Building 36 (Police Station), Rnad Bull Point

740-1/0/10057 RNAD BULL POINT 17-APR-09 Building 36 (Police Station), RNAD Bul l Point

GV II Police Station. 1894. Snecked limestone ashlar with slate roofs and ashlar stacks. Rectangular plan, with a cross-wing to left of a range facing onto the main entrance into the site. Tudor Gothic style. Gable facing to left-hand 2-storey cross wing, with horned sashes in chamfered stone architraves and mid C20 timber porch. Single-storey range to left has similar architraves to doorway and flanking 2-light stone-mullioned windows with horned sashes.

HISTORY: This police station of 1894, a well-crafted example in Tudor Gothic style, comprises an integral part of the finest ensemble in any of the Ordnance Yards, consistent with the high standards practised by the Ordnance Board in its designs for fortifications and barracks from the C17 and a remarkable example of integrated factory planning of the period. It forms a distinctive building at the main entrance to the yard, close to the core group of buildings on this nationally important site and relating to a significant phase of naval expansion.

Bull Point, located just to the north of the Royal Navy's new Steam Yard at Keyham, was the last great project of the Board of Ordnance, which was abolished in 1856. It provided storage for 40,000 barrels of powder in an integrated complex including a floating magazine where powder was unloaded and the 1805 St Budeaux laboratory where it was checked and processed, before being taken to the Bull Point magazines (SAM). In contrast to other yards, Bull Point was from the outset provided with a set of buildings planned and dedicated to the various functions for the processing as well as the storage of the new types of ordnance which had a revolutionary impact on the design of naval ships and fortifications. All the buildings - mostly in ashlar with rock-faced dressings and fronting an avenue to the S of the magazines - are stylistically coherent with the magazines themselves, and comprise both the finest ensemble in any of the Ordnance Yards and a remarkable example of integrated factory planning of the period.

For a full history of the site, see Building 13 (qv).