New South Store

NEW SOUTH STORE

A storehouse originally built for brewery dry goods and beer, later adapted for rum and sugar storage. The building stands within the Royal Clarence Victualling Yard.

The earliest part is the western range, which incorporates elements of Samuel Wyatt's large storehouses of 1758. In 1830–31, as part of G L Taylor's development of the yard, the building was extended and remodelled. Further alterations followed in 1897–98. Bomb damage in 1940 reduced the building's height significantly, destroying much of its upper storeys.

The structure is constructed in red brick in modified Flemish bond (two stretchers to one header). The western wing retains a slate hipped roof on timber trusses, whilst the remainder has a flat roof, not visible from outside.

The building comprises a large compact rectangular range in one, two and three storeys, arranged in three long parallel ranges. The earliest western range was originally single storey with its original hipped roof. Taylor's work created a three-storey, double-range L-plan structure with projecting bays and a hipped roof. Following the 1940 bomb damage, most of the building is now in two storeys, though a small section at the north-east corner retains three storeys.

The south front presents five bays, the main front seventeen bays, and the north return seven bays (originally eighteen before bombing). Large 12 or 16-pane sash windows have stone sills and fine brick voussoir heads. Loading doors reach down to ground or floor level in two bays to the south, three bays to the east, and three bays to the north. The brickwork is severely plain, measuring three bricks thick at the lower floor and two and a half bricks above. Continuous flush Portland plat-band string-courses run at first floor and the former second floor levels, with a high brick parapet topped by thin stone coping. The surviving three-storey section retains part of the original moulded cornice below a rebuilt parapet. The western range features cambered heads over fourteen large 16-pane sashes and a plate door to bay five, with a stone string set above a three-course plat band and flat coping to the parapet.

The interior of the western range, single storey, retains wide-span trusses carrying two purlins. The upper purlin in each case is supported by strutted posts in a combined king-and-queen-post design. Close-spaced plain rafters carry close-boarding, with a series of roof-lights to the internal slope. The inner wall is thick brickwork, formerly featuring a series of arched openings, now filled.

The centre range employs heavy fire-resistant construction, specified both because of the heavy loadings envisaged for storage and because rum storage presented a significant fire risk. The spine wall between this section and the outer eastern range contains a series of piers connected by wide segmental arches to a low breast wall, with openings fitted with close-spaced iron grillages. Interior brickwork is painted throughout. At the north-east corner is a wide closed-string timber staircase with sturdy handrail and square newels set to close-spaced square balusters.

The storehouse has a complex history. Wyatt's 1758 store occupied the same site, and elements are reflected in the current building. Although abbreviated by successive rebuildings and especially by bomb damage, the building remains an important part of the Yard's history. It was needed following a significant change in Royal Navy practice, when the basic beer ration was replaced by a grog issue—a tradition that continued well after the Second World War. The building lies parallel to and west of the great Tank Store, and reflects this pivotal change in naval history.