Number 1 Pumping Station (Building Number 2/201)
NUMBER 1 PUMPING STATION (BUILDING NUMBER 2/201), ALDRICH ROAD
Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places
Overview
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II
- List Entry Number:
- 1272260
- Date first listed:
- 13-Aug-1999
- List Entry Name:
- Number 1 Pumping Station (Building Number 2/201)
- Statutory Address:
- NUMBER 1 PUMPING STATION (BUILDING NUMBER 2/201), ALDRICH ROAD
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Location
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Official list entry
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II
- List Entry Number:
- 1272260
- Date first listed:
- 13-Aug-1999
- List Entry Name:
- Number 1 Pumping Station (Building Number 2/201)
- Statutory Address 1:
- NUMBER 1 PUMPING STATION (BUILDING NUMBER 2/201), ALDRICH ROAD
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.
Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.
For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.
Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.
For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.
Location
- Statutory Address:
- NUMBER 1 PUMPING STATION (BUILDING NUMBER 2/201), ALDRICH ROAD
The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.
- District:
- City of Portsmouth (Unitary Authority)
- Parish:
- Non Civil Parish
- National Grid Reference:
- SU 63374 00987
Details
SU 6300 NW ALDRICH ROAD
(West side)
HM Naval Base
774-1/29/183 No 1 Pumping Station
(Building No. 2/201)
GV II
Dock pumping station. Completed 1878. Part of scheme drawn up by Colonel Sir Andrew Clarke (Royal Engineers) and supervised by H Wood, J MacDonell and Charles Colson. Red brick in Flemish bond with blue brick bands and dressings of gauged red brick and ashlar. Corrugated sheet roof.
EXTERIOR: main engine house has 6-bay north elevation expressed as 2 storeys. Small addition of 2 x 3 bays at right-hand (north-west) corner; lower full-depth parallel range with chimney on left (east) side, partially masked by mid-Iate C20 addition; boiler house range across rear (south side). North elevation: 1:4:1 bays with broad, banded end- pilasters. Recessed courses of blue brick. Chamfered ashlar plinth band. segmental-arched pedestrian entrance with board door to left bay. On ground floor, tall round-arched windows with metal glazing bars and ashlar arches, the intradoses with blue brick dentils. Ground floor cornice and 1st-floor band frame recessed panels with blue brick edging. On 1st floor, recessed panels with stepped and cogged heads enclosing oculi with ashlar architraves. Cornice below parapet. End pilasters on ground floor have short round-arched windows with voussoirs; decorative pierced ashlar panels between ground-floor cornice and 1st- floor band, and segmental-arched windows. On left, lower range has 31unettes and ridge louvre to hipped, glazed roof. Set back is tall circular chimney with square, corniced, base and iron-banded shaft with roll-moulding at bottom and dentilled ashlar cornice at top. Returns of main section are in same style, the most west side having a tall segmental-arched entrance with double board door and banded pilaster jambs; lunettes rather than oculi to the 2 bays on its right side. On east side (left return), the lower range has continuous window with panelled wooden pilasters, wooden mullions and 4-pane windows; wall below is concrete-rendered.
INTERIOR: main engine house retains 6 original panelled cast-iron columns with dentilled capitals and entablatures; its south elevation, inside boiler house, in same style as rest of exterior, having rusticated pilasters supporting dentilled round arches.
HISTORY: the engine house originally contained two inverted vertical triple expansion steam engines driving plunger pumps for draining the docks. It also housed the air compressors for the caissons and some of the capstans and cranes. Built into the roof were salt water tanks linked to the salt water firefighting main. An early and architecturally impressive example of a triple expansion engine pumping house, with unusual structural iron work.
(Sources: The Portsmouth Papers: Riley RC: The Evolution of the Docks & Industrial Buildings in Portsmouth: Portsmouth: 1985: 22-23).
Listing NGR: SU6299200361
Legacy
The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.
- Legacy System number:
- 476630
- Legacy System:
- LBS
Sources
Books and journals
Riley, R C, The Portsmouth Papers in The Evolution of the Docks and Industrial Buildings in Portsmouth, (1985), 22-23
Legal
This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.
Map
This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale. This copy shows the entry on 29-Jun-2026 at 10:06:02.
Download a full scale map (PDF)End of official list entry
All text content is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0 , except where otherwise stated. Any supplied maps are © Crown Copyright [and database rights] 2026 OS AC0000815036 and may not be reproduced without permission.