Vulcan Block (Building Number 21) And Attached Bollards

VULCAN BLOCK (BUILDING NUMBER 21) AND ATTACHED BOLLARDS

An ordnance storehouse with stabling, now disused, built between 1811 and 1814 and dated 1814. The building was constructed for the Ordnance Board, with later alterations almost certainly carried out by Major-General Evelegh. It is built in patterned red brick with grey headers in Flemish bond, with Portland dressings and gauged red brick arches to the openings. The roof is hipped slate with flat-roofed dormers, which are now boarded up. The design is in the Late Georgian style.

The building originally formed a large symmetrical U-block plan with spine walls, though the north wing was demolished after circa 1940 following wartime bomb damage. The structure stands two storeys high with an attic storey.

The east principal elevation faces the street and comprises 12 bays, with an 11-bay south wing extending to the rear. A tooled ashlar plinth and plat band run along the base, with rendered stepped dentilled eaves below an ashlar course and a rendered brick blocking course above. Windows throughout are 8-pane over 8-pane sashes set in reveals with stone sills and flat arches. Large entrances feature double boarded doors set within stepped round-arched surrounds, flanked by bollards formed from disused cannon barrels set on end, probably dating to the early to mid 19th century and repositioned in their present location in the mid to late 19th century.

The east elevation was originally symmetrical with 5 bays, though the 3 right-hand bays at the end of the former north wing have been demolished. The remaining 5-bay centre section breaks forward twice and includes a grand entrance to an archway leading into the rear courtyard, framed by an ashlar architrave with rusticated spandrels and an outer Tuscan architrave. At the left, the end of the wing forms a 3-bay shallow projection with a pediment and lunette in the tympanum. The main entrance is marked by a plaque inscribed 'Major-General Fisher, Commanding Royal Engineers 1814' and leads into a wide through-passage. Off this passage are further wide round-arched entrances with double doors and a trap-door in the ceiling set above a girder with a running pulley. The west courtyard elevation mirrors the east elevation, including the grand entrance, now blocked.

The south wing elevation is symmetrical, with bays arranged 1:3:3:3:1. The centre section projects beneath a pediment with a lunette in the tympanum and a round-arched doorway in a matching recess leading to double doors. The end bays are narrow, projecting, and have a round-arched recess filled with grey headers on each floor. The west elevation of the south wing comprises 3 bays below a pediment, with a central entrance and lunette in the tympanum. A cannon barrel bollard is positioned at the south-east corner of the building.

The interior features ground-floor storage bays flanking axial spine walls that were inserted in two phases between 1892 and 1893. Tall cast-iron columns with cast mid-supports carry an inner shelf, with eyes for attaching divisions and spreaders to large scantling first-floor wooden beams. An axial line of first-floor posts supports cross beams. The roof spans widely, with iron strapping to a post-and-pad form surmounted by king posts. Cast-iron fire doors with panels separate different sections, and a stick-baluster stair is positioned at the angle between the wings.

The building was constructed to store armaments and ordnance supplies for ships in Ordinary at Portsmouth dockyard. The old Gun Wharf Yard was extended to create the New Gun Wharf in the 1770s, of which this building forms the centrepiece and a key element of the significant historic dockyard complex. At the time of its completion, it was one of the largest storehouses owned by the Board of Ordnance, second only to that at Chatham. The distinctive patterned brickwork is characteristic of other local Ordnance Board buildings of the period, such as Priddy's Hard and Milldam Barracks.