Heritage Assessment of Maclaines Warehouses, the Canal Basin, Exeter for Topsham Brewery and Forward Space

Keystone Historic Buildings Consultants 50 Blackboy Road Exeter EX4 6TB 01392435728 [email protected] https://www.keystone-historic-buildings.com Report K/928 December 2019 revision Frontispiece. Top. Elevation facing the canal basin Below. Elevation facing the Exe. Contents

Page 1 - Introduction 1-2 The Site 1 The Brief 1 Methodology 1-2

2 - Statutory and non-statutory controls 2-3 Listing 2 Conservation Area 2 The Canal Basin Masterplan 2-3

3 - Historical Development of the of the Setting 3-12 1830-1900 3-9 The 20th Century 9-12

4 - Units 1 and 2 13-28 4.1 Unit 1 17-24 4.2 Unit 2 24-28

5 - Units 3 and 4 29-38

Schedule of External Joinery 39-49

Provisional Phaes and Annoted Plans 50-61

6 - Heritage Assessment of the warehouse range in 2019 63-68 6.1 - Archaeological Potential below Ground 63 6.2 - The Setting 63-67 6.3 – The Warehouse Range 68

7 - Impact Assessment 69-72

8 – Sources and Acknowledgements 73-74

Appendix One 75-78 Selective timeline

Appendix Two 79 Scope of Heritage Assessment

Conditions and Limitations 80 Fig.1. Identification of the warehouse range units used in this document. Heritage Assessment of Maclaines Warehouses, the Canal Basin, Exeter for Topsham Brewery and Forward Space (based on guidance from Exeter City Council’s Conservation Officer)

SX9212891917 1 - Introduction

This assessment has been prepared for Topsham Brewery and Forward through Robbie Thompson of Shape Studio following pre-application advice from Andrew Pye, Exeter City Council’s Principal Project Manager (Heritage).

The Site The site consists of a warehouse range built on the east side of the Canal Basin at Exeter Quay. The range consists of four separately-roofed warehouse units built in three phases. In this assessment they are referred to as Units 1-4, north to south [Fig.1]. Units 3 and 4 were built together as a double warehouse. The building range is aligned north-east south-west, but for simplicity’s sake it is escribed as on a north-south alignment in this document. The whole range is now known as ‘Maclaines Warehouse’. This was the name painted on the north wall of Unit 1 in the early 1960s. The name given to the range in the 1970s list description in ‘North Warehouse’, to distinguish it from ‘South Warehouse’ (now a cookery school and bakery) on the opposite side of the Basin.

The setting of the buildings is a highly significant area of historic Exeter. This includes material remains of the City’s industrial history as it related to the River Exe from Saxon times to the late 20th century when the character of the area became focussed on tourism, leisure, heritage and new housing taken advantage of waterside views.

The most recent long-term use of the warehouses was for a maritime museum that closed in 1997. Since then the buildings have had short-term uses or been only partially used. At the time of the assessment, Units 1 and 2 were in partial use by the Topsham Brewery, Units 3 and 4 partly used for kayak storage and a gym and partly disused. There are proposals to bring both warehouses back into full use, requiring some amendments to the fabric and layout of the buildings. This Heritage Assessment was commissioned on the advice of Exeter City Council to assist with discussions about these amendments.

The Brief The brief to Keystone was to follow the guidance of Exeter City Council’s Principal Project Manager (Heritage) in an e-mail of 22 August 2019 (see Appendix One).

Methodology The approach taken has been a combination of observation and photographic recording combined with some documentary research, bearing in mind the suggested limitations of the latter in the guidance from Exeter City Council. In 2000 Keystone, working with Exeter Archaeology, produced a report ‘Archaeological, Historical and Conservation Study of the Exeter Canal Basin’, Exeter Archaeology Report No. 00.18, April 2000, for Exeter City Council

1 Estates Services. This study included the warehouse range with documentary research undertaken by Exeter Archaeology. This document updates and, where necessary, corrects the 2000 account of the warehouse range. Documentation for the City is unusually rich but is not catalogued in detail at the Devon Archives and Local Studies Service. A swift trawl for this Heritage Assessment found little additional to the documents cited in the 2000 report. Use has also been made of two archaeological watching briefs on adjacent land, provided to Keystone from the City’s Historic Environment Record.

2 - Statutory and non-statutory controls

Listing The warehouse range was listed Grade 2 in 1974 when the buildings and canal basin were used by a maritime museum. The warehouses were called ‘North Warehouse (occupied by the Exeter Maritime Museum)’ and provided with a very short list description containing a number of inaccuracies.

