Listed Building: NORTH OFFICE BLOCK (BUILDING NUMBER 1/144) (1272311)

SU6200NE VICTORIA ROAD (South side) HM Naval Base 774-1/17/248 North office Block (Building No 1/144) GV II Includes: North Office Block (Building No. 1/144), MAIN ROAD HM NAVAL BASE Smithery, then clothing store, now office block. 1791-94; change of use 1852; C19 and C20 alterations. Red brick in Flemish bond with ashlar dressings, brighter-red brick arches and stone sills to windows. Welsh slate roof with later brick stacks. Rectangular plan. EXTERIOR: 2 storeys, part with attic. Ashlar plinth, 1st-floor plat band, string over eaves band, and coping to parapet. North elevation: 9 bays arranged 3:3:3. End sections project, that on right with stuccoed raised quoins, ground floor, and eaves band, and having flat-arched entrance and four 12-pane sashes; otherwise this elevation has segmental-arched windows with replacement glazing, shorter on 1st floor, the bay 3 ground- floor window replaced by a door. West elevation: 7 1st-floor windows, 3 on right narrower and more closely-spaced. Stuccoing as before. 2 entrances and flat-arched 12-pane, 16-pane and 4-pane sashes to ground floor. 4 segmental-arched and 3 round-arched windows above. Cornice with brick dentils and pediment to right bay. South elevation: 3:5:3 bays, the 3 on left apparently of different build. Ends project. Similar to north elevation but with stepped dentilled brick eaves band and no parapet. Windows of bays 4 and 8 have doors inserted. C20 Iattic over right section. East elevation: 12 bays. Entrance at bay 7 with original bulbous head to rainwater pipe on its left dated 1848. INTERIOR: in north range at west end some panelled door and window reveals. In south range on ground floor a single remaining chamfered square wooden column. Ground and 1st floors refitted as offices mid-late C20. Braced collared queen-post roof trusses. HISTORY: After the much-altered smithery at Devonport the oldest naval smithery building, although much altered in mid C19 conversion which removed the original hand forges and chimneys, when it was superseded by the No.2 Ship Shop and Brass Foundry (qqv) for the steam-powered navy; without significant internal details. (Sources: Coad J: The Royal Dockyards 1690-1850: Aldershot: 1989:154; The Portsmouth Papers: Riley RC: The Evolution of the Docks and Industriel Buildings in Portsmouth: Portsmouth: 1985: 14) Selected Sources Books and journals Coad, J G, The Royal Dockyards 1690-1850: Architecture and Engineering Works of the Sailing Navy, (1989), 154 Riley, R C, 'The Portsmouth Papers' in The Evolution of the Docks and Industrial Buildings in Portsmouth, (1985), 14