Royal Marine Barracks, Woolwich

Royal Marine Barracks, Woolwich
Woolwich
Royal Marine Barracks Woolwich as viewed from the Frances Street gate
Royal Marine Barracks, Woolwich Location within London
Coordinates	51°29′19″N 0°03′20″E / 51.48856°N 0.05560°E / 51.48856; 0.05560Coordinates: 51°29′19″N 0°03′20″E / 51.48856°N 0.05560°E / 51.48856; 0.05560
Type	Royal Marines Base
Site history
Built	1842-1848
Built for	Admiralty
In use	1848-1972
Garrison information
Occupants	Woolwich Division, Royal Marines

The Royal Marine Barracks, Woolwich was a military installation occupied by the Royal Marines and located in Frances Street, just south of Woolwich Dockyard.

The Woolwich Division of the Royal Marines was established, as part of the response to the threat created by the Napoleonic Wars, in 1805. New barracks for marines, who provided a military presence in the Dockyard, were established east of Frances Street in 1808. Bowater Cottage, which had been built in the 1790s, became the home of the Colonel Commandant of the barracks in 1812. The barracks were re-built, to a design developed Captain William Denison RE, between 1842 and 1848. They were of an enlightened design for their time, built to provide even the lowest-ranked inhabitants with sufficient light, space and fresh air. Rushgrove House, which had been built in 1806, became the home of the Colonel Commandant of the barracks in 1855.

After the closure of the Dockyard and the consequential disbanding of the Woolwich Division of the Royal Marines in 1869, these Royal Marine Barracks were renamed Cambridge Barracks, after the Commander-in-Chief of the Forces, Prince George, Duke of Cambridge, and used by the British Army as additional troop accommodation. Having become surplus to requirements, the barracks were demolished in 1972, but the heavily rusticated gatehouse arch remains on Frances Street, serving as a community centre and police office.

Alongside these barracks had stood the red-brick Royal Marine Infirmary designed by William Scamp and built between 1858 and 1860; it was one of the first pavilion-plan hospitals to be erected in England in the wake of the Crimean War. The infirmary, situated on a hill, was "the most conspicuous and striking feature of the town of Woolwich."

After the closure of the Dockyard in 1869 the infirmary also passed to the British Army. Renamed Red Barracks, reflecting the original red brick design, the old infirmary building accommodated the Army Ordnance Corps for a time, before becoming the Artillery College (later the Royal Military College of Science) in 1885. The College moved to Shrivenham in 1939 and the building became the home of the Inspectorate of Armaments (later the Quality Assurance Directorate (Weapons)) and the Royal Artillery Record Office in 1940. It was decommissioned by the British Army in 1967 and, despite being a listed building, it too was demolished in 1975. The perimeter walls, which date back to the 1850s, survive.