‘CANAL BASIN 1. 1092 North Warehouse (occupied by The Exeter Maritime Museum) SX 9291 15/723 II 2. Typical mid C19 warehouse. Limestone and red brick. Various windows, casements. Two storeys. Hipped slate roof’.

In fact Units 1, 3 and 4 are 1830s and 3-storey, Units 3 and 4 are largely built of local purplish volcanic stone. Unit 2 is 1901 and 2-storey but with 3 tiers of openings.

Conservation Area The warehouse range is sited in Exeter’s ‘Riverside’ Conservation Area. This has a City Council Conservation Area Appraisal and Management Plan of 2005. The Basin is described as ‘of great historical importance, although has suffered from under-use of its listed warehouse buildings since the Maritime Museum closed in the early 1990s.’ Also directly relevant to the warehouse range is the following: ‘All of the historic buildings that surround the basin are of value both internally and externally, and provide excellent opportunities for the regeneration of this important site and its continued development in the future of Exeter as a maritime city.’ The warehouse range is noted as ‘of central importance to the setting of the Canal Basin, lying as they do between it and the river’.

The Canal Basin Masterplan In 2004 the City adopted the ‘Canal Basin Masterplan’, describing and illustrating how design principles should be implemented in the Canal Basin area. As it has turned out since, several recommendations for the setting of the warehouse range in that document have not been executed, e.g. a new building at its north end (where there is now the Topsham Brewery garden). A considerable gap was suggested between the south end of the range and any new building to south, to allow for views and pedestrian access between the Basin and the river. There is a now only a narrow fenced-off gap between the range and a new building to the south. However, the recommendations applied to the warehouse range in the Masterplan still stand.

‘Site J: Former Maritime Museum and Warehouse Buildings Uses • A mix of uses which involve minimal intervention to the fabric of the buildings is required. • Ground floor uses could include specialist retail, leisure or craft workshops. Upper

2 floors could include leisure, exhibition, office or craft workshop space.

Architectural Design • No new openings will be permitted on the main elevations fronting the basin and river. A very limited number of openings may be permissible on the other elevations where they serve an essential requirement. • Some limited roof lighting may be permissible on internal roof pitches. • Existing loading doors and other features will remain intact. New works should incor- porate these features. • The impact of utilities including ventilation or ducting should be kept to the minimum and be as inconspicuous as possible.’ (Canal Basin Masterplan, 2004, p.10)

3 - Historical Development of the of the Setting

The early history of the canal and the area in which the Basin was built is provided in summary in the 2000 report ‘Archaeological, Historical and Conservation Study of the Exeter Canal Basin’, Exeter Archaeology Report No. 00.18, April 2000 and not repeated here.

1830-1900 The warehouses are part of the early 19th century improvements to the infrastructure of the port of Exeter. By this period the trade in woollen cloth, which had been the basis of Exeter’s prosperity, had more or less finished, but other goods continued to be traded at the port. Access for vessels, which were getting larger in the period, was constrained by the silting up of the river and the canal, the canal first built in the 16th century but extended, deepened and widened in several phases in the late 17th and early 18th centuries. Other difficulties were shortage of quay space and frequent flooding at the quay, which made loading and unloading ships hazardous. Dues on traded goods made up the bulk of the City’s income and this provid- ed a powerful motive for improvements.

In 1819, James Green (1781-1849), who had been appointed general surveyor of the Devon county bridges roads, etc. in 1808, was asked to report on further improvements to the port. Green had been born in Birmingham, the son of a surveyor and apprenticed to John Rennie, who designed many bridges, canals, docks and warehouses. He worked with Rennie on the Plymouth Breakwater and settled in Devon aged 26, working on various schemes before his appointment as County surveyor. In addition to working for the county Green undertook many large engineering surveys and works in Somerset, Dorset, and Cornwall. He had experience of canals, having engineered the Bude Canal in Cornwall (1819-1823) and the Rolle Canal in North Devon (1823-1827).

Green’s report of 1820 to the City recommended a two-mile extension of the canal to Turf and dredging to 12 feet. His report was endorsed by Thomas Telford and the City’s Navigation Com- mittee was authorised to proceed with the work. Various difficulties were encountered, e.g. obstructions on the bed of the river, and a further report from Green recommended raising of the banks to allow access for vessels with a 15-ft draught and the construction of a Basin which would allow ships to be loaded and unloaded in still water. Telford also supported this second report and the work was continued, the canal extension being formally completed in Septem- ber 1827, and the Basin, where water levels were controlled by a lock, opened in September 1830 [Fig.2]. In October The Exeter and Plymouth Gazette published ‘before and after’ plans of the work [Fig.3].

3 Fig.2. The opening of the basin in 1830, before the warehouses were built. Reproduced with kind permission of the Devon and Exeter Institution.

