Dock Basin Walls And 6 Associated Bollards, Royal William Victualling Yard

SX 4653 NW 740-1/65/732

PLYMOUTH CREMYLL STREET, Stonehouse

Dock basin walls and 6 associated bollards, Royal William Victualling Yard

GV I

Basin walls and bollards. c1826-32, by Sir J Rennie Jnr, for the Victualling Board. Granite ashlar and cast-iron. PLAN: square basin with curved NW entrance. Banded rustication to dock sides and entrance, with finely detailed flights of steps either side of the opening. SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: six square-section cast-iron bollards with concave sides with timber strips, and round top inscribed "FLETCHER AND YOUNG/SOUTHAMPTON/1830", to each corner of the basin and either side of the Swing Bridge (qv). HISTORY: the Basin was intended to improve access to the Yard for incoming ships, especially during bad weather, and to reduce pilferage. There were formerly cranes along each side. With the Quay Walls each side (qv) it forms the focus, flanked by the Mill and the Brewery and with Melville behind ( qv), of the principal view of the Yard. The Yard is one of the most remarkable and complete early C19 industrial complexes in the country, and a unique English example of Neo-Classical planning of a state manufacturing site. (Sources: Keystone Historic Buildings Consultants: The Royal William Victualling Yard, Stonehouse: 1994: 50; The Mariner's Mirror: Coad J: Historic Architecture of HM Naval Base Devonport 1689-1850: London: 1983: 382-390; Coad J: The Royal Dockyards 1690-1850: Aldershot: 1989: 282-290).

Listing NGR: SX4612253626