Royal Pavilion, Aldershot: A Temporary Royal Residence and Military Landmark
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.1
- Popularity
- Very Low
- Country
- United Kingdom
- Primary era
- Unclassified
- Eras represented
- Unclassified
- Civilizations
- Unclassified
- Site type
- Domestic
- Remains
- Palace
On this page10 sections
History
Royal Pavilion, Aldershot, in the United Kingdom, was a temporary royal residence built in 1855 for Queen Victoria and Prince Albert during the development of Aldershot as a permanent military camp. Designed as a timber pavilion, it provided the Royal Family with accommodation during military reviews and other occasions in the growing garrison town.
The creation of Aldershot Camp
Before the camp was established, the British Army had no single permanent site for large-scale troop training. Prince Albert believed that British military training and resources compared poorly with those of some European armies, and he supported reforms intended to improve them. After the Duke of Wellington died in 1852, Prince Albert and other reformers worked together to promote better army training. Several thousand acres of Aldershot heathland were subsequently purchased for a permanent military camp.
On 2 April 1854, Prince Albert, Lord Hardinge, Major General Sir Frederick Smith, and Lieutenant Nicholson inspected possible locations in the Aldershot area. They chose a small hill overlooking Long Valley, a military training area, and Caesar’s Camp, an ancient hilltop earthwork. Nicholson marked the proposed Pavilion’s boundaries by riding around the site and dropping sticks from a bundle of pea sticks.
Royal residence and military reviews
George Myers, one of the contractors building the nearby camp, constructed the Pavilion as one of its first buildings. Myers was also the builder employed by Augustus Pugin to execute many of Pugin’s designs. Queen Victoria first visited the building on 16 June 1855 after inspecting the camp. Her first stay came in April 1856, when she reviewed 14,000 troops at Aldershot. Victoria and Prince Albert frequently used the Pavilion during army reviews in Long Valley. Victoria valued its simplicity, views, and seclusion, and painted some of the scenes seen from the building.
The Pavilion continued to accommodate members of the Royal Family. The Duke of Connaught, Prince Arthur, occupied it for a period after his marriage in 1879. Edward VII and Queen Alexandra stayed there in March 1903, while George V and Queen Mary were regular visitors early in George V’s reign. During their stay in 1914, local police prevented Suffragettes, activists in the British women’s suffrage movement, from entering the grounds. The Royal Family returned in 1923 for a military tattoo, a ceremonial military display held nearby.
Wartime and military use
In 1935 the Pavilion became the residence of Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester, while he attended the Army staff course near the barracks of his regiment. During the Second World War, Aldershot and District Borough Council took control of the building. It became the officers’ mess of the Canadian Army Overseas, referring to Canadian forces serving outside Canada, and housed the headquarters of the 11th Armoured Division from March to June 1944. From November 1944 it served as “B” Mess for Headquarters Aldershot Division.
The building remained in military use after the war. From January to July 1948 it was the officers’ mess of the 2nd Battalion, the Royal Tank Regiment. The 3rd Battalion, the Coldstream Guards, occupied it from July 1948 to May 1949. From 1951 it served as the officers’ mess for 13 Command Workshops of the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers, the army organisation responsible for maintaining and repairing military equipment.
Dismantling and redevelopment
The Pavilion was dismantled in the early 1960s. In 1963 its former site was used for a training centre for the Queen Alexandra’s Royal Army Nursing Corps, the British Army’s specialist nursing corps. Princess Margaret laid the foundation stone. The centre was demolished in 1998, and the land was sold to Computer Sciences Corporation, a Californian computer-services company. Planning began in 1999 for a European headquarters designed by RTKL Associates. The former guardroom beside the present campus entrance has held Grade II listed status since 1979, a form of statutory protection in England for buildings of special architectural or historic interest.
The address remains “Royal Pavilion,” although the historic royal residence no longer survives. The later office-park design received a commendation in the 2003 Corporate Workplace Award of the British Council for Offices.
Remains
The timber pavilion
The Royal Pavilion stood off Farnborough Road, opposite the former West Cavalry Barracks and near the Royal Garrison Church and the Wellington Statue. It occupied the small hill selected in 1854, with views towards Long Valley and Caesar’s Camp. George Myers built it entirely in wood as a temporary pavilion. Its pine exterior walls were painted white, with green shutters on either side of each window. Inside, canvas was stretched over a wooden frame and covered with paper to form the walls and ceilings. Contemporary descriptions praised the timberwork as unusually graceful and modern-looking, while a writer for The Illustrated London News criticised the three-sided, square-based design as austere, cold, and unattractive.
Rooms and terrace
The building contained a breakfast room, drawing room, large dining room with a salon, and a study for Prince Albert. Four large bedrooms provided accommodation for Queen Victoria, Prince Albert, and two important guests. A terrace included a small artificial pond stocked with goldfish, adding a domestic feature to the temporary royal residence.
Rear service building
A detached building stood behind the Pavilion at a lower level. It contained stabling for 40 horses, the kitchen, and servants’ quarters. An underground passage connected the kitchens with the main building, and a glass roof covered part of its length.
The later site
After the Pavilion was dismantled, the Queen Alexandra’s Royal Army Nursing Corps training centre occupied the former site. Its facilities included a drill square, gymnasium, learning centre, single-room accommodation, dining hall, kitchens, a NAAFI coffee bar and lounge, the QARANC Museum, guardroom, courtyard, officers’ mess, and accommodation. The museum later moved to Keogh Barracks at Ash Vale. Following the training centre’s demolition, the site was redeveloped as a modern office campus of four interconnected buildings set within 43 acres of parkland and woodland, with parking, meeting and conference facilities, a restaurant, and a coffee bar.