Fig.3. Plan of the canal and Basin improvements, after (top) and before, published in 1830 in a newspaper account of the opening of the Basin, Exeter and Plymouth Gazette, Saturday 02 October 1830.

4 The new Basin was quickly provided with a grey Torquay limestone boundary wall and warehouses on the river (east) side and coal wharves along its west side. The first warehouse, Unit 1, was designed and specified by Green, who also provided ‘a general plan’ for other Basin warehouses in 1834. Green was a competent architect as well as an engineer and designed a wide variety of buildings. He designed his own house on St David’s Hill (the core of what is now the Imperial Hotel), prisons, pubs (the Turf) and country houses.

Map evidence shows Green’s warehouse in place by 1835 [Fig.4]. It was built of grey Torquay limestone rubble, its east elevation rising from the Basin’s boundary wall, with a low-pitched slate roof. By the date of the 1839 tithe map a second freestanding double warehouse of mirror plan blocks (Units 3, 4) had been built to south [Fig.5]. The double warehouse was not quite as tall as Green’s, but the two blocks also had low-pitched slate roofs. Between Units 1 and 3 there was a roadway with gatepiers on the river side, part of the boundary wall arrangement. The second warehouse, which absorbed the grey Torquay limestone boundary wall on its ground floor on the east side, was built by and for Messrs Hooper, Exeter builders. In 1835, just before, Hoopers had erected the southern of the surviving pair of grander 5-storey bonded warehouses on the east side of the quay. Similar building materials were employed in both Hoopers’ warehouses: purplish volcanic stone rubble, some with the characteristic quartz streaks from the Poccombe quarry, just outside Exeter, with some red brick dressings.

Fig.4. Extract from a map of Exeter published 1835, drawn by R Brown. This shows Unit 1, Green’s warehouse.

5 Fig.5. Extract from the 1839 tithe map for St Thomas parish, showing the double warehouse, Units 3 and 4, had been built.

The City’s hopes of rising profits in canal tolls as a result of their massive investment in the port improvements, which put it into debt, were dashed by the arrival of the railway in Exeter in 1844. While this did not bring trade through the port to a halt and links were made between the port and the railway at the Basin, the railway offered an alternative transport system for goods that was not limited by the size of ships. Ship size increased massively in the later 19th century as propulsion changed from sail to steam and ships increasingly required deep water access to quays. Over time, the port of Exeter, in line with other estuarine ports, simply could not accommodate larger ships. Trade and passenger vessels shifted to deep water ports like Cardiff and Liverpool.

By 1850 some of the coal wharves on the west side of the Basin had acquired buildings. An 1852 lease plan clearly shows the roadway between the Units 1 and 2/3 with its gatepiers [Fig.6]. In 1865 negotiations with the South Devon Railway began for rail access to the Basin, and in June 1867 7-foot broad gauge track was laid, being used principally for the carriage of timber. A third rail was added by 1870 to allow standard gauge wagons access, but the broad gauge company declined to work it, necessitating an expensive transfer to the London and South Western Company at St David’s Station.

The OS 1:500 map of Exeter, surveyed in 1875 shows rail access to the Basin [Fig.7]. Turntables at the corners of the Basin head provided wagon access a short distance down each side to connect with the warehouse range and the coal wharves. The Haven Banks gasworks was rebuilt in 1878 and in 1903 a tramway was installed to carry coal into the works from the Basin. Storage and the processing of timber was a major activity around the Basin. By the date of the first edition OS map, surveyed in 1888 there were sawmills (established in 1852) on the site of what would later be the City’s electricity station, an open timber yard to north of Maclaines warehouse and some of the former coal wharves had been changed to a timber yard [Fig.8].

Two late 19th century photographs give a good impression of the Basin and the historic industrial context of Maclaines warehouse range [Figs.9, 10]. One includes a remnant painted

6 Fig.6. Lease plan, DALSS, ECA, D2/661.

Fig.7. Extract from the OS 1:500 map of Exeter, surveyed in 1875, sheet 80.10.2.

7 Fig.8. Extract from the 1st edn. OS map, surveyed in 1888, published 1890, sheet 80.10.

Fig.9. Pre-1901 photograph taken from the head of the Basin. www.heardfamilyhistory.org.uk. Reproduced with the Permission of Nick Heard.

8 Fig.10. Late 19th century photograph showing the south end of Unit 4, the Basin wharves cluttered with timber. www.heardfamilyhistory.org.uk. Reproduced with the Permission of Nick Heard. sign on the north wall of Unit 1, ‘Peters and Hamlyn’. This was a firm of wholesale grocers in Exeter who had been using part, at any rate, of the warehouse range since at least 1876 and may have been using Units 1, 3 and 4 at this date. Another photograph, from the south, shows the south end Unit 4, but is principally valuable for giving an impression of the Basin at that date, with ships moored up, its quaysides cluttered with piles of timber and trees in the distance a reminder that the area north-west of the Basin had yet to be intensively developed.

