Block K: Stables, Underfall Yard

Summary

Block K, stables, 1889, truncated to the west, designed by John Girdlestone, Engineer in Chief to the Docks Committee.

Reasons for Designation

Block K: Stables is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* as part of the late-C19 to early-C20 development of the Underfall Yard as the principal docks management and maintenance facility, which survives well as a diverse collection of characterful and distinctive structures, together illustrating the functioning, operation and development of this site of historic maritime industry;
* the former stables is carefully composed and detailed to follow the architectural conventions established for the Underfall Yard, characterised by robust, rhythmical forms in Cattybrook brick;
* the function of the building remains evident in the composition of its principal elevation, and some features survive internally that relate to its former use.

Historic interest:

* as part of the late C19 and early C20 development of the Underfall Yard as the principal docks maintenance and power facility.

Group value:

* with the other listed buildings within the Underfall Yard, and the adjacent Avon Crescent and Nova Scotia.

History

When the Floating Harbour was created at the beginning of the C19, it reputedly provided Bristol with the largest area of impounded water for shipping in the world, negating the dependency of the City Docks on the tidal River Avon. The scheme of 1802 by William Jessop created a contained harbour with consistent water levels by damming the original course of the river and excavating a new course, or “New Cut”, that diverted the river around the City to the south.

The Underfall Yard has been crucial to the operation and maintenance of the harbour from the outset. It stands on reclaimed land on the original course of the river at the point that it was dammed. An overfall weir was built to manage water levels by draining into the New Cut, with the area around it becoming the Docks Company Works Yard. The larger area of land to the north had been established as a commercial shipyard by at least 1825, and was known as the Nova Scotia Yard, later the Cambria Yard. “Underfall” sluices, to the designs of IK Brunel, replaced the weir in 1840s to scour silt from the harbour.

The Bristol Corporation bought the Nova Scotia Yard in 1880 in order to extend the Docks Company Works Yard, and to bring all maintenance facilities together in one place. Temporary workshop facilities on the site were replaced by a purpose-built complex of buildings to accommodate the diverse workforce, which at its peak numbered 400 and included draughtsmen, plumbers, pattern-makers, blacksmiths, divers, dredgers, engineers, fitters and shipwrights. This first phase of construction was led by Docks Engineer in Chief Thomas Howard, and his successor from 1882, John Girdlestone. A second phase of development was made between 1900 and 1906 under W W Squire, when the yard was expanded and reconfigured in response to the development of the GWR Docks Railway.

Block K is understood to date from 1889 and was built under Girdlestone’s direction as a pattern loft, stables, coach house and cartshed. When the harbour railway was constructed in around 1900 the west end of the building was truncated, leaving the stables and loft above. A timber outshut extension was built on the front of the building in the mid-C20.

Use of the docks declined in the C20 as the size of vessels increased. Buildings at the yard became surplus to the requirements of the Bristol Docks Company, and were let out. Steam-paddle boat operator P and A Campbell let a number of buildings; they installed large machinery in the Big Shed (also under assessment for listing) and created a foundry on the land adjacent to Block K, known as the Knuckle. A plaque on the building records the association. The company occupied the yard until 1958, after which it was largely vacant, and gradually deteriorated. The Underfall Yard Trust was created in the 1990s and has restored much of the site, bringing it back into use by maritime businesses. Block K was let to and adapted by a local sports diving club 1998 for use as a clubhouse and dive boat and equipment store.

Details

Block K, stables, 1889, truncated to the west, designed by John Girdlestone, Engineer in Chief to the Docks Committee.

MATERIALS: red Cattybrook brick with a tiled roof.

PLAN: the building stands to the north of the Underfall Yard, forming part of its northern boundary. It is a rectangular block, orientated roughly east-west, with modern extensions adjacent to the south-west end.

EXTERIOR: a two-storey building, obscured on the ground floor of the principal, south-facing elevation by a timber outshut. The right-hand side of the elevation has a doorway and three windows presumed to be to the former stable. These have segmental arched heads and rough brick arches, with cast iron multiple-pane windows. There are three breather windows above, and an inserted opening. To the left is a wider doorway and taking-in door above. The roof is pitched and has louvred ventilation cupolas along the ridge. The east return elevation has a wide doorway to the ground floor and a window above. The north elevation, forming the boundary with the gardens of Nova Scotia Place, is blind, and the west gable has been built upon.

INTERIOR: the north wall of the ground floor retains rendered panels to the rear of the stalls, and some metal tethering rings. There is a vehicle inspection pit at the west end.

Sources

Books and journals
Malpass, P, King, A, Bristol’s Floating Harbour: the First 200 Years, (2009)
Lord, J, Southam, J, The Floating Harbour: a landscape history of Bristol City Docks, (1983)
Underfall Yard Trust, , Heart of the Harbour: the Story of Underfall Yard, (2018)

Websites
Know Your Place Bristol: Historic Mapping and Monument records for Underfall Yard, accessed 17/02/2023 from https://maps.bristol.gov.uk/kyp/?edition=
Bristol City Docks: a thousand years of history, Underfall Yard, accessed 17/02/2023 from https://bristolcitydocks.co.uk/underfall-yard/

Other
Draft Conservation Management Plan: The Underfall Yard, Keystone, May 2013

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