263, Rotherhithe Street

No. 263 Rotherhithe Street is a former engine house for Nelson Dock, now restored and used as offices, dating from around 1850. The building is constructed from yellow stock brick and features two pedimented gables on both the street and dock sides, with a vertically boarded timber link between them over an off-centre middle bay.

The structure is two to three storeys high and consists of three bays, with the northern bay being broader and containing two windows on the second floor. The street elevation showcases gauged brick round arches above round-headed windows, which have radial glazing in their heads. There is a low round-arched works entrance beneath the north gable and an altered entrance with a lintel to the right. A plat band runs below the second floor. The dock head elevation is similar, with the timber top-floor link set back between the pedimented gables. The south return has a round-headed window centered on both the first and second floors.

Inside, the building retains a restored hydraulic engine, with the hydraulic cylinder embossed "The Hydraulic Engineering Co Ld," indicating it is from the late 19th or early 20th century. However, the style is mid-19th century, and recent research suggests that the engine dates from this period, as the hydraulic slipway was invented in the 1840s.

Historically, the engine house likely dates to the time of Thomas Bible's innovative composite, timber-clad iron-ribbed hull constructions in this dockyard. It served the Nelson Dock Patent Slip immediately to its east, where between 1851 and 1866, Bible and Perry built composite hull clippers for the China Trade. This building is an important remaining structure of Nelson's Dock.