The 20th Century In 1901, at the request of Peters and Hamlyn the old roadway between Units 1 and 3/4 of Maclaines warehouse was infilled by a red brick warehouse, narrower than its stone-walled neighbours. The new building and some amendments for Peters and Hamlyn were connected with the storage of sugar. The 2nd edition OS map 1:25”, revised in 1904, shows the new building [Fig.11]. It also shows a narrow addition to the north end of the Unit 1. In 1903-04 the sawmill site, which had been acquired by the Council in 1899 was redeveloped as the Council’s electricity station, a handsome building in a free Baroque style, designed by the Council architect, Donald Cameron.

The Ordnance Survey map revised in 1932 [Fig.12] shows the wagon rails on the east side of the Basin extended past the front of the warehouse range as far as a tank, lying south of Unit 4. The rails passed beneath an open sided canopy which had been built on to the west side of Units 1 and 2. This provided shelter for unloading goods from the Basin. By this date the lean-to on the north end of Unit 1 had been reduced in size on map evidence. In 1937, with petroleum traffic increasing, a part of the north-east side of the Basin was removed, to allow vessels of up to 125 feet to turn. Trade declined during the war, with many of the coasters falling victim to enemy action, while the Basin wall was damaged during the blitz of 1942.

9 Fig.11. Extract from the 2nd. edn. OS map, revised 1904, published 1905, sheet 80.10.

Fig.12. Extract from the OS map, revised and published in 1932, sheet 80.10.

10 There were significant changes to the setting of the Basin by 1966. The power station had closed in 1960. A substantial section on the south-west side of the Basin was removed in the early 1950s, seemingly on the site of the bomb damage, to enable vessels of up to 160 feet to turn around. The 1969 OS map shows that the wagon rails round the head of the Basin had been removed [Fig.13].

Fig.13. Extract from the 1969 OS map, sheet SX9291. Crown Copyright, AL100016500.

From 1969 the Exeter Maritime Museum made use of the Basin for displaying boats. This also made use of parts of buildings on the east side of the Quay, where visitors bought their tickets before crossing the river by ferry to look at vessels [Fig.14]. Keystone has not discovered if the Maritime Museum used Maclaines from 1969, or slightly later. In the 1980s the museum enterprise was moved entirely to Maclaines and the Basin. For a time the Maritime Museum was extremely successful as a tourist attraction, particularly for children and was considered a reason for visiting Exeter almost equal to the Cathedral.

From the 1980s the Quay and Basin area were redeveloped to provide a mix of waterside leisure and heritage facilities along with new uses for old buildings. The 5-storey bonded warehouses on the Quay were adapted as offices with restaurants below; the cellars built into the Colleton Hill cliff were repurposed from small-scale industrial uses to leisure-related retail. In the setting of the Basin the old Electricity station was adapted as the Exeter Climbing Centre. The adapted buildings survive in association with late 20th century residential and other developments that replaced slightly shabby and ramshackle buildings associated with boat maintenance on the edge of the Basin. Waterside views inevitably attracted residential developers and new housing was built on the east side of the river and west of the Basin.

Some changes close to Maclaines warehouses on the west side of the river and around the basin are acknowledged by the City Council to have design drawbacks. Piazza Terracina, immediately north and north west of the warehouse range is described in the Conservation

11 Fig.14. Museum boats in the Basin in front of Unit 4. Illustrated London News, 1.10.1975.

Area Appraisal as a large and ‘poorly enclosed public space’. The large Haven Banks residential development, which dominates the historic townscape north of Piazza Terracina is criticised for failing to relate well to the surrounding riverside built form. The original intention of a pedestrian route through the development was, and continued to be, obstructed by residents’ objections.

According to oral history changes were made to the warehouse range both by the City Council as landlords, but also by the Museum, the latter possibly without permission. The relationship between the museum and its City landlords was a difficult one. The condition of Maclaines warehouses was an issue, particularly in the 1990s. Documentation relating to the Maritime Museum is on closed or time-limited access in the Devon Archives and Local Studies Service. The Museum ran into financial difficulties and eventually closed permanently in 1997. The bulk of the collection was transferred to Lowestoft and has since been broken up and sold. Following closure, Maclaines had a series of temporary uses.

