Hydraulic Engine House (Building Number 38) South West Of Number 9 Store With Bollard At South West Corner

SU 6200 SE MAIN ROAD (West off) HM Naval Base 774-1/18/208 Hydraulic engine house (Building No/38) SW of No 9 Store with bollard at SW corner

GV II

Hydraulic engine house. 1861, by John Murray, Chief Engineer, extended c1904. Red brick in English bond with dressings of ashlar and gauged red brick, corrugated sheet roof. EXTERIOR: one storey with 2-storey accumulator tower rising from west end of engine house, N boiler house and S engine house extension. Chamfered plinth; ashlar impost band; tall round- arched windows with metal glazing bars, radial in heads, in gauged-brick round-arched recesses; stepped dentilled eaves band; cornice; flat-coped parapet, much rebuilt. South- west elevation: 3:3:1 bays,3 left bays c1904 engine house with 16-pane sashes, loading doors and pediment. Central accumulator tower has bays framed by pilasters and stepped bands; wider round-arched central bay with former entrance; 1st--floor band and cornice. Right bay has inserted entrance. South-east elevation of 1:3 bays, left bay recessed. North-east elevation of 1 :3:2 bays having early C20 entrance, up steps, on left; and later sliding doors and windows on right, under rebuilt pediment. North- west elevation masked by later building. SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: cast-iron inverted canon bollard approx 3m to south-west of south-west corner. INTERIOR of 1904 extension has king post roof, and strongly-built corners, as the Brass Foundry (qv). HISTORY: pressurized the hydraulic system for 8 cranes on the Watering Island, 9 capstans and 9 lifts, and the mechanism in the Chain Test House (qv) (Riley). A comparatively early example of a hydraulic engine house, with group value with the Chain Testing House. (Sources: The Portsmouth Papers: Riley RC: The Evolution of the Docks & Industrial Buildings in Portsmouth: Portsmouth: 1985: 25; Evans D: The Buildings of the Steam Navy: 1994:15).

Listing NGR: SU6299200361