Description

740-1/0/10049 RNAD BULL POINT
17-APR-09 Building 59 (Examining Room), RNAD Bul
l Point

GV II
Store, shell examining room by 1866. 1856/7. Plymouth limestone ashlar with rock-faced quoins, plinth and dressings, and corrugated sheet roof.

PLAN: rectangular plan.

EXTERIOR: single storey; 4-window range. Central segmental-arched doorway with a boarded door, flat-headed windows to each side with 6/6-pane horned sashes. 3-window rear elevation and 2 windows to the end gables.

INTERIOR: timber trusses, panelled window shutters and matchboarding to walls.

HISTORY: Probably originally designated an Examining Room, for inspecting shells and explosives. 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).

Reasons for Listing

A building for examining the contents of powder barrels, an integral part of 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.

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26672436

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  London 3: North West: North West v. 3 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Pioneers of Modern Design: From William Morris to Walter Gropius (Penguin Art & Architecture)
• 
  Gwent/Monmouthshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Wales)
• 
  Hampshire: Winchester and the North (The Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  The Listed Buildings and Other Principal Structures at the Royal Gunpowder Mills Waltham Abbey
• 
  Worcestershire Revised Edition (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)