Hydraulic Engine House

Details

SU 6100 WEEVIL LANE
1137/5/10086 Royal Clarence Victualling Yard
01-MAR-01 (East side)
Hydraulic Engine House

GV II

Engine House, with well. 1862, design by Andrew Murray, Chief Engineer Portsmouth Dockyard, under the direction of Col. G T Greene. Red brick in English bond, slate roofs with lead dressings. A compact plan, with main boiler house full length on the N side, having a long wing extending S on the side adjoining the bakery and Mill (qv), and containing the well, within the re-entrant angle a 3 storey tower; the stack, now demolished, lay detached to the N side.

A carefully detailed building, the main window and door openings have brick arches over a recessed panel also with brick voussoirs; the design drawings (95/06266, see Evans, p14) show entrance doors centrally to N side, but this now has two 9-paned sash windows with radial bars to the upper sash, and to the right, a blind panel; the return facing the Bakery is in 4 bays, with a blind panel and two sashes as to the N, then a wider and higher recessed arched opening with a wide pair of plank doors beneath a fanlight. The W front, on the right return, had originally a sash window, but now contains a full-height pair of plank wide doors, the upper parts with 4 vertical glass panes; then the tower, with a recessed sash below a smaller 9-pane with radial bars, beneath a small oculus with louvres. The tower return has corresponding features, but are all blind panels, with, to the right in the lower portion, a further sash to an arch, but without radial bars. The wing containing the well returns, with a narrow pair of plank doors to radial light in recessed arch, and a full-height pair of plank doors containing 6-pane lights, to a concrete lintel, on the outer end; these doors replace an original sash. All roofs are hipped, and the boiler house has a continuous lantern with louvres. The eaves have a moulded cornice above a brick dentil course to all roofs.

Interior: Some of the original heavy timber framework for machinery remains.

This engine house was built after a series of discussions during the early part of the '60s about suitable power needed both for the great Mill and Bakery which are adjacent, and for keeping the reservoir filled. The reservoir provided fresh water supplies for naval shipping, in connection with which the great Tank Store (qv) had been built thirty years earlier. It was designed to maintain a hydraulic head of 700lbs psi. (Evans). It is a very handsome building, bearing in mind its purely functional purpose, in a late Georgian tradition, and may have had special consideration in view of its proximity to the very splendid main Bakery building alongside. It is of considerable importance in the history of the development of this site, in addition to being an early and fine example of a hydraulically-powered engine house.

(Evans, D (ROYAL CLARENCE YARD - some buildings reconsidered; Gosport Borough Council - 1999; Coad, J: THE ROYAL DOCKYARDS 1690/1850; RCHME - 1989)

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

486979

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Coad, J G, The Royal Dockyards 1690-1850: Architecture and Engineering Works of the Sailing Navy, (1989)
Evans, D, The Royal Clarence Yard - some buildings reconsidered, (1999)

End of official list entry

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