In 2006 consent was granted for alterations to the warehouse range, but these were not carried out (ECC, 06/2495/LBC). The proposals departed significantly from the Canal Basin Masterplan guidance adopted two years earlier and appear to have included the removal of all the historic doors on the Basin elevation, plus a new opening on to the river elevation. The interiors of the units were to be plastered, including obscuring the roof structures apart from the trusses.

A planning application on behalf of the Topsham Brewery was given consent in 2018 (ECC, 18/1359/FUL). This included covering the cobbled ground floor of Unit 1 with a timber floor (some cobbles continue to be visible at the threshold and an internal doorway between Units 1 and 2). It also covered the installation of a bar and lavatories on the ground floor of Unit 1 and the creation of a micro brewery on the ground floor of Unit 2. Permission was also granted for an outside seating area at the north end of Unit 1. The Topsham Brewery moved into Units 1 and 2 in August 2018.

12 4 - Units 1 and 2

Documentation

In June 1834 The City Chamber’s Quay and Haven Committee (known as the Navigation Committee) recommended that ‘a Warehouse of 3 storeys be forthwith built on the Basin according to the plan produced by Mr Green making the clear width of the building in the interior 35 feet instead of 30 and the clear height of the understorey 10 feet instead of 9 feet. The estimated expense of which with the alterations will not exceed £450 exclusive of the materials in the Chamber’s possession.’ (DALSS, ECA book 5/1. Quay and Haven Committee (Navigation Committee), 03.06.1834). The document indicates that there had been second thoughts about the dimensions of the building.

Green had produced a ‘general plan’ for Basin warehouses by the meeting in the following month. This was approved and it was recommended that the first basin warehouse should be built ‘forthwith’ to his specifications. The City Chamber was to provide the materials (except scaffolding) and there were four named builders invited to tender for the mason’s work (DALSS, ECA book 5/1. Quay and Haven Committee (Navigation Committee), 07.07.1834).

The warehouse east wall was built with a boundary wall between the river and the new basin, with a roadway between the two, south of the new warehouse, with gate piers on the river side.

The shell of the warehouse was completed by January 1835 when it was recommended that the slater’s bill for £38 10s 11d should be paid (Quay and Haven Committee (Navigation Committee), 12.01.1835). The earliest occupier so far identified (by Exeter Archaeology) was a Mr Cockram, who applied to rent the ‘upper loft’ for a five-year term in February 1837. This is the earliest evidence for the warehouses sometimes being let on a floor by floor basis. The warehouse is shown on an 1835 map of Exeter drawn by R Brown as the only warehouse then built. By the date of the 1839 tithe map for St Thomas parish the double stone warehouse to its south had been erected.

In 1848 the first two floors were let to a Mr Sharland, possibly the Paris Street wine and spirit merchant; the topmost floor was then untenanted (DALSS, ECA Property Schedule Rentals).

The OS map 1:500 surveyed in 1876, sheet 80.10 shows the roadway, boundary wall and gate piers between the north warehouse and the double warehouse to its south. By 1876 the warehouse appears to have been occupied by Peters and Hamlin, wholesale grocers, established in 1826 primarily as tea and coffee merchants, who had premises in 32 South Street and property with warehousing in Palace Gate. In 1871 they had bought out Tucker and Son, wholesale and family tea dealers and grocers (Western Times, Saturday 1 July 1871). They may have acquired a residue of the lease on the double warehouse in the same year (DALSS, 60/5/25a-c). They dealt in spirits, Labrador cod, currants and sugar, putting adverts in the local papers in the 1870s and 1880s when they had received shipments.

By 1878 they were using at least part of the basin warehousing for sugar storage. In that year they advertised sugar for sale discharged at their stores, City Basin.

SUGAR ‘PETERS and HAMLIN are now discharging at their Stores, City Basin, ex-Energy a Cargo SAYS & J.C.K. extra LOAVES; also Fine French Crystals, in 2 Cwt. bags. and can offer, to arrive early in April, ETIENNE LOAVES and Cubes in 2 Cwt. Barrels. For particulars, apply 32, South-Street (Exeter and Plymouth Gazette Daily Telegrams , Thursday 14 March 1878)’.

