This website uses cookies
This website uses cookies to enable it to function properly and to analyse how the website is used. Please click 'Close' to accept and continue using the website.
100 Buildings 100 Years
1940: No. 4 Boathouse, Portsmouth Dockyard
Status: Unlisted
Condition: Fair condition
Architect: E A Scott
Location: Portsmouth Historic Dockyard
No. 4 Boathouse is a product of the rapid re-armament in the late 1930s, and a rare example of an interwar heavy engineering shop, the latest in a continuous chain of dockyard structures surviving in Portsmouth from the seventeenth to the twentieth centuries.
It was designed for the maintenance and fitting out of small boats up to 40 tons, and constructed of reinforced concrete with a riveted steel frame, a saw tooth roof profile and facades designed with reference to contemporary American factories.
The Boathouse’s finest hour was as one of only two locations where assault landing craft were manufactured for the D-Day landings, and the site for the modification and testing of experimental landing craft design.
This magnificent building, which I have described as ‘functionalism on a heroic scale’, was saved from demolition after a campaign by Save Britain’s Heritage. SAVE secured a reprieve from an application for demolition, and working with architect Huw Thomas drew up proposals for its reuse as a centre for displaying small boats of the fleet.
By Marcus Binney
Search 100 Buildings 100 Years
Look for buildings by entering the name of a building or architect or browsing the drop down list. Each entry gives the architect and location, and the icons show listing status. Where available, we have linked to detailed online information about the building, such as the Historic England listing description.
