The
building occupies the north side of Crown Square and the highest site in
the Castle, but rather than intrude something wholly new on the historical
character of the place, on three sides the architect has used the walls
of the original barrack block. The fourth side, the entrance from Crown
Square, is however a completely new façade with a high central porch
and projecting wings, but even so the new stonework is integrated with
the old as the rubble construction of the old building continues in the
new, a theme of historical continuity that is carried through the whole
building.
Correspondingly,
the ashlar and stone cut of the porch and sculpture on the newly built
façade continue on the decorative features that have been added
to the old walls right around the building, including the gothic construction
of the apsidal shrine which projects from the north wall.
Although this is church-like in form, the building's
layout and detailed iconography, certainly deeply spiritual, are nevertheless
deliberately not religious in the sense of being specifically Christian.
Whichever direction you approach it from, the iconography
of the Memorial engages you and it is sustained throughout with remarkable
consistency, a tribute to the co-operation that brought the whole thing
about. As it stands however it is also the case that though the Memorial
contains the names of those who have fallen in subsequent wars, its design
and iconography are the product of the experience of the First World War
1914 - 1918.
