Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

The Prince of Wales Royal Regimental Museum (Southern building) which is located on the northern side of the inner bailey, to the west of Arthurs Hall was constructed in the 1740s as accommodation for enlisted men within the barracks, as a response to a perceived threat to Britain from the continent. It is believed that the builsing was constructed over the ruinous medieval 'King's Chambers' which documentary sources suggest was located in this location. (location accurate to the nearest 1m based on available information)

Monument Types

• BARRACKS (Disused, Post Medieval - 1745 AD? to 1870 AD?)
• STOREHOUSE (Post Medieval to Modern - 1870 AD to 1960 AD)

Full description

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The Prince of Wales Royal Regimental Museum (southern building) which is located on the northern side of the inner bailey, to the west of Arthurs Hall is one of the buildings within the inner bailey that appear as a group of mid-18th-century barrack blocks with a reasonably homogenous character. It is likely however that this building originated in the C13th century as ‘The Kings Chamber’. (1)

In the 1740’s this building was converted to form part of the barracks complex within the Castles inner bailey. The archaeological excavations carried out by Stuart Rigold, Alan Cook and others in 1967 and 1968 demonstrated that while some of the current buildings occupy the sites of the medieval structures, much of the upstanding fabric fronting onto inner bailey represents a rebuilding, not always on the exact alignment of the medieval originals. In no case can it be assumed uncritically that the volume of the present building is a fair reflection of the 13th-century predecessor, and in the case of the officers’ barracks, running between the north east angle of inner bailey and Palace Gate, the tall narrow buildings follow a proportional system characteristic of Georgian architecture but alien to the medieval tradition. It does however, incorporate parts of the walls of the existing Medieval building, which by then was probably in a ruinous state. This building housed enlisted men in the C18th. Most of the buildings were abandoned as barracks by the 1870s and turned over to use as stores and offices, or left empty. As a group of buildings, these Georgian barracks of 1745-56 are the fourth oldest surviving in England. (2-3)

<1> English Heritage, 2010, Inner Bailey, Dover Castle, Kent; Historic Buildings Report (Unpublished document). SKE31743.

<2> English Heritage, 2014, Dover Castle Conservation Management Plan Volume 2 Gazetteer (Unpublished document). SKE52105.

<3> Johnathan Coad, 1995, English Heritage Book of Dover Castle and the Defences of Dover (Monograph). SKE52106.

Sources and further reading

Related records