13 Etienne sugar was the first granulated sugar produced in the new world. It was processed by Etienne de Bore (1741-1820) on his plantations in Louisiana using slave labour, the basis of the sugar industry in the period. Granulated sugar became the colony’s primary commodity crop. In 1881 Peters and Hamlin described themselves as ‘Importers of Foreign Loaves, Newfoundland Cod Fish and General Merchants’ (Exeter and Plymouth Gazette Daily Telegrams, Monday 17 October 1881). By 1882 they were paying rent not only the north warehouse, but also the double warehouse to the south – this on a seven year lease (although were apparently sub-letting) and they are shown renting all three units in 1900 (DALSS, ECA Property Schedule Rentals, includes ECA 211). In 1886 Peters and Hamlin disposed of their ‘Family and Retail Business’ in South Street (Exeter and Plymouth Gazette, Tuesday 29 June 1886) and concentrated on their import business, selling on via the Old Post Office in Queen Street which was adapted for them. A court case in 1891 concerning a damaged cargo of sugar gives some details about the transport of sugar to the warehouse. Peters and Hamlin were described as ‘in the habit of continually importing large and numerous cargoes of sugar of different kinds from various parts of the world’. The damaged cargo had been transported on a chartered schooner from Beaumaris in Wales and was bringing the sugar to Exeter from Hamburg. It consisted of boxes of cut cubed sugar and bags. At the basin warehouse it was unloaded by Mr Isaac, the foreman and employees at the building. The foreman called Mr Peters to the warehouse when he saw that some of the bags of sugar were damaged. A Lloyds Agent was involved. Sugar was evidently awkward to store, subject to ‘sweating’ and damaged if in contact with anything damp (Western Times, Wednesday 08 July 1891).

A late 19th century photograph (pre-1901) shows the warehouses from the north west [see Fig.9]. A narrow 2-storey timber-framed building under a lean-to roof had been added to the north end of Unit 1, partly obscuring ‘Peters and Hamlyn’ painted in large letters on the north end wall. The lean-to building has a sign ‘Mitchell and Son, Building Material Merchants’. Mitchell and Son were neighbours of Peters and Hamlyn at Palace Gate. They specialised in Bath stone work for church building.

In December 1900 Peters and Hamlin asked the Navigation Committee if their warehousing could be enlarged by infilling the roadway between the north warehouse and the double warehouse (they appear to have been occupying both by this date). They wrote: ‘a Ground Floor with another over would meet the requirements and they would pay a fair percentage of the outlay and in all likelihood considerably enlarge their traffic through the Canal’. The Surveyor submitted sketch plans and estimated the cost of the works at £400. The Committee agreed on the terms of a 14 year lease at £2 per annum and 5% on the expenditure (DALSS, ECA Navigation Committee Minutes 1896-1906, 12.12.1900).

The work was reported as completed in December 1901. This is Unit Two, the brick building between the two stone-built warehouses. Its ground floor incorporates the remains of the gatepiers of the roadway between the quay and the basin which were absorbed into its construction. Meanwhile a new customs duty on imported sugar had been implemented in April and this had necessitated physical changes to Peters and Hamlin’s stores as they explained in a letter to the Navigation Committee in December 1901:

‘READ letter from Messrs Peters and Hamlin stating that in April last in consequence of the increased duty on Sugar it became necessary for them to provide a Bond at the Basin for the Storage of that commodity to meet the requirements of H.M. Customs, which necessitated certain alterations at their Store. The work had to be carried out by them with expedition to meet the urgency of the case, although it should have

14 devolved upon the Council, to whom there was no time to appeal, and having regard to these circumstances Messrs Peters and Hamlin asked that the expense incurred, £41 9s 6d, might be refunded to them, and added to the cost of the New Store erected by the Council for them, on which they were quite prepared to pay the interest that the Council required. RESOLVED, that it be reported to the Council that the course suggested by Messrs Peters and Hamlin be pursued, and the sum of £41 9s 6d paid them upon the Surveyor being satisfied that the charge is a fair one for the work executed’ (DALSS, ECA Navigation Committee Minutes 1896-1906, 11.12.1901).

It is not clear to the authors of this report what the £41 worth of changes to the warehouses might have been. Goods in bonded stores were under the supervision of the Customs authority and were free of duty until they were sold on. Bonded stores had to be secure. Re-packaging and some processing of the goods was permitted while they were in store.

The 1st edn. 25” OS map, sheet 80.10, surveyed in 1888 shows railway sidings had been built down both sides of the north end of the basin with wagon turntables at each corner [see Fig.8]. The 2nd edn. OS, surveyed in 1904 shows the infill building [see Fig.11]. It also shows a narrow addition to the north end of the north warehouse, open fronted on its north side. In 1912 Peters and Hamlin were in occupation of what was described as five warehouses, probably the entire range, north to south, although they may have been sub-letting.

Something of the scale of Peters and Hamlin’s sugar business is evident in 1915 court cases when they were taken to court by grocers in Taunton and South Molton for failure to fulfil contracts for sugar supply, the war preventing imports. In one month alone in 1914 they had orders for 30,000 barrels of sugar, but only 38 in store (Exeter and Plymouth Gazette , Wednesday 05 May 1915).

