Description

PLYMOUTH

SX4556NW SALTASH ROAD, Devonport
740-1/32/166 (West side)
08/07/98 HMS Drake: Drake House and attached
walls & railings

GV II

Commodore's house, including attached porch on road frontage
and flanking walls and iron railings. 1887, Superintendent
Engineer Lt-Col P Smith RE. Plymouth limestone brought to
course and with limestone dressings; steep dry slate roofs
with projecting eaves and decorated barge boards, very steep
roof over tower; stone axial, gable and lateral stacks with
moulded cornices. Baronial Gothic style and some Classical
detail. Irregular plan.
EXTERIOR: 2 storeys plus attic; irregular 3-bay entrance
front. On the left is a square 3-storey tower with sill string
to 2nd floor and moulded parapet entablature; paired lights to
upper floors and central window to ground floor. Projecting
gabled bay right of tower has double-transomed 3-light windows
to upper floors and side walls ramped flanking balcony with
cast-iron balustrade and with moulded cornice over projecting
ground floor. Right-hand bay has canted attic dormer window
over 1st-floor window and L-plan porch to ground floor, a
lean-to returned to front and to stuccoed road frontage
entrance with stepped tripartite doorway with triangular
pediment over central doorway to porch and flanking moulded
courtyard doorways, all with moulded hoods, and rusticated
terminal piers with plinths, moulded entablature and rounded
caps.
Other elevations with various details on the theme of the
front. Original windows, mostly horned sashes and original
panelled doors.
INTERIOR: not inspected.
SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: Plymouth limestone road-frontage walls
with dressed plinths and copings surmounted by wrought-iron
railings with trident finials between turned cast-iron
stanchions.
HISTORY: a building unique to naval barracks, and a striking
and original composition. Forms part of the navy's first
barracks for sailors, one of the finest and most complete
barracks in the country, manifesting the status and importance
of the Royal Navy at this time.
(The Buildings of England: Pevsner N: Devon: London: 1989-:
655).

Listing NGR: SX4509156684

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26666079

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Old House Care and Repair
• 
  Northumberland (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Hampshire: South (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Worcestershire Revised Edition (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Suffolk: East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Cork: City and County (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Ireland)