TM 9924 NW COLCHESTER LE CATEAU ROAD (North West side) Colchester Garrison 584/8/10011 Cavalry Barracks B, Le Cateau Barracks GV II Cavalry barracks. 1863. Red brick with yellow brick bands and stone lintels, slate roof and brick ridge stacks. Rectangular single-depth plan with corner officers' stables and stores. EXTERIOR: 2 storey; 6:4:6-window range. Similar front and rear elevations have coped end gables and patterned brick eaves, with projecting 2-window single-storey blocks at each end and a central pediment gable. Square stable windows extend along North side, with central segmental-arched double doors, the end blocks have left-hand doors and a right-hand window, and a louvred oculus; 4/4-pane sashes to barrack rooms above. South side has a band of patterned brick below the stable windows, and three doorways separated by windows to the central gable; the upper floor are set back to form a balcony between the gable and end blocks, with diagonal iron railings. INTERIOR: the stables, divided into two sections, have a central aisle between cast-iron posts dividing the stalls, supporting a brickjack-arch floor with ties between the joists; office and store rooms to each end. A central imperial stair leads up to the 22-man barrack rooms each side of a the NCO's room. HISTORY: Le Cateau is the last surviving example of the new layout of cavalry barracks developed at Aldershot in the 1850s. In its use of fireproof construction and enhanced ventilation for the men, an advanced design of cavalry barracks for the day, though using the traditional plan of men's rooms over stables. Part of a group with the other barrack buildings, Le Cateau was the first permanent barracks built at Colchester. (Dietz P: Garrison: Ten Military Towns: London: 1986-: 3; PSA Drawings Collection, NMR, Swindon: CTR 130-158). Listing NGR: TL9929324518