Mid C19 cavalry barracks.

Le Cateau Barracks, originally the Royal Artillery Barracks, were built in 1875 as the second permanent cavalry barracks in Colchester. Each twin block of three was designed to sustain itself, containing necessary functional areas such as a forge, cook house and others. The layout was based on the less-hierarchical training camp form pioneered at Aldershot cavalry barracks in the 1850s. The stable design included a jack-arched fire-proof ceiling and advanced ventilation system following recommendations on stable/barrack block hygiene by a Royal Commission. Only two of the 1870s stable blocks survive (Blocks A and B), both of which are grade II listed.

The structure is brick-built in a predominantly neo-Georgian architectural style of linear plan form with a central pedimented gable and projecting corner wings. Long litter sheds were built between the rear wings (since removed). There are two storeys. The ground floor contained stalls for 31 horses, with officer’s stables, harness rooms, a cook house, food stores and tailors shop in the four wings. Tall iron columns support a fire-proof jack-arched pierced by ventilation grills. The stalls were linked by drainage channels that ran under the large stable doors located at the two ends and on the rear elevation, facing the parade ground. The first floor contained two large barrack rooms for 23 soldiers each, either side of two sergeant’s rooms, an ablutions area and balcony over the front part of the stables.

Block B retains much of its spatial layout and historic detail, although ongoing use and conversion to an army training centre in the modern period, have inevitably resulted in changes to the historic fabric. Internally, new stalls have been inserted into the stable area and its large barrack rooms have been divided into lecture rooms. Externally, a modern extension has been added onto the balcony, ruining the main façade. Most of the brick gables have been rebuilt, partly robbing the building of important architectural detail. Block B (along with Block A) is significant as the last surviving example of barrack rooms above stables design and of innovations employed in hygiene standards through improved ventilation and construction techniques. The Aldershot cavalry barracks were demolished in the 1960s, leaving Le Cateau and the Cavalry Barracks as the only survivors of this plan form. They are therefore of national importance.<1>