Eastney Barracks | |
|---|---|
| Eastney, Hampshire | |
 Gunners Row - the former barracks | |
  Eastney Barracks Location within Hampshire | |
| Coordinates | 50°47′08″N1°03′17″W / 50.7855°N 1.0547°W |
| Type | Royal Marines Base |
| Site history | |
| Built | 1867 |
| Built for | Admiralty |
| In use | 1867-1995 |
| Garrison information | |
| Occupants | Portsmouth Division, Royal Marines |
Eastney Barracks was a military installation occupied by the Royal Marines and located at Eastney near Portsmouth.
Eastney Barracks, designed by William Scamp (assistant director, Admiralty Works Department), was built as headquarters for the Royal Marine Artillery, who moved in from Fort Cumberland in 1867. [1] After the amalgamation of the Royal Marine Light Infantry and Royal Marine Artillery in 1923, Forton Barracks was closed and Eastney Barracks served as headquarters for the Portsmouth Division of the Corps. The series of seven linked blocks facing the sea forms the second longest barracks frontage in the country (after the Royal Artillery Barracks, Woolwich). [2] The ensemble has been called "the best and most complete barracks of the post-Crimean War period". [3] Eastney Barracks remained the Corps Headquarters until 1995, when it was sold and converted to private housing. [4]
The Royal Marines Museum, established there in 1958, was accommodated in the former officers' mess at Eastney Barracks from 1972 to 2017. [5] Having deemed the building 'unsuitable' the National Museum of the Royal Navy put the collections into storage, and in December 2020 the former officers' mess was sold to Grand Hotel Excelsior International for conversion into a "luxury hotel". [6]
The first cadets established by the Admiralty (now the Royal Navy) were started at Eastney Barracks on 14 February 1901. The Royal Marines Artillery Cadet Corps was set up to gainfully occupy the spare time of Royal Marines Artillery men's sons, with entry later widened to all services and then civilian children. The RMACC eventually became the Royal Marines Volunteer Boy Corps and then, from the 1980s, the Royal Marines Volunteer Cadet Corps, part of the Royal Navy's Volunteer Cadet Corps. The VCC vacated Eastney Barracks in 1991 and moved to HMS Nelson in Portsmouth. It is now based at HMS Excellent. [7]
The Barracks are reportedly home to two ghosts. One is a young girl, seen around the main steps to the entry, who according to local legend was crushed to death when she ran in front of a horse-drawn carriage. The other is the smell of burning and a depressing atmosphere, experienced by staff in the attic, which has been linked to the local legend of a 19th-century officer called Colonel Wolf who burnt his love letters and shot himself there after the end of a love affair. [8] It was therefore the location for an episode of the Antix Productions series Most Haunted Live! broadcast on 7 May 2006 as part of its Panic In Portsmouth strand, which included episodes from Wymering Manor and Southsea Castle. [9]
Gosport is a town and non-metropolitan borough, on the south coast of Hampshire, South East England. At the 2021 Census, its population was 81,952. Gosport is situated on a peninsula on the western side of Portsmouth Harbour, opposite the city of Portsmouth, to which it is linked by the Gosport Ferry. Gosport lies south-east of Fareham, to which it is linked by a Bus Rapid Transit route and the A32. Until the last quarter of the 20th century, Gosport was a major naval town associated with the defence and supply infrastructure of His Majesty's Naval Base (HMNB) Portsmouth. As such over the years extensive fortifications were created.
The Royal Military Academy (RMA) at Woolwich, in south-east London, was a British Army military academy for the training of commissioned officers of the Royal Artillery and Royal Engineers. It later also trained officers of the Royal Corps of Signals and other technical corps. RMA Woolwich was commonly known as "The Shop" because its first building was a converted workshop of the Woolwich Arsenal.
