Gunboat Sheds and Workshops

Gunboat Sheds and Workshops

A row of ten gunboat sheds and three maintenance workshops, built in 1856. The design of the gunboat yard was produced by the Admiralty Works Department, under Colonel Greene, the Director of Works, and William Scamp, the Deputy Director of Engineering and Architectural Works. The ironwork was contracted to Henry Grissell's Regents Canal Iron Works.

The sheds are constructed from wrought and cast iron with timber weather-boarded gables and a corrugated sheet roof. Red brick is used for the fire-proofing end walls, the workshops and an ancillary building, laid principally in Flemish bond with alterations and insertions in stretcher bond. Iron rails and associated fixtures are present throughout.

The gunboat sheds form a continuous row aligned roughly south-west to north-east, in line with Haslar Creek. Each shed is 9 metres wide and 35 metres deep. An ancillary two-storey building sits within the seventh bay, with maintenance workshops attached to the rear. Sets of six rails are embedded in the floor of each bay, running the full length.

The sheds are open-fronted structures with internal ironwork support and shallow pitched roofs with weather-boarded gables. The rear south-eastern wall is plain brickwork for the seven north-eastern bays; the remaining three bays are open to the rear. Free-standing firebreak walls of brick stand at either end, featuring recessed panels and blocked openings including round-arched doorways with brick arches.

Three maintenance workshops stand to the rear. One is adjoined to the sheds with its roof pitch in line with theirs and a wide round-arched entrance from within the seventh bay. It is blind except for a blocked oculus in the southern gable and a partially glazed slate roof. The other two workshops are oriented perpendicularly to the first, with rows of round-arched windows featuring projecting cills and timber multiple-pane fixed casements, roof lanterns, and segmental arched doorways on the gable ends. A flat-roofed extension has been added to the south-east elevation.

A 1950s building inserted within the seventh bay has a rectangular plan with sliding timber double doors on the outward end and an external staircase opposite. Its long side elevations are heavily fenestrated with regularly sized and spaced windows in multiple-pane metal casements.

Internally, the sheds are open-plan, with bays articulated by a row of seven columns and stanchions supporting trusses. Bays are generally approximately 10 metres wide, though columns between the third and fourth bays create an additional narrow bay, possibly intended for machinery. Three types of columns are used: Tuscan columns form the colonnade of the narrow bay; hollow cylinders cast in two pieces line the north-western elevation and were designed to disperse rainwater; cross-beam columns cast in two sections form the remainder. The roof trusses are bolted to the columns and include decorative spandrels. Steel cabling and cross-bracing was added in 1993. The inward faces of the rear wall and firebreaks have recessed panels.

The workshop interiors are plainly detailed with some stepped brickwork. All fireplaces have been removed and chimneys truncated. Kingpost roof trusses are exposed. The interior of the 1950s building was not inspected.