Main Dock Pumphouse (S 87 And 89)

SX 4454 SE PLYMOUTH SOUTH YARD, Devonport Dockyard

740-1/97/214 Main Dock Pumphouse (5 87 and 89)

GV II

Hydraulic pumping station. Dated 1851, possibly by William Scamp, R E. limestone ashlar in alternate thick and thin courses with granite dressings and leaded roof. Engine house with square accumulator tower at S end. EXTERIOR: single storey; windowless engine house, 2-storey; 2-bay tower. Engine house has a cornice, blocking course and pedimented N gable with a louvred oculus and ball finials with a central square section. The windowless E side has a right-hand doorway with raised surround and C20 door, gable has a right-hand recessed bay with corbel table and small-paned cross windows, the rest of the gable has an inserted mid C20 steel lintel with 4 ground- and first-floor casements. The tower has a corbelled cornice, an attic storey with moulded eaves coping and sunken panels with 4 oculi in each and a ball finial; tall recessed bays as that in the gable with cross windows, and ashlar panels between the storeys with VR in the S side and 1851 in the N side. In the NW corner is a truncated square chimney. INTERIOR: all machinery removed; contains a metal-framed roof. HISTORY: in the same style as many of the North Yard buildings including the Quadrangle ( qv), it powered hydraulic cranes, capstans and dock lock gates. Hydraulic power was being introduced into docks from the 18505, and this is one of the earliest surviving examples of a pumping station of this type in any dockyard.

Listing NGR: SX4488554485