Plymouth’s historic but dilapidated Raglan Gatehouse is being auctioned with a minimum guide price of £300,000 and could be turned into eight properties.
Estate agents have called an online auction to sell the Grade II listed property, which is currently without a roof and floors, has trees growing out of it and is covered in graffiti and dumped rubbish.
The 13,500sq ft building, opposite Plymouth Albion’s Brickfields rugby stadium, was once the main entrance into Raglan Barracks and comprises an arched entrance gateway and two former guards’ houses, one each side of the arch.
But despite retaining its granite staircases and other attractive features such as two Royal Coat of Arms, it has been in a state of disrepair for more than 20 years and was this month included in MP Luke Pollard’s list of the city’s 10 worst eyesore buildings.
The building, in Devonport, was bought by a company called Raglan Gatehouse Developments Ltd for £120,000 in 2019 and the following year planning permission was obtained to put a new floor on top enabling it to be turned into four duplex-style flats. The permission also allowed four mews houses to be built next door, on land which was once part of a parade ground.
Now the entire site is being sold with a minimum guide price of £300,000 via a “conditional online auction”, arranged by Mutley-based Bradleys Estate Agents and Bamboo Auctions. Bids must be placed by noon on April 19, 2022.
A brochure for the property describes it as: “An inspiring development which will see this historic military installation truly transformed.”
Though the stonework is sound the building is close to being a ruin and has no roof, and Raglan Gatehouse Developments previously estimated it will take about a year to restore the building and convert it.
The gatehouse, in Madden Road, is almost the only surviving part of the extensive complex of barracks and defensive works which once occupied the area, and formed part of the Devonport “lines”.
It was once the main entrance into Raglan Barracks and its exterior design includes single-storey accommodation with a central clock tower.
The barracks were demolished in the late 1960s and early 1970s to be replaced with private sector and public housing, leaving just the gatehouse remaining. The structure was granted listed status in 1975, before being sold by the MoD in 1991 and has been in private ownership since.
However, previous owners have struggled to revamp the building and in 2002 there was even an attempt to demolish the structure and replace it with houses, but this was thrown out by planners. The Gatehouse was auctioned in 2004, but failed to meet the £185,000 guide price.
The following year it went on sale again, this time for £200,000. In 2015 its owners were ordered by Plymouth City Council to give the down-at-heel building a spruce up. In 2018 it was again put on sale, this time for a bargain £150,000 – but sold for less.
Designed by Royal Albert Hall architect Captain Francis Fowke, the property is believed to have been built in the mid-1850s at the time of the Crimean War and named after Lord Raglan, one of the conflict’s Allied Commanders.
On passing through the Gateway, the immediate view would have been an enormous parade ground, with army buildings around the perimeter.
The exterior design includes single storey former accommodation with a central square clock tower. There is a central vaulted archway for carriages flanked by lower vaulted pedestrian passages. The front and rear elevations are identical, each with a rounded central archway fronted by a pedimented tetrastyle Tuscan portico on pedestals, incorporating a Royal Coat of Arms. The barracks were designed to accommodate two entire regiments in transit for operations overseas.
The barracks were built in the colonial style with flat roofs and verandas. The site was first occupied by the 96th Regiment of Foot in December 1858. It has hosted a number of royal visits – in 1887 the Prince of Wales attended Raglan Barracks for the changing of the colours ceremony for the 2nd Battalion Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry and, in 1895, the Duke of Cambridge visited to present new colours to the 2nd Battalion of the Somerset Light Infantry.
