Dock Pumping Station (N 114 And 115)

SX 4456 SE PLYMOUTH NORTH YARD, Devonport Dockyard 740-1/90/195 Dock Pumping Station (N 114 and 115)

GV II

Hydraulic pumping station. Dated 1905, by Stothert and Pitt, engineers. Red brick with limestone dressings and slate roof. Square plan with rear boiler house. Edwardian Baroque style. EXTERIOR: 2 storeys; W front of 2:1:2-window range. Articulated by wide rusticated pilasters, with a plinth, ground-floor cornice, entablature and cornice beneath parapet; moulded stone string course, with entablature to central pilasters. Keyed stone architrave to semicircular arched window above date panel and segmental-arched rusticated doorway with cavetto-moulded surround and 3-pane overlight. Keyed segmental-arched ovolo-moulded architraves to ground-floor windows and alternating stone voussoirs to round-arched first-floor windows. Metal-framed casements. Similar articulation to 3-bay sides with keyed first-floor oculi and segmental-arched doorway to N (left-hand) return. Lower rear range altered mid C20. Right-hand single-storey range not included. INTERIOR: has riveted iron columns to a strutted iron roof. HISTORY: probably contained a pair of triple expansion engines. The station pumped out the new No.8 dock (qv), the most complete remaining dry dock associated with the Dreadnought class, part of the Key ham Dreadnought Dockyard extension (opened 1907). The use of hydraulic power was central to the operation of cranes, capstans and lock gates. A notable large hydraulic pumping station, externally well presented and comparable to those at Chatham and Portsmouth (qv). (Sources: North East London Polytechnic and GLC: Dockland An illustrated Historical Survey of Life and Work: London: 1986: 159).

Listing NGR: SX4486656120