Block J: Cartshed, Underfall Yard, Hotwells and Harbourside, Bristol

Summary

Former cart shed, stable, and stores, 1900, built under the direction of Docks Engineer W W Squire.

Description

Former cart shed, stable, and stores, 1900, built under the direction of Docks Engineer W W Squire.

MATERIALS: constructed from red Cattybrook brick laid in Flemish bond with a slate roof.

PLAN: the cartshed stands at the north-west corner of the Underfall Yard, adjacent to the garden walls of 6 and 7 Avon Crescent (listed at Grade II), with its north elevation forming the boundary to the yard. It is rectangular on plan, orientated roughly east-west.

EXTERIOR: a two-storey building beneath a pitched roof, with its principal elevation facing south onto the yard. On the ground floor there are two wide openings to the former cartshed; these are separated by a cast iron column with a wide base, supporting a metal lintel. The openings have been infilled with timber doors. To the right is a doorway to the former stable, with two small widows adjacent. Openings generally have segmental arched heads with rough brick arches, and windows are multiple-light iron-framed casements. On the first floor, above the stable door, is a taking-in door, now a window, and two small windows, as below. On the left an external stair rises to the first floor, where there is a doorway with a window to either side.

INTERIOR: subdivided internally and with modern finishes.

History

When the Floating Harbour was created at the beginning of the C19, it reputedly provided Bristol with the largest area of impounded water for shipping in the world, negating the dependency of the City Docks on the tidal River Avon. The scheme of 1802 by William Jessop created a contained harbour with consistent water levels by damming the original course of the river and excavating a new course, or “New Cut”, that diverted the river around the City to the south.

The Underfall Yard has been crucial to the operation and maintenance of the harbour from the outset. It stands on reclaimed land on the original course of the river at the point that it was dammed. An overfall weir was built to manage water levels by draining into the New Cut, with the area around it becoming the Docks Company Works Yard. The larger area of land to the north had been established as a commercial shipyard by at least 1825, and was known as the Nova Scotia Yard, later the Cambria Yard. “Underfall” sluices, to the designs of IK Brunel, replaced the weir in 1840s to scour silt from the harbour.

The Bristol Corporation bought the Nova Scotia Yard in 1880 in order to extend the Docks Company Works Yard, and to bring all maintenance facilities together in one place. Temporary workshop facilities on the site were replaced by a purpose-built complex of buildings to accommodate the diverse workforce, which at its peak numbered 400 and included draughtsmen, plumbers, pattern-makers, blacksmiths, divers, dredgers, engineers, fitters and shipwrights. This first phase of construction was led by Docks Engineer in Chief Thomas Howard, and his successor from 1882, John Girdlestone. A second phase of development was made between 1900 and 1906 under W W Squire, when the yard was expanded and reconfigured in response to the development of the GWR Docks Railway.

The former cartshed was part of this second phase of development of the yard, dating from 1900. It was damaged during the Second World War and has evidence of reconstruction of sections of the elevations.

Use of the docks declined in the C20 as the size of vessels increased. Buildings at the yard became surplus to the requirements of the Bristol Docks Company, and were let out. Steam-paddle boat operator P and A Campbell let a number of buildings; they installed large machinery in the Big Shed (also under assessment for listing) and created a foundry on the land adjacent, known as the Knuckle. The company occupied the yard until 1958, after which it was largely vacant, and gradually deteriorated. The Underfall Yard Trust was created in the 1990s and has restored the site, bringing it back into use by maritime businesses. The former cartshed has been adapted to use as offices and workshops; cartshed openings have been infilled, and interiors have been subdivided and modernised.

Reasons for Listing

Block J: Cartshed is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* as part of the late-C19 to early-C20 development of the Underfall Yard as the principal docks management and maintenance facility, which survives well as a diverse collection of characterful and distinctive structures, together illustrating the functioning, operation and development of this site of historic maritime industry;
* the cartshed follows the architectural conventions established for the Underfall Yard, characterised by robust forms in Cattybrook brick;
* the building survives well and continues to express its function, with the course of development legible in the fabric.

Historic interest:

* as part of the late C19 and early C20 development of the Underfall Yard as the principal docks maintenance and power facility.

Group value:

* with the other listed buildings within the Underfall Yard, and the adjacent Avon Crescent and Nova Scotia.

External Links

Historic England Listing

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