25832

 

II  

Designated  

22/10/2001  

22/10/2001  

Former depot school at Maindy Barracks  

 

Cardiff  

Cathays  

Cardiff  

Maindy  

317762  

178467  

SW  

On the E side of the parade square.  

Defence  

 

Maindy Barracks was built in 1877 and was first occupied by the Royal Glamorgan Militia. The Militia was superseded in 1881 by the newly formed Welch Regiment and it remained the headquarters of the regiment until its amalgamation in 1969 with the 1st Battalion of the South Wales Borderers to form the Royal Regiment of Wales. The barracks, also originally known as a 'localisation depot', was built under the auspices of the Localisation Act of 1872, which instigated the first national barrack-building campaign to be undertaken in peacetime. These are also referred to as the 'Cardwell reforms', after Edward Cardwell, Secretary of State for War 1868-74 who implemented a range of reforming policies. Regimental depots were established in populous districts to provide a focus for recruitment, and raised the profile of the army by giving it a powerful visual presence in the civilian community. The War Office issued standard designs for barracks, although local variations were permitted, particularly in the choice of materials. Local character at Maindy Barracks was achieved by the use of Pennant sandstone and slate roof. Maindy was also characteristic of the period in its overall layout around a central parade square, and incorporated many of the innovations of the period such as a school and married men's quarters in addition to the normal barrack rooms and officers' quarters, and had one of the earliest depot hospitals. Schools, or institutes, were introduced at localisation depots to raise the social standards of recruits, and incorporated reading rooms, billiard rooms and mess rooms.  

A symmetrical 2-storey depot school of snecked rock-faced Pennant sandstone with freestone banding and cornice, and slate roof behind coped gables on moulded kneelers, with stone stacks to the rear roof slope and in the R-hand end wall. It has a 19-bay front elevation, including 2 higher bays at the ends under advanced gables. The upper storey is slightly recessed behind a balcony, which has iron railings projecting on corbels. The openings, replaced in original openings to the front but retaining some small-pane sash windows to the rear, are paired in each bay. The central bay is a through passage with segmental arches in each storey. To the L and R are 2 equally placed doorways on each side. The 2-bay end gables have recessed doorways to the inner bays under single windows, and outer windows under relieving arches. The R-hand end wall has a bay window with stack rising from behind the coped parapet. The L-hand end wall has 2 lower-storey and a single upper-storey window. The rear elevation has paired windows to the end gables, under relieving arches in the upper storey. The R-hand gable has an upper storey projection on cast iron columns, while the L-hand gable has a single-storey projection on its R side with single sash to the side walls. Between are 3 equally placed full-height projections with 2 sash windows in the side walls (some blocked), and between them windows similar to the front.  

 

Listed, notwithstanding replacement of windows, as an integral component of one of the best-preserved regimental depots in Wales erected under the Cardwell reforms of the 1870s.