Officers House Number 1 And Attached Walls And Railings, Royal William Victualling Yard

SX 4653 NW 740-1/65/740

PLYMOUTH CREMYLL STREET, Stonehouse

Officer's House No.1, attached walls & railings, Royal William Victualling Yard

GV II*

Officer's house and attached wall, railings and ancillary buildings, now offices. c1830-32, by Sir John Rennie Jnr, for the Victualling Board. Granite ashlar with central lateral stacks each end and a slate hipped mansard roof; rubble garden walls. Late Georgian style. PLAN: double-depth plan with central stair. EXTERIOR: 3 storeys, basement and attic; 5-window range. All four sides have banded ground floor to a plat band, cornice and parapet, with basement windows set in shallow recesses, flat-headed hornless 6/6-pane sashes, with segmental-arched 3/6-pane basement sashes. NW entrance side has windowless ground floor with steps up to a central segmental-arched doorway with double doors each with 5 sunken panels and 5-pane overlight, and a 6/6-pane first-floor sash above. 5-window garden front has steps and a basement area bridge to a central half-glazed door with overlight. SE return has a single first-floor window to the rear. Roof has flat-headed lead-clad dormers with 8/8-pane sashes, 2 to front and rear and 1 to the SE end. INTERIOR: a central dogleg stair rises to the rear with curtail and stick balusters; cornices, panelled doors and shutters. SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: good attached cast-iron railings with curved bars, finials and Greek Revival details enclose the side and rear basement areas. A tall rubble wall extends approx. 30m to the SE enclosing the rear garden, and connecting to former stables, with ashlar pilaster strips and segmental-arched doors, and at the SE end carriage store with a round-arched entrance; the wall continues to the S perimeter of the site. A rear garden wall connects with the Yard perimeter wall (qv), and separates the garden from that of Officer's House No.2 (qv). HISTORY: the navy traditionally provided accommodation for senior officers at its yards. By 1890 the residence of the Superintendent of the Stores. A pair with No.2 (qv), graded for its significance as part of Rennie's layout, in 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: 59).

Listing NGR: SX4628153548