Former Master Shipwright'S House At Royal Dockyard, Deptford

The Former Master Shipwright's House at Royal Dockyard, Deptford is a house built in 1708 as the residence of the Master Shipwright to the Royal Naval Dockyard, Deptford, on the site of an earlier building. It was probably designed by Joseph Allin, who was appointed Master Shipwright in 1705. A single-storey range was added to the north-east in 1710. The house and north-east range were remodelled around 1805-9, and a two-storey extension was added to the end of the north-east range in 1809. The building was refurbished in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.

The house is constructed of brown brick laid in Flemish bond with red brick dressings; some areas of English bond appear on the rear elevation. The basement is rendered. The roof is slate.

The original internal plan, comprising a series of rooms to the north and south of the entrance hall and principal stair, is unclear, having been extensively remodelled. This remodelling included the removal and insertion of chimneystacks and changes to the room plan, creating larger spaces on the north side. Rooms in the south part of the house are arranged along a spine corridor. The attic was divided into seven small servants' rooms.

Aligned north-south with its gable-end facing the river, the house would have had views across the whole dockyard. It stands two storeys high plus basement and attic. The steeply pitched M-roof is asymmetrical, with the higher portion on the front (west) side; the eaves on the east side are higher. The principal elevation has eight bays arranged 2:1:5 with the entrance in the broader single bay. Windows have flat gauged-brick arches, whilst those to the basement have segmental arches. A plat band runs between the storeys, with a break above the entrance indicating the position of a tall doorcase. A lighter silhouette in the brickwork indicates that there was a lower, later-Georgian doorcase, of which the architrave and panelled lining remain; the panelled door is a recent reinstatement. The entrance has a short flight of steps with an iron handrail. There are two late-Georgian six-over-six pane sash windows on the upper floor; the remainder have been reinstated to match. The parapet is a late-Georgian addition. Five segmental-headed dormers to the attic were remade in the 1990s.

The north elevation facing the river originally had two doors and irregular fenestration; the shaped gable, by 1705 a somewhat old-fashioned feature, was possibly intended to disguise the asymmetrical roof profile. This elevation was stuccoed and remodelled in the late 18th or early 19th century, and given a symmetrical three-window façade with two windows at attic level, and the gable given a coped parapet with a flattened head which does not quite disguise the unequal eaves heights.

The rear (east) elevation has a stuccoed ground floor with extensively patched brickwork above. There are areas of red brick laid in English bond. The fenestration is irregular and of different dates, with a tall round-arched late-Georgian window lighting the main stair. There are five segmental-headed dormers, largely remade in the 1990s. The south elevation, abutting the Office Building, has one exposed bay; there is a later French window at ground floor and an early-19th century panelled door at basement.

The north-east range has an early-19th century porch on the north elevation carried on Doric columns, and a curved bay window on the south elevation; sash windows have recently been reinstated.

The open-well principal stair, rising from ground to first floor, has an open string with silhouette tread ends, ramped handrail and inner string, twisted balusters (some on the bottom flight replaced), Doric newels, and a curtail step. The basement flight was removed, probably in the early 19th century; a door surround that was at its head survives. The secondary stair, located in the rear of the next bay to the south, may be a later insertion (there is a trimmer, possibly for an angle stack, in this position in the roof); the handrail is typical of the later 18th/early 19th century whilst the turned balusters are old-fashioned for that period. The flight to the attic is clearly early 19th century. The oak roof structure is original; its asymmetrical form is unusual and consists of five trusses bearing undisrupted sequences of carpenters' marks. The principals are cranked on the east side, resulting in the higher eaves level, possibly to provide greater headroom.

There is extensive survival of late-Georgian joinery at all levels, including panelled doors, architraves with reeded decoration, and shutters; a number of features have been reinstated to match. The doorway on the north side of the main stair landing has a curved panelled jamb on one side. Access to the basement is via a stair from the north-west corner of the east wing, probably inserted in the early 19th century. The north basement room was (and still is) a kitchen and has a stone-flag floor and 19th century range. Some plain early-18th century panelling survives in the area beneath the entrance hall, along with brick shelving and an early-18th century door with glazing bars. The attic rooms have a number of early-19th century cast-iron basket grates.

The east wing, the remodelled brewhouse, has a barrel-vaulted cellar. The two-storey extension has an upper-floor room with plain panelling.