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Fort Cumberland is a pentagonal artillery fortification erected to guard the entrance to Langstone Harbour, east of the Dockyard of Portsmouth on the south coast of England. It was sited to protect the Royal Navy Dockyard, by preventing enemy forces from landing in Langstone Harbour and attacking from the landward side. Fort Cumberland is widely recognised as the finest example of a bastion trace fort in England. It is a scheduled monument and a Grade II* listed building
His Majesty's Naval Base, Portsmouth is one of three operating bases in the United Kingdom for the Royal Navy. Portsmouth Naval Base is part of the city of Portsmouth; it is located on the eastern shore of Portsmouth Harbour, north of the Solent and the Isle of Wight. For centuries it was officially known as HM Dockyard, Portsmouth: as a Royal Dockyard, Portsmouth functioned primarily as a state-owned facility for building, repairing and maintaining warships; for a time it was the largest industrial site in the world.
Gunwharf Quays is a shopping centre located in the Portsea area of the city of Portsmouth in England. It was constructed in the early 21st century on the site of what had once been HM Gunwharf, Portsmouth. This was one of several such facilities which were established around Britain and the Empire by the Board of Ordnance, where cannons, ammunition and other armaments were stored, repaired and serviced ready for use on land or at sea. Later known as HMS Vernon, the military site closed in 1995, and opened to the public as Gunwharf Quays on 28 February 2001 after six years of reconstruction. The landmark Spinnaker Tower, which stands close to the site on pilings in Portsmouth Harbour, was opened on 18 October 2005.
The Royal Marines Band Service is the musical wing of the Royal Navy and an independent element of the Royal Marines. It currently consists of five bands plus a training wing – the Royal Marines School of Music at HMS Nelson – and its headquarters is at HMS Excellent, Whale Island, Portsmouth.
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The Royal Marines Museum is a museum on the history of the Royal Marines from their beginnings in 1664 through to the present day. A registered charity, it is also a designated service museum under the terms of the National Heritage Act 1983 and receives Grant-in-Aid from the Ministry of Defence. During 2011 it formally became part of the National Museum of the Royal Navy, an executive non-departmental public body of the Ministry of Defence. The museum's galleries are currently closed, pending relocation.
His Majesty's Naval Base, Devonport is one of three operating bases in the United Kingdom for the Royal Navy and is the sole nuclear repair and refuelling facility for the Royal Navy. The largest naval base in Western Europe, HMNB Devonport is located in Devonport, in the west of the city of Plymouth, England.
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In countries whose armies are organised on a regimental basis, such as the army of the United Kingdom, a regimental museum is a military museum dedicated to the history of a specific army regiment.
Baker Barracks is a British Army barracks located on Thorney Island around 6.58 miles (10.59 km) east from Portsmouth, Hampshire.
Stonehouse Barracks, or RM Stonehouse, is a military installation at Stonehouse, Plymouth. It is the home of 3 Commando Brigade and referred to by commandos as 'the spiritual home of the Royal Marines'.
Forton Barracks was a military installation near Gosport in Hampshire, which served first as an Army barracks and then as a divisional headquarters for the Royal Marines. It subsequently served as a Royal Navy training establishment. Today, the site is occupied by St Vincent College.
The Royal Marine Depot, Deal was a military installation occupied by the Royal Marines and located in South Deal, Kent, on the road to Walmer. The Depot was first established in Deal in 1861, occupying part of the Royal Naval Hospital. In 1868 the Depot expanded and took over the nearby 18th-century Army barracks.
The Volunteer Cadet Corps (VCC) is a national youth organisation managed by the United Kingdom's Royal Navy and sponsored by the UK's Ministry of Defence. The VCC comprises:
The Royal Marine Barracks, Woolwich was a military installation occupied by the Royal Marines and located in Frances Street, just south of Woolwich Dockyard. After the Royal Marines' departure from Woolwich it was renamed Cambridge Barracks, while the adjacent Royal Marine Infirmary was renamed Red Barracks.
Clarence Barracks was a military installation at Portsmouth, Hampshire.
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