Colewort Barracks

The facility were originally built as a garrison hospital in 1680 and converted into a barracks in 1694.[2] The barracks were named after a type of wild cabbage which was prevalent in the local area.[3] The barracks were home to the Army Service Corps, responsible for supplies, transport and accommodation, during the First World War.[4] After the war, the barracks fell into disrepair and were demolished to make way for an expansion to Portsmouth Power Station in the late 1920s.[5]

The barracks were described in the Chronicles of Portsmouth (1823) as:

"...presenting a fine range of buildings, three stories high, having in front a parade-ground of large size, at one extremity of which is a building corresponding in style, formerly used as an armoury. In the front is a bold armorial sculpture of the English arms in alto relievo. Behind is a second space of ground with ranges of stabling; and on the opposite side, the apartments of the officers of the Royal Artillery. […] On the site of the barracks anciently stood a Conventual building dedicated to the Virgin Mary; and the large burial-ground called St. Mary's was the colewort or cabbage garden or close".[1]

The aforementioned 'cabbage garden', which gave the barracks its name, was still in use as a burial-ground in the early 19th century, long after the conventual chapel of St Mary had been demolished.[6]