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Heston
Roundabout where The Great West road rejoins the old Bath Road. “this great new London extension is becoming mainly a centre of villadom and presents a long vista of great width .. already lined with villas and a sprinkling of shops …. The houses stand well back from the pavement in their own front gardens. On a fine Sunday afternoon survey the thousands of motor-cars, coaches, and long-distance omnibuses passing into and out of London is to gain a vivid sense of a great metropolis given over to holiday and pleasure.
Traveller's Friend Hotel, a block of shops and a large garage with a massive square tower. 1930s.
Parklands Court. Standing back behind a service road fronting the north side of the Great West Road. A long block of flats erected in 1938.
Cavalry Barracks, Begun in 1793, under James Johnson, the first of forty barracks built during the Napoleonic wars; added to in the mid c19, major extensions under L.B. Ewart, 1876. The main buildings, formally arranged on three sides of a large parade ground, still reflect the orderly layout of the late c 18. Central block of c. 1793 but refronted and heightened to three storeys in 1876. Fifteen bays, with a pediment over the central five; lower flanking ranges each of fourteen bays, all in yellow stock brick with paler gault brick bands and window surrounds. At right angles to these, long plain two-storey blocks, much altered, built as stables with dormitories above, an arrangement declared unhealthy by the 1861 Report of the Commission 'for Improving the Sanitary Conditions of Barracks and Hospitals. The two-storey verandas were added to the centres in 1861 by Lothian Nicholson. Also of c. 1793 three originally four one-storey buildings at the ends of the barrack blocks, built as coach houses and stores one preserves its cast-iron window frames. Later additions are neatly ranged around the periphery.
Chapel Opposite the main buildings, close to the entrance, later subdivided of c. 1840, very utilitarian; stock brick, with a continuous clerestory like a workshop, and some simple wooden tracery at the end.
Canteen. Close to the gates, of the same period, still in the late Georgian style, of two storeys with recessed panels and large sash-windows. The 1876 buildings are a little more flamboyant, recognizable by their use of stock brick with gault bands.
Married Quarters, probably by Nicholson, 1860, and an early example of its type. Only one room deep to provide cross-ventilation and planned with only one room for each family. Entrances from lobbies off iron verandas on the side the veranda posts north cased in concrete.
Old Hospital, 1861, attractively faced in cream terracotta an early use of the material trimmed with red brick. The plan follows the recommendation of the 1861 report; long one-storey ward blocks attached two-storey centre. This and the end pavilions are distinguished by round-headed windows. The monotony of the blocks is broken by a group of terraced houses with nicely varied gables, c. 1910.
Riding School, much altered.
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