The barracks, begun in 1880 and built by convict labour, were designed to provide living accommodation for a regiment of infantry.

[1] Located on the Southsea side of Old Portsmouth, outside the old town fortifications (which were in the process of being demolished at the time), they were completed in 1886.

[2] They consisted of a pair of long barrack ranges, linked by arcades at either end to form a narrow quadrangle, with a separate Officers' Quarters and Mess Establishment to the south-west: 'a highly Picturesque, free-style composition, very un-English, which included a central clock tower, stairs in detached, conical turrets, and a billiard room in a sort of Great Hall at the back'.

[1] The first unit to arrive was the 1st Battalion, the South Lancashire Regiment (who were transferred there gradually, as the buildings were completed, from the old Clarence Barracks which lay within the lines).

[1] The central tower of the Officers' Quarters was hit by a bomb and seriously damaged during the Second World War.