Building 69 (Breaking-Up House), Rnad Bull Point

740-1/0/10053 RNAD BULL POINT 17-APR-09 Building 69 (Breaking-Up House), RNAD Bull Point

GV II Store. 1856/8. Limestone ashlar with rock-faced quoins, plinth and dressings, and slate roof.

PLAN: rectangular plan.

EXTERIOR: single storey; 2-window range. End gables have segmental-arched windows to each side, a blocked oculus above, and a wooden lean-to at the centre. NE side has 3 central flat-headed windows, with doorways each side, and pairs of lower, smaller, segmental-arched windows to the outside. NW side has outer segmental-arched doorways with boarded doors and 2 windows to the middle. Metal C20 glazing bars.

INTERIOR: timber trusses, some matchboarding at south end. Brackets for steam heating pipes remain.

HISTORY: Possibly originally a Breaking-Up House, for dismantling defective ammunition, and by the C20 used for examining and packing small stores. This comprises one of the key functional buildings at Bull Point, one of a group built around a road extending from the magazine enclosure.

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. They comprise both 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.

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