J-Shed Warehouse

The J-Shed Warehouse is a two-storey building constructed of red brick with a slate roof. It features a long range design with a nogged brick cornice and consists of seventeen bays that alternate in depth. Each alternate bay is recessed and has a raised plinth, with two windows on each floor that have cambered heads and fixed small-paned iron glazing. Every other bay includes a broad doorway on each floor, also with cambered arched heads, featuring four-ring arches on the ground floor and three-ring arches above. On the west side, the first bay has a door on the first floor instead of a window to the left. On the eastern dockyard side, the original sliding doors are still present on five of the ground floor entries. The end walls are broad and nearly devoid of openings; the north end has inserted sliding doors, while the south end has two low doors and one door to the first floor on the right, all with steel lintels. A cantilevered canopy that once extended over part of the dockside ground-floor elevation, as shown in a 1896 photo in the Port Register, has been removed. The south gable was originally connected to a former tinplate and general merchandise shed, which has since been demolished.

The building is constructed with fireproof methods, featuring vaulted concrete arches set between lateral steel beams supported by riveted steel piers with latticework infill panels. The flooring is made of concrete. The upper floor is undivided and supported by slender steel tie-beam trusses and riveted brace-plates, with long timber purlins supporting a close-boarded timber roof.