Knightsbridge Barracks

[Nick Thornicroft]

Not being well acquainted with London, I wonder if anyone out there could tell me if Knightsbridge Barracks are still standing (in the same location as they were in WW1). I believe they are/were opposite Rotten Row in Hyde Park.

Many thanks.

[Soren]

I think they are, but a new building, I had the pleasure spending two weeks drawing there during my degree< oh and the knights of the garter ceremony at Windsor!

[ianw]

I think they have a nasty tower block thing that should never have got planning permission. Interestingly they have stables half way up and sometimes you see horses with their heads out of these windows. Bizarre.

[joseph]

Nick,

Most certainly are, spent a wonderful evening watching boxing, drinking and smelling horses.

Regards Charles

[Nick Thornicroft]

Thanks to all who replied. I am London-bound next week.

[HERITAGE PLUS]

Nick

Then..............

[HERITAGE PLUS]

and now............

http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/server/.../conWebDoc.1616

DAVE

[Nick Thornicroft]

Many thanks for the fascinating old photo of Knightsbridge Barracks. What a difference from then to now. I wonder what the old soldiers would make of it.

Thank you, from one West Countryman to another.

[AndrewThornton]

The old Hyde Park Barracks was closed in 1965 and was demolished shortly afterwards. Meanwhile, The Household Cavalry Regiment (Mounted) were based in temporary accommodation at Wellington Barracks. The new barracks was opened in 1970. Apparently, Field-Marshall Sir Gerald Templar was asked by Basil Spence what he thought of the new barracks, to which Sir Gerald replied "Bl***y awful!" The married quarters tower block is called Peninsula Tower.

[Nick Thornicroft]

I can understand his concerns. Give me Victorian architecture any day.

Nick

[Medic7922]

I can remember as a Medic attached to the Army Blood Supply Depot ABSD in good old Aldershot

being sent to Knightsbridge Barracks to take Donated Blood from all the Guardsmen and there families. We had to unload all are Blood taking equipment and take it up several floors to a large Hall next to the ORs mess hall which had a wonderful view over to the Palace.

While bleeding some donors, a very smartly dressed SNCO marched in a platoon of ashen-faced

young guardsmen just off guard duty at the palace, shouting at them saying things like if you dont bear your arms at give some of your blood to these lovely people I will personally donate your blood with my pacestick right up your@*@* I think you get the message, everyone of course DID Donate. fortunatly things have changed and there is now no threats made to solders to donate

but I did feel sorry for the Lads and of course the MO did have a word in private with the SNCO.

[squirrel]

The upstairs stables are the Lifeguards and the lower floor The Blues & Royals. The Farrier's workshop is immediately below the main kitchens which make for some interesting smells in the latter!

[Drummy]

I wonder if there are many victorian/ww1 era barracks still in use by the Army today? when I served I was based amongst other places at the modern Sir John Moore barracks at Winchester, 1960's barracks in Catterick and then ex third reich barracks in Munster! I do recall there were some nice remaining victorian barracks (ex rifle brigade?) in Winchester town that are now home to the KRH and Gurkha Regimental museums.

[Terry_Reeves]

I met FM Sir Gerald Templar once, in 1967, at HQ UK Land Forces. I must admit, it was only for a few minutes and I was a teenaged, spotty faced Sapper with much to learn. I was impressed by him however; well over six feet tall, he talked to me and my fellow RE's soldier to soldier as it were, and took a genuine interest in us. However, despite his dislike of Sir Basil Spence's architecture, I dont think he had ever lived in a Victorian barrack block, nor indeed a OR's Victorian married quarter.

As it happens, I lived in the former, off and on, for a number of years, and being the party animal I was , also got invited into late 19th and early 20th century married quarters in North Camp, Aldershot, and "Coronation Street", Tidworth, on numerous occassions. Let me add quite quickly here that it was with full consent of both occupants!

They were not nice places. Painted brick walls, normally two shades of brown; one a milk chocolate, the other a Caramac, for those of you who are historians of Cadbury's products. Or, if you were lucky, depending on your tast in decour, a tasteful eau de nil, sprayed on with a few colourful spots added to taste. In the married quarters, the bath was in the kitchen, covered with a wooden top which doubled as a sort of chopping board-cum-auxiliary kitchen table. In the North Camp "Squares", there was a communal coal bunker on what passed as a verandah.

Now, I must admit to having an interest in Victorian architecture, I do actually like it. But I also know that servicemen, single or married, were glad to see the back of it as far as their lives were concerned. Sixties and seventies might seem a bit naff in the early 21st century, but how much would you have to pay per apartment if the Knightsbridge Barracks tower block came on the open market now? Close proximity of the stables excepted of course.

As I have said, Sir Gerald seemed a perfectly nice bloke, but he was was never a North Camp/Coronation Street inhabitant or party-goer.

Terry (I'm much younger than I look) Reeves