Former Portland Steam Laundry

Former Portland Steam Laundry

This former steam laundry was constructed between 1899 and 1900, designed by J Lawton Webster, surveyor for the Portland Local Board. It is built from red brick with Portland stone dressings, with a roof of profiled metal sheeting that was replaced in the 21st century.

The building stands on a steeply sloping site to the south of Brymers Avenue. Its main structure is a rectangular block oriented roughly east-west, with an outshut to the east and a boiler room with smokestack to the north. A late-20th-century extension has been added to the south, built into the rising ground, but this is excluded from the listing.

The main range forms a double-height block beneath a saw-tooth roof of three pitches. The entrance, on the west elevation, is a carriageway arch reached by concrete steps, a later addition. The windows on this elevation are replacements set within plain, regular openings with chamfered lintels and projecting sills. An outshut, probably containing the offices, stands to the left of the entrance. The roofline is defined by three gables, each containing a small rectangular window that likely replaced original ocular ventilation openings—these remain blocked on the corresponding gables of the east elevation. A projecting course of bricks follows the jagged roofline, with a header course forming the coping.

The north elevation, facing downhill, is two storeys. A wide band of mortar at storey height has the appearance of earlier brickwork beneath. The upper storey contains a row of eight windows, most retaining their original one-over-one sashes; the left-most has been blocked and replaced with a loading door. The ground floor has a series of doors and windows with either cambered brick heads or concrete lintels with brick sills, indicating later alterations. At the north corner stands the square smokestack with a moulded brick cornice, adjacent to the boiler house, a small pitched-roof unit.

The east elevation is blind, with the ocular vents in the gables blocked. The south elevation has been largely obscured by the late-20th-century extension.

Internally, the structural system is clearly visible. The roof pitches are supported by load-bearing outer walls, with the two internal valleys supported by two rows of eight cast-iron columns. The space has been subdivided by late-20th-century partitioning, and a mezzanine has been inserted on the east side. Brick partitioning exists at the northern corner. The roof trusses are asymmetrical triangles with steeply pitched north sides, originally supporting a glazed and ventilated roof. Each truss is a triangular timber structure with a steel rod connecting the apex to the tie beam.

The basement-level accommodation on the northern side consists of a series of small rooms, formerly stables and fuel stores. This area was inaccessible during survey and does not connect internally with the main ground floor.