The Royal Artillery Barracks, with its monumental façade and gigantic parade ground, is, as Nairn says, the nearest place to Leningrad in South London. The first phase to the east was constructed in 1776. Twenty five years later James Wyatt doubled it in size to over 1,000 feet. Behind was accommodation for 4,000 men. Nothing more obviously reveals the scale of the eighteenth-century military state:-
| Charles | Saumarez | Smith | 
I live near these lovely buildings. I was frequently taken to military show days as a child. Later, there was a dry ski slope installed, great fun when real snow fell and now is used by the Royal Horse Artillery. Among the more depresssing architecture of the area, it is reassuring to have continued preservation of the buildings