Number 25 Store (Building Number 1/118)

Number 25 Store, an 18th-century dockyard building at HM Naval Base Portsmouth, is a Grade II* listed structure of considerable historical and architectural significance.

Built in 1782 as part of a major dockyard modernisation programme, this is a stores and workshops building constructed in red brick with Flemish bond and ashlar dressings. The structure comprises two linked parallel ranges running west to east with an intermediate courtyard between them, arranged across a hipped slate roof. The building exemplifies Mid Georgian style.

The exterior is two storeys high, spanning 17 bays in one direction and 9 in the other. An ashlar plinth runs along the base, with a first-floor band and a stepped dentilled brick eaves band punctuating the elevation. A flat coping to the parapet and cornices to pediments complete the roofline. The windows are 12-pane sashes set in reveals with stone sills. At ground level, wide panelled double doors with louvred vents at the top are set within wooden architraves topped with console-bracketed cornices. First-floor loading doors occupy quoined, raised ashlar surrounds with cornices. Rainwater pipes with bulbous heads are visible throughout.

The south elevation is the most architecturally elaborate, with bays arranged in a 2:5:3:5:2 pattern, where the ends and centre project forward under pediments. The central pediment contains a blind oculus, while those at the ends feature blind oeil-de-boeuf windows. Doorways are positioned at bays 5, 9 and 13, with a central loading door. The rear elevation is similar, though its original doorways have been converted to windows; the loading door, now set below a segmental brick arch, has been connected by a bridge to the sail loft (Building No. 11109). The east elevation is divided into three sections of 3 bays each, with the centre recessed and featuring a central window flanked by doors—the left now bricked up and the right a double board door with a fanlight whose radial glazing bars are set within a keyed round-arched surround with imposts. Each outer section retains a central door in its original form. The west end is partially obscured by an addition linking this building to No. 24 Store.

Internally, the ground floor contains square chamfered wooden posts carrying large-scantling beams. The north range preserves its original wooden stair with large-scantling plain balusters, newels and handrail. The first floor of the south range has board-lined walls, while roof trusses feature collared queen posts supporting king posts. The courtyard elevations have undergone additions and alterations, but retain original windows, end entrance archways, rainwater pipes, and an early lean-to stable addition along the back of the south range. This stable comprises 5 bays with wooden columns on padstones and a hipped roof; its formerly open bays are now mostly infilled.

Originally built as the south-eastern block of four similar stores and workshops arranged to a courtyard plan, Number 25 Store accommodated wheelwrights, block and capstan makers, together with offices and stores. Of the four original blocks, three survive: this building retains its original form with two ranges and central courtyard; the south-western and north-western blocks now serve as No. 24 and No. 33 Stores on Main Road; the north-eastern block (Building No. 1/149), which is not included in this listing, was severely damaged by bombing in the 1940s. Despite alterations, Number 25 Store represents the finest surviving example of this unusual type of combined workshop and store, embodying an interesting attempt to rationalise dockyard workshop activities through a formal, self-contained building arrangement.