Details
1137/0/10097 PRIDDY'S HARD
17-APR-09 Laboratory North Range and Laboratory
Building to NE of Laboratory Complex
GV II
Also Known As:
Buildings 204, 205 and 839 (Laboratory North Range), PRIDDY'S HARD
Range of four Laboratory units, with connecting walls. 1847/48, designed by Colonel Lewis, Commanding Royal Engineer of Portsmouth and remodled and enlarged at various dates. Brick in Flemish bond, slate, some flat roofs.
A range of buildings, formerly the N range of the Laboratory complex, lying parallel with the Main Offices (qv), with four one-storey and one two-storey gabled units linked by two flat-roofed sections. From the SW end is a small one-storey section with two 2-flight 6-pane casements in the gable wall, and another on the right return, with a blocked doorway, all these to cambered brick heads, and a later window on the left return. Attached to this is the 2-storey building in five bays, with a mixture of sashes and casements lights, including some with glazing-bars on the ground floor, and two sashes in the gable, these all with cambered brick voussoir heads. A flat-roofed link, with 2 bays, joins a high single-storey building with two 12-pane sashes, and a door, far left; a further flat-roofed link joins a similar high unit, with a 12-pane sash and a part-glazed door below a 6-pane light to the SE, but plain wall with one small light to the NW. Former entrance with brick piers divides this range from a single storey unit to the NE, which completes the N range of the Laboratory complex; built as a Tinman's Shop, with two replacement casements to the SE, and a small door on the gable-end. INTERIORS: retain some matchboarding.
HISTORICAL NOTE: This range of buildings was built in 1847/8 to the designs of Colonel Lewis, the Commanding Royal Engineer of the Portsmouth District. The first stage of this steady evolution of the site was the selection of this site for the Laboratory in June 1846, part of which has survived the redevelopment associated with the shell-filling complex of the 1880's. It was planned as a virtually exact reproduction of the Laboratories planned in 1804 by Sir William Congreve, a key figure in the development of effective and efficient means of producing and recycling powder and ammunition. The principal function of the Laboratories through the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars had been the production of small arms ammunition, but this situation was to change, and with it the role of Priddy's Hard. The development of artillery meant a great increase in the use of filled shells and the fuzes required to detonate them, the preparation of fuzes being a natural extension of the work of the Laboratories. From 1845 shells were being introduced into naval service on an unprecedented scale. As the filling and emptying of the shells could not be carried out in a magazine, and required dedicated facilities, the Laboratories came more and more to deal with the projectiles and propellants for sea and land-service artillery. The construction of the Laboratory at Priddy's Hard marked a critical change in its role, from a storage depot to a sophisticated factory complex that facilitated the careful processing, storage and integration of the component parts that made up the latest types of ordnance.
All that now remains is the NW range (Building 204), which comprises a row of four Laboratory buildings and connecting walls, remodelled and enlarged at various dates, the NE range and E range (qv). There were similar laboratory complexes at Woolwich (of which a small part only remains), at Devonport and Upnor Castle. Part of Sir William Congreve's Laboratory at the Royal Arsenal, Woolwich, survives. Despite the partial demolition of this complex (after the establishment of the New Laboratory c1897 in the ditch of the fortifications), what survives is of great importance within the context of the unique national importance and development of this site. It is the sole surviving example of an Ordnance Yard Laboratory.
The magazines and related structures at Priddy's Hard date from the late 18th century. The site's expansion from the mid 19th century was closely related to the development of land and sea artillery and the navy's transition from the age of sail, powder and solid shot to the Dreadnought class of the early 1900s. Priddy's Hard retains the best-preserved range of structures that relate to this remarkable history of continual enlargement and adaptation, one that encompasses that of Britain's dominance as a sea power on a global scale. For further historical details on this site, see the description for 'A' Magazine.
The Laboratory group at Priddy's Hard originally comprised a series of discrete small buildings around a courtyard, entered from the main artery of the site on the SW side; in the centre was a larger unit with other free-standing sheds. The buildings were originally designed to have flat roofs. Much of the group has now been demolished, and this range is the most substantial remaining element of what was a significant ensemble, based on a planned laboratory group for Portsmouth (of 1804) by Congreve. The laboratories were for making-up and dismantling ammunition, filling shells, and various other relatively dangerous operations. The uses of the rooms in this range 1848 are known (see Evans, p.17), and were varied, including a foreman's room (the 2-bay building at the NE end) watch house, coal store, and tinman's shop. In 1905 the sum of o185 was spent in converting the range mainly into workshops.