Deptford was established as a centre for naval shipbuilding by the late 15th century. The accession of Henry VIII (1509) marked a massive programme of naval expansion: Woolwich Dockyard was established in 1512, and in 1513 Henry began the development of Deptford by building a great storehouse; by the 1540s the 'King's Yard' at Deptford had become by far the most important royal dockyard nationally for the construction and repair of warships. Sir Francis Drake was knighted here in 1581, and his Golden Hind was exhibited here for over 70 years. In the 17th century Deptford was the second major centre for shipbuilding after Chatham, established under Elizabeth I, gained pre-eminence in this respect; the navy board appointed a Master Shipwright in both places. It was to Deptford that Tsar Peter the Great came for three months in 1698 to learn shipbuilding techniques, and its proximity to the Navy Board Office in the City of London meant that it was frequently chosen for experimental construction. However, the shifting of hostilities to France and Spain in the 18th century meant that Portsmouth and Plymouth gained pre-eminence. A number of well-known vessels were fitted out at Deptford, including Captain Cook's Endeavour and Discovery, as well as ships used in Nelson's campaigns. Despite navigational difficulties due to the silting up of the Thames, and the yard's consequent inability to service larger ships, further expansion took place in the 18th century when the yard reached an area of some 30 acres. It fell into decline after 1815, closing in 1869, when the site was acquired by the Corporation of London for use as London's Foreign Cattle Market. The handsome late-17th century officers' terraces which stood to south of the Master Shipwrights House and Offices were demolished in 1902. The dockyard suffered massive destruction in the Second World War, and was redeveloped as warehousing known as Convoy's Wharf in the 1950s, when the bomb-damaged Tudor storehouse was demolished. The buildings to the south of the Master Shipwright's House and Office range, probably rebuilt in the 18th century, were also destroyed.

The Master Shipwright's House and adjoining Office Building stood in the dockyard's north-east corner, alongside the great Double Dry Dock. An annotated sketch plan of 1623 by the diarist John Evelyn, who lived at Sayes Court to the west, and late-17th century plans, indicate that the present buildings occupy the site of a single-storey range; a plan of 1698 shows a 'builder's dwelling house' on the approximate site of the present Master Shipwright's house. The Master Shipwright was the senior technical officer in the Dockyard with considerable responsibility. He was expected to live in the dockyard and a house was provided with the job. Joseph Allin, appointed Master Shipwright to the Dockyard in 1705, petitioned the Navy Board for permission to rebuild his 'ancient and decayed' quarters; plans were approved on 13 February 1707/8 to build a new house 'on the ground where the old house now stands' at an estimated cost of £525; the building was completed in the spring or summer of 1708. The house was built by dockyard employees, probably to Allin's design. Whether it was entirely rebuilt or substantially remodelled - the latter possibility being suggested by the irregularity and asymmetry of the elevations and plan, and (possibly) earlier brickwork on the rear elevation - is unclear; a survey by Edward Dummer, Surveyor to the Navy however indicates that the earlier house was timber framed as does a plan of 1698 showing a multi-gabled, weatherboarded building. The adjacent Office Building to the south was rebuilt in 1720. The present house is identified on a detailed plan of 1753 as the 'Master Shipwright's Apartment'. A plan of 1774 shows the range comprising (from south to north) 'the pay offices; the 'Tap House'; boatswains lodging and garden; Officers Offices and the Master Shipwrights Lodging and Gardens'. Views of the house show that it had a shaped north gable, which a model of the Dockyard of 1774 indicates was repeated on the south elevation.

A single-storey brewhouse range was added to the north-east in 1710, reusing bricks from demolished buildings on the site. The house's rear wall was also the dockyard boundary wall until at least the 1760s, when houses to the east, in what was then King Street, were purchased and demolished and the land allocated to the house. The house was remodelled, possibly in more than one phase, in the late-Georgian period. Internal alterations are recorded in 1805 under Edward Holl, Chief Architect to the Navy, following the appointment of Sir Henry Peake as Master Shipwright in 1803, and timber marks estimated to date from 1804 and 1809 have been identified; internal features are stylistically consistent with this date. The brewhouse range was also remodelled as a garden room and entrance hall, and a two-storey extension added at the east end, dated by timber marks to 1809. Research suggests that these timber markings are the first tangible evidence for new timber management systems introduced under the reforms of Sir Samuel Bentham, appointed Inspector General of Naval Works in 1796.