Iron Foundry (Building Number 1/140) Iron Foundry (Building Number 1/140) Including Railings And Bollards

Iron Foundry (Building Number 1/140), including railings and bollards

An iron foundry and smithery, now disused, built between 1857 and 1861 by Colonel GT Greene RE and Andrew Murray, Chief Engineer. The building was extended in 1878 with later alterations. It is constructed of banded red brick in English bond with ashlar and brighter red brick dressings. The roofs are of Welsh slate and corrugated iron.

The building follows a half-courtyard plan. The north range formerly contained the foundry with crucible furnaces at the rear. The east side features a former shipwright's shop with pediments to both front and rear elevations, extending back from the street. The longer west range is three storeys and formerly housed the millwright's shop with a roof water tank. A former pattern makers' workshop dated 1878 projects from the south-east end. The courtyard originally contained a large central rotating crane, with the steam engine positioned to the south-east.

The three principal sections are differentiated architecturally. The central foundry is two storeys with a basement and sits on a granite plinth. It has an ashlar impost band and an eaves entablature composed of frieze, cornice and blocking course. Full-height round-arched recesses with keystones and brick voussoirs align to the courses. Within each recess, a tall segmental-arched window sits on the ground floor and a shorter round-arched window above; all windows have small-paned metal frames and ashlar sills.

The north elevation shows 1:11:1 bays, with the end bays wider and projecting. The left end bay (east wing) is pedimented; the right end bay (west wing) has a second storey. Each has a giant round-arched entrance in an ashlar surround, now bricked up with windows inserted. A louvred oculus sits in the pediment of the left bay, while the upper floor of the right bay has three round-arched recesses, the central one containing a window. The eaves entablature breaks forward at the centre and above the entrances. The roof over the central range is hipped with a louvred skylight.

The east elevation presents six bays as the north elevation, with the middle bays open and supported on cast-iron columns carrying a heavy iron beam, subsequently built across.

The west elevation rises three storeys and follows the pattern of the north elevation. The second floor has round-arched recesses with windows and a cornice below the parapet. Segmental-arched basement windows, mostly bricked up, are accompanied by area railings at the centre and left, featuring circular bars and columnar standards with plinths and plain capitals. Two giant entrances are present as before—that on the left now has a mid-to-late 20th century outshut built across it, while that on the right forms a throughway to the rear courtyard. Two cannon barrels, probably early-to-mid 19th century and reused in the mid-to-late 19th century, serve as bollards at the south-west and north-east corners.

The south elevation displays four bays, with the two on the left as described above and the two on the right forming a plainer addition.

The courtyard elevations show the north range with two tiers of round-arched windows, two entries (one covered by an addition), and at the right end a two-storey projecting block with a hipped Welsh slate roof. The west wing contains a crane above the throughway and on the left of the throughway a projecting three-storey, three-bay block.

The interior contains brickjack arch floors with joists featuring parabolic bottom flanges, carried on riveted iron girders. The former foundry has brick walls carrying rails for former travelling cranes, with wrought-iron roof trusses of diagonal struts and vertical ties. Stone flags cover the floors. The rear cupola area of the foundry had two areas with wrought-iron balconies, one fitted with a riveted traveller. Similar balconies appear in the foundry area, including one with a truncated stack. Wrought-iron plates with holes define the former positions of the cupolas. In the north-west corner stands a hydraulic accumulator. The pattern shops contain a fireproof stairwell with an iron dog-leg stair fitted with plain iron balusters, enclosed at the head in a panelled metal case with iron doors. An old bell remains on the second floor of the west range. The water tank supplied water for cooling during manufacturing processes and for fire-fighting. The former pattern shop in the south-east wing has a first floor with a Jacobethan-style iron column supporting a decorated cast-iron beam.

This building forms part of Portsmouth's redevelopment for the steam-powered navy. It is unusual in its use of riveted wrought-iron beams rather than cast-iron, as used elsewhere in the Yard. It is the only example of a dedicated foundry in a Naval Yard and remains substantially intact, containing considerable evidence of its former functions.