Peters and Hamlin were still installed in ‘Two warehouses and Buildings, the Basin’ in 1922 (DALSS, ECA Property Schedule Rentals). The date at which they gave up the premises has not been discovered.

By the date of the 1932 OS map the wagon rails had been extended south, past the basin front of the warehouses, under a canopy (some structure survives) that had been built across part of the front of the north unit and the infill unit to its south. What remains are five vertical iron girders supporting the outer ends of girders set into the front walls of the northern three warehouses, and the structure is strengthened by a couple of tie-rods. Some of the girders include the embossed date of 1914. The pre-1901 building added to the north end of the north warehouse had been truncated or rebuilt as an enclosed block at the east end with a walled compartment to the west [see Fig.12]. By the date of the 1969 OS map the wagon rails between the basin and warehouses had been removed [see Fig.13]. By 1962 a photograph of the rear (east) elevation of the warehouse range has painted signs on the north end wall, ‘Maclaines’ and across Units 1 and ‘Veales Ltd’. Veales were grocers. The range of warehouses was listed together as one Grade 2 item ‘North Warehouse’ in 1974.

From 1969-1997 the row of warehouses and the basin were used as a Maritime Museum, displaying a diverse and important collection of boats belonging to Major David Goddard. Before the 1980s the entrance to the museum was from the quay, using part of the two quay warehouses for exhibits and the ticket office. Visitors crossed the river on the ferry to see the exhibits in the basin and in the quay warehouses. In the 1980s the museum moved over to Haven Banks and vacated the quay. The relationship between Major Goddard and the City, as his landlords, proved a difficult one. The Museum went into temporary liquidation in 1992 but

15 was re-opened. Documentation covering the problems between the City and the owner of the boat collection was deposited at the DALSS. Some items have been withdrawn, others have restricted status or are closed until 2028. None has been seen by Keystone.

The Topsham Brewery report oral history from an elderly gentleman who worked at the Maritime Museum, including making amendments to the building. The staircase in the north west corner of the north warehouse is reported to be 1970s, installed for the museum by the City. Alterations to the ground floor, including the installation of additional posts to the arcading, set in concrete in the cobbled floor are said to be 1980s and carried out by the museum.

After 1997 the warehouses had various temporary functions, including retail and arts uses. The Topsham Brewery moved into Units 1 and 2 in 2018 but are currently only using the ground floors.

Fig.15 The west front of James Green’s c.1835 warehouse - Unit 1 looking across the basin.

16 4.1- Unit 1

Building Materials

Torquay limestone rubblestone with ashlar dressings used for the arched heads of the windows and quoins. Welsh slate roof.

Layout

Three-storey warehouse facing west onto the Canal Basin comprising a single space on each floor. The original stair rose against the east end of the south wall but the space is now floored over. The present stair dates from the c.1980s and occupies the northwest corner of the building within a enclosed by walls of concrete blockwork. The stair now rises only to the first floor level.

Exterior

It is clear that the warehouse was built with the eastern wall of the basin precinct, since the masonry of the west end wall of the warehouse is continuous with that of the tall boundary wall.

The West Front was originally symmetrical with a central doorway flanked by windows on each level. The doorways are of sturdy construction with plain solid timber frames and contain double doors of framed and braced plank construction [Fig.27 -see below]. The doors appear to be the originals although the ground floor one has been repaired and apparently re-hung on new hinges. The early photograph of the front of the warehouse [Fig.9 – see above] shows that the upper doors had external flaps that could be dropped to provide a flat platform for loading and unloading goods. Iron rings which still remain in the doorframe were probably associated with these flaps.

The original window openings, with their segmental arch heads still survive although the ground floor left-hand (north) window had been replaced by a secondary doorway before the early photograph was taken, and the first floor right (north) window has been reduced in size using brick which accommodates a cast-iron roof girder from a 20th century shelter built against the front wall. Most of the windows contain plain glazed timber two-light windows which are thought to be 20th century replacements although the slatted timber window on the left (north) side of the second floor level is older. The pre-1900 photograph appears to show all the upper windows containing similar windows. It also has internal vertical security bars. The ground floor right (south) window has external Fig.16 The southern ground floor window on the west front.

17 vertical iron bars, but, since they are fixed to the timber frame, they probably date from the 20th century, but maybe from before the days of the Maritime Museum since the frame and mullion have an external rebate and include the fittings for a locking bar [Fig.16].

Another feature of the west front is the survival of the original hoist-beam with a hook on its front end from which a pulley could be hung directly above the doorhead. The horizontal beam is now retracted but a loop and a hook system inside could be used to extend the beam further out from the front (see interior description). The pre-1900 photograph shows what appears to be a similar beam projecting forward above the second floor doorway. This has now gone and the remains of an electric powered wire winch system now survive (see interior description).

