel doors. Steps up to the left-hand return entrance. INTERIOR: Completely rebuilt c1994. HISTORY: The Ordnance Board retained responsibility during the Napoleonic War for Artillery barracks. One of the earliest surviving sergeants' messes in the country, the only example built of stone from this period, and with the officers' mess and guard houses (qqv) a small part of the former Fenham Artillery Barracks. (Archaeologia Aeliana, 5th series: Breihan J: Army Barracks in the NE in the Era of the French Revolution: 1990-: 171).