Yesterday (12th April), a fire which started in the early hours of the morning at the former Sergeants’ Mess, next door to Roman Circus House, has caused serious damage to the building. An eyewitness says that the building was OK at midnight. The fire was spotted during the night and, apparently, seven fire crews attended. Residents in the recently-completed houses and flats, adjacent to the building, were evacuated. Fire fighters had to cut through the Trust’s padlock on the gate into the garden of the former Sergeants’ Mess so that they could access it from the rear. When Trust director Philip arrived in the morning, one fire crew was still on site and damping the building down. People then started arriving to join in with the Trust’s volunteer gardening day, to help tidy up the garden of the former Sergeants’ Mess so that it can be opened to visitors. This week we have been busy finishing off the stumps of the replica starting-gates of the Roman circus, in the garden, for visitors. The gardening day went ahead anyway.
The former Sergeants’ Mess overlooks the garden and the starting-gates, and it was a magnificent, historic, Grade 2 listed military building, with the main part of the block dating back to 1874-5, and extensions and alterations dating to 1904 and 1922-62. It was built as the Officers’ Mess and it would have been the central building in the Artillery (Le Cateau) Barracks, and part of the imposing frontage of this part of the garrison facing the Abbey Field. The building has been empty for several years and, more recently, it was the focus of the Trust’s fund-raising campaign to preserve the site of the circus starting-gates as a public space and to acquire a building for a permanent circus centre; it was only when this proved to be impossible that we bought the adjacent NAAFI building instead (now Roman Circus House and the Roman circus centre).
Taylor Wimpey, the owners of the former Sergeants’ Mess, recently commissioned the Trust to prepare a detailed survey of the building ahead of its conversion to residential units. Our survey report concludes: ‘… The building is highly significant to Colchester for several reasons. It is one of the few surviving buildings of the early permanent barracks in the town, which evolved from the changes in military thinking that arose in the aftermath of the Crimean War; it has a direct association with the First World War … and it has a high architectural merit, with elaborate decoration and fine fixtures and fittings, many of which have survived intact …’
The former Sergeants’ Mess survived over 120 years as a functioning element in the Army garrison, as well as all the changes in military policy and activity during that time; it survived two World Wars; it survived various phases of demolition which have been conducted at the garrison; and it even survived several years as an empty building. Now the fire has destroyed the roof and the inside of the building in its eastern block, which is a terrible outcome. We are all saddened at the Trust for the former Sergeants’ Mess, as it is such an important part of Colchester’s heritage and as our close neighbour – but, hopefully, the eastern block of the building will be reinstated, as it was, as soon as possible.
Read a short report on the fire at www.gazette-news.co.uk/news/11145226.Listed_building_severely_damaged_in_blaze/?ref=var_0&ref=mmsp
The images show a fire fighter damping the building down on Saturday morning, with glimpses of the new stumps of the Roman circus starting-gates in the foreground; and the damaged eastern block of the building.
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