Territorial Army Drill Hall, East Road, in 1963, later demolished

Territorial Army Drill Hall, East Road, Cambridge

History of Territorial Army Drill Hall

26 December 1913
Territorials to make Drill Hall East Road in Technical Institute
Credit: Mike Petty Archive, Cambridge East Road Scrapbook 1897 to 1990, reference 1913 12 26.

6 February 1914
After negotiations lasting 18 months work has finally started on digging the foundations of the new Drill Hall and miniature rifle range on the site of the Technical Institute in East Road. It will have offices for the three Territorial units, stores for the large quantity of mobilisation equipment now needed, lecture rooms and messes. The drill hall will be the largest allowed and the range will allow a good number of targets to be used simultaneously.
Credit: Mike Petty Archive, Cambridge East Road Scrapbook 1897 to 1990, reference 14 02 06j.

6 November 1914
The new Territorial Forces headquarters in East Road are nearly completed and have been occupied by troops training in Cambridge. But the formal opening has been postponed. It stands on the site of the Technical Schools which have been adapted and added to and includes a spacious drill hall and miniature rifle range abutting on to Adam and Eve Row. The Quartermaster’s stores include a wooden gallery for use as a saddlery store for the Yeomanry.
Credit: Mike Petty Archive, Cambridge East Road Scrapbook 1897 to 1990, reference 1914 11 06.

11 December 1914
Soldiers billeted at Melbourne Place School would move to the hutments on Cherryhinton Road shortly but others have arrived and could take their place The Drill Hall in East Road and the Girls’ County School are already overcrowded. It would mean that East Road and King Street Schools would no longer be required. The military would pay £400, about one-tenth of the cost of billeting. But billeting would relieve the hardship of lodging house keepers now fewer undergraduates were studying at university.
Credit: Mike Petty Archive, Cambridge East Road Scrapbook 1897 to 1990, reference 1914 12 11.

10 January 1925
The final contingent of happy kiddies crowded into the Drill Hall, East Road and emulated the example set by their predecessors. The clamour of half a thousand happy young lungs and energetic tongues was present throughout the proceedings. Cheery children of all ages participated in the scenes of revelry, four-year old toddlers giving utterance to their gratification with gurgles of joy as sincere as the shouts of the elder children were loud.
Credit: Mike Petty Archive, Cambridge East Road Scrapbook 1897 to 1990, reference 1925 01 10.

15 February 1932
Of all the memorable gatherings which have been held in the Drill Hall, East Road, none has ever come up to the vast assembly which gathered when the Cambridgeshire Regiment Old Comrades’ Association held its first reunion dinner. When they arrived at Southampton 17 years ago one NCO said: “It’s taken three trains to get us here, a carriage will be enough to get us back”. That prediction came true! A silent toast was drunk to the 900 officers and men who fell in the Great War.
Credit: Mike Petty Archive, Cambridge East Road Scrapbook 1897 to 1990, reference 32 02 15.

29 September 1938
Cambridge prepares for influx of evacuees; sandbags piled outside East Road drill hall
Credit: Mike Petty Archive, Cambridge East Road Scrapbook 1897 to 1990, reference 38 09 29bb.

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Mary Burgess writes in East Road 1950 to now:

This was originally built in 1914 as the Drill Hall for three local territorial units, the Cambridge Squadron of the Loyal Suffolk Hussars, the 1st Battalion of the Cambridgeshire Regiment, and the First Eastern General Hospital  RAMC. After the war it was used as the home of the local army cadets as well.

The Post Office took it over in 1967 and it was used for administration. During the Christmas rush, it was often used as an overflow sorting space when they ran out of room in the main sorting office just round the corner in Mill Road, where Petersfield Mansions now stand. The new main sorting office opened in Clifton Road in August 1988.

The copper regimental crest on the outside of the building was removed when the Post Office moved to Clifton Road, restored and given to the local battalion of the territorial army at their new site in Cherry Hinton Road in October 1988.

The owners, Turnberry Holdings Ltd, knocked the hall down in 1993, and the plot stood empty for many years, before the County Court was built in 2006.