Old Cooperage, Royal William Victualling Yard

OLD COOPERAGE, ROYAL WILLIAM VICTUALLING YARD Cremyll Street, Stonehouse, Plymouth

A cooperage built circa 1826–32 by Sir John Rennie Junior for the Victualling Board, converted to an ordnance building in 1891. The central yard was roofed in 1916, and fitting shops were added in the 1930s behind the front range.

The building is constructed of limestone ashlar and rubble with axial and lateral stacks and slated iron hipped roofs. The central block contains a fireproof iron internal frame. The architectural style is Late Georgian.

The original plan comprised two concentric quadrangles: a central square quadrangle for the coopers, and an outer trapezoidal quadrangle divided on the north range by a gateway flanked by offices. The west section housed a staves seasoning store, the east section an iron hoop store, and the other three ranges were for cask storage. The building is now connected by 1930s blocks to the north.

The exterior is two storeys throughout. The northeast range has eight windows on one side and four on another; the northwest range has six windows; the other outer sides are blind. The two-storey cooperage block has seven and eleven windows on its sides. The outer quadrangle's external walls have a granite plinth, banded rustication to the ground floor with a plat band, a cornice and parapet, and rusticated quoins.

The principal northeast elevation features two central pedimented single-window pavilions with segmental-arched ground-floor and flat-headed first-floor twelve-pane sashes, and three-window inner side ranges as the front. They are linked by a central gateway with massive square piers of rock-faced banded ashlar with square caps and cast-iron lamp bases. Cast-iron gates to the central entrance and flanking wickets have spear-headed rails and acanthus finials. The single-window outer ends are set forward with upper loading bays; the left end contains a metal-framed window. Between them, the ground floor has six flat-headed casements to the left and two to the right; the upper floor is windowless.

The west elevation has two-window end sections set forward. The north end has plain surrounds to blind windows; the south end has ground and first-floor segmental-headed sashes. A central entrance to the courtyard was inserted after 1891 beneath a loading bay, with further loading entrances either side of a projecting block to the south of the entrance, which has a central doorway and two inserted windows each side. The external elevation to the rear southeast range is blind. The northeast side faces onto Drum Alley.

The central cooperage block has a coved cornice and is articulated by round-arched two-storey arcades linked by an impost band, containing ground-floor metal tripartite windows (now with small-paned timber casements) and first-floor tripartite lunettes. Each elevation's centre has an entrance with double iron doors; the northeast side has twentieth-century metal stairs up to a round-arched entrance. A single-storey rubble office block was added to the south side before 1909.

The inner elevations of the outer quadrangle originally had open ground floors divided by iron columns to a band, and flat-headed first-floor metal-framed windows with tilting casements. The seventeen-window northeast range remains open on the ground floor and has first-floor hoist doors with rusticated jambs to the sixth and twelfth openings from the south. A double door leads through to Drum Alley. The other sides have rubble infill to the ground floor with flat-headed windows; upper floors match the southeast side. The thirty-one-window southwest range was infilled in 1936 and has loading doors to the sixth and twelfth bays from the east. The twenty-two-window west range was infilled in 1906 and has loading doors in the seventh and fifteenth bays from the north. The 1930s blocks are rendered with gabled ends.

The interior contains original fireproof details. The roofs follow the same design as those in Melville and the Clarence, with wrought-iron flat ties and king and queen ties, cast-iron L-section diagonal struts, I-section principal rafters linked by purlins with parabolic flanges, wedged and bolted together. The central block has M roofs to the west and east sides, with the valley supported partly by original slender columns and arched beams.

The central block has incomplete fireproof floors of T-section beams with curved web containing dovetail sockets for iron joists, supporting a flagstone floor. The south side has original lateral stacks and an 1899 first-floor browning tank. The former courtyard, covered by a 1916 steel roof, has blocked tripartite ground-floor and first-floor lunette windows. The outer ranges have timber floor beams, supported on the northeast range by flanged capital brackets from the columns. Stairs are located in the end outer corners of the northeast range and in the southwest end of the front range. The north entrance pavilion has a central dogleg stair; the south pavilion has a front dogleg stair.

Coopering was transferred to the New Cooperage in 1899, after which the Naval Ordnance Department took over the Old Cooperage. The original design of the central block was completely fireproof, with metal shutters instead of windows, and had lateral fireplaces and stacks all round. The outer ranges were built for cask storage and seasoning. Much of the original building survives, particularly the planning of the double quadrangles and the fireproof construction.

The all-metal roofs are rare early examples of fireproof construction comparable with contemporary fireproof textile mills. The Yard is one of the most remarkable and complete early 19th-century industrial complexes in the country, and a unique English example of Neoclassical planning for a state manufacturing site.