Building record 1194500000 - AVENUE HOUSE & THE BARRACKS HOUSE, 12 WEST STREET

Grade II. Former barracks now pair of houses. Built 1802 for Marquis of Buckingham, altered C20. Coursed squared limestone, 2-span and lean-to Welsh slate roofs, brick end and ridge stacks. Double-depth plan. 2-storey, 3-window range. Elevation facing West Street has symmetrical composition of 3-bay centre flanked by 1 storey and attic wings under long, lean-to roofs. Central block has 9-pane sash windows to ground and 1st floors with flat-arched heads. Wings have similar windows to ground floor innermost and narrower, 6-pane sashes outermost, and a sash window to attic storeys with round-arched head. Wings have further, recessed bay under the same roof either end and flat-topped roof dormer windows. Tall plinth, storey band to central block only, which breaks forward slightly and has hollow-chamfered wood eaves to wings. Elevation facing yard to rear has wide central panelled door with square glazed top lights, moulded wood surround, flat-arched head and straight hood on curved brackets. Panelled door to right of centre and to far left and right, and C20 double-leaf plank doors to left of centre giving access to store. Fenestration similar to street elevation. High attached walls enclose long narrow yard to rear of dwellings and join house to single-storey outbuilding running full length of residential range. Walls are of coursed limestone rubble, stone-coped, and are interrupted by red brick gatepiers with stepped stone caps at either end of yard; tall double-leaf timber gates with wickets. Outbuilding, formerly partly stabling is timber-framed with red brick panels in stretcher bond and lean-to slate roof. Sides and rear walls continue those enclosing yard and rise above outbuilding and have stone coping. 9-bay roof to outbuilding with tie beam trusses. Houses either end of residential block have spinal staircases rising in long straight flights between walls from round arch-headed opening and are lit by the roof dormers. The barracks, built at sole expense of 1st Marquis of Buckingham, housed the Royal Bucks Militia, and later, Royal Bucks Hussars. Main residence housed the Adjutant. Store formerly housed a 'Gatling' gun. (Harrison JT: Historical Buckingham: London and Buckingham: 1909-: 77)(B1).
The Barracks are situated in West Street, and form a commodius building of stone, erected in 1802, at the sole expense of the Marquis of Buckingham, as a depot and store-house for the Royal Bucks Militia. The barracks are now [1862] used for the Royal Bucks Yeomanry, and contain the residence of the Adjutant (Captain Thomas Wells) of the regiment. This regiment, which consists of 540 officers and men, and was commanded by the Duke of Buckingham (just deceased) assembles in Stowe Park once a year for drill and exercise. The regiment possesses two six-pounders, which are used in the usual way of the horse artillery (B2).
Photograph (B3).