Building 54 (Press House, Rnad Bull Point

740-1/0/10051 RNAD BULL POINT 17-APR-09 Building 54 (Press House, RNAD Bull Po int

GV II Hydraulic Press House. 1856-7. Iron frame, partly clad in rendered brick, with hipped slate roof. Square plan, the iron columns framing the original press.

HISTORY: This comprises one of the key functional buildings at Bull Point, one of a group built around a road extending from the magazine enclosure. With Buildings 65 and 69 (qv), it comprises part of a unique ensemble representative of the ordnance technology of this period, before the extensive shell-filling complexes that were constructed for the 12-inch breech-loaders of the 1880s onwards.

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).