Building MPM778 - HMS EXCELLENT: QUARTERDECK BLOCK (BUILDINGS NUMBERS 17 TO 21,24 AND 25)

Church of St Barbara, church rooms, gym, lecture theatre and warrant officers' wardroom at Naval Gunnery School built 1885, the wardroom added 1893. There is a First World War memorial in the church.

Church of St Barbara, church rooms, gym, lecture theatre and warrant officers' wardroom at Naval Gunnery School. 1885, the wardroom added 1893; later alterations. Roughly I-shaped plan with a central gym, flanking theatre and chapel, and wider end offices and mess. The church has panelled dado; round-arched sanctuary recess; braced wooden queen post roof trusses; at north end tripartite wooden 1st World War Memorial with taller central section having engraving of battleships at sea surmounted by portrait of Rear Admiral Hood and biblical text. Gym: board-lined roof with similar roof trusses; framed wooden sub-structure to clock tower. The permanent gunnery school on Whale Island was built by convicts on reclaimed land with spoil from the dockyard extension. Though architecturally conservative, the Quarterdeck Block is a unique example of military planning, including these 5 separate functions in a single imposing range.

Historic England, The National Heritage List for England (Index). SPM35.