The north wall is blind. The only primary features it includes are a series of paired vents at first and second floor levels. The lower tier is blocked with mid-late 20th century cement. These appear to coincide with the crossbeams carrying the upper floors and presumably designed to ventilate the ends of the timbers. Patches of brick at ground floor level are assumed to be associated with the construction or demolition of secondary sheds built against the wall and known from early maps and photographs.

Fig.17 The east front of the northern warehouse, looking over the river.

18 The east wall faces the river. It has two short windows to the ground floor level with three each to the upper levels, although the first floor left (south) window has always been blind. The others contain probably 20th century glazed two-light timber frames. However, a photograph showing this side of the warehouse from 1963 [Fig.18] shows slatted windows to the second floor and a boarded up window in the centre of the first floor level. Its present timber-framed two-light casement with glazing bars looks like a copy of its neighbour to right (north), but it does not occupy the space quite so sweetly. We know it dates from after 1963 and the northern one was there in 1963. This has an internal iron lock-bar, associated with undatable fittings . However, assuming pine construction, it is unlikely that this window-frame dates from more than a few decades earlier than 1963.

The ground floor windows appear to have the same external iron grilles they had in 1963. Their plain timber two-light frames display no evidence of their date.

Fig.18 A cropped view from a photograph depicting the frozen River Exe during the winter of 1962-3 showing the east side of the warehouses. ‘Cycling up the frozen river’. 1963. Photograph by and © Michael Wride, reproduced with his kind permission and thanks to David Cornforth The south wall originally overlooked the lane from the river wharf into the basin precinct. The original external south front appears to have had a central double doorway at ground floor level flanked by windows and with three main windows to the upper floors with a fourth narrow light at the east end. These narrow single-light windows have plain timber frames with internal shutters on the north side [Figs. 19 & 20]. The first floor one is blocked with mid-late 20th century concrete blockwork on the south side but the second floor example still shows external (south) vertical iron security bars. These shuttered windows date from before 1901, and might be primary.

The three first floor window openings to west were wider [Fig.21]. The western one appears to have been converted to the present doorway. Although the archaeological evidence for this change is presently elusive there is no logical or map evidence for a Fig.19 The shutter on the inside of the narrow eastern first floor window - north side. The hinges are not convincingly primary. 19 Fig.20 The narrow north windows from the south.

Fig.21 The south side of the south wall from within the adjoining warehouse.

Fig.22 The central ground floor doorway - north side.

Fig.23 The secondary doorway within the blocking of the eastern doorway in the south wall.

primary first floor doorway in this position. The doorway is assumed to have replaced a primary window in 1901 or later. The other two windows are blocked with 20th century concrete blockwork on the originally exterior south side. Internally they retain plain timber-framed two-light window frames with an upper transom for a narrow upper tier of fixed-pane glazing with top-tilting casements below. These are discounted as primary windows. One might suggest a late 19th century, but more likely early-mid 20th century, date for these frames. The three wider second floor windows were renewed, probably in the 1960s or 70s under the tenancy of the Maritime Museum, and comprise plain timber frames with single-pane glazing.

The central ground floor doorway is believed to be a primary opening which contains double doors of framed and braced plank construction – the usual form of construction for the ware- houses of the canal basin and indeed the Quay [Fig.22]. They have plain strap hinges hung on pintles, unlike the doorways on the east front. For this reason we cannot be wholly confident that they are primary. That said, they are certainly old warehouse doors dating, we assume, from the 19th century. It is tempting to suggest that they are the 1901 double doors refitted here in the 1960s or 70s, but this is unlikely since the hinges are of a different style from the west first floor doorway to Unit 2.

It is suggested above that this primary doorway opening was originally flanked by windows. The western one shows some evidence of lower masonry within the primary opening which now contains an early 20th century door-sized window in a timber frame. The eastern opening is more interesting from an historic point of view. This contains a single door which is narrower than the putative window opening. The door is built in the same style as the central south double doors but includes a stub wall on the west side [Fig.23]. This is rather like the joinery solution to the conversion of the northern window on the east front of the warehouse.

20 Interior

Ground Floor: The ground floor has a good cobbled floor. This is now largely hidden by the present boarded floor built on top but can still be seen in places, notably in the western entrance lobby and an area inside the southern central doorway. Late 20th century photographs show it interrupted by patches of mid-late 20th century cement associated with the replacement of posts supporting the first floor crossbeams at the western end.

The long east-west side walls include two tiers of horizontal timber lacing, the lower ones directly below window sill level and the upper ones positioned under the crossbeams. The first floor is supported on a suitably sturdy structure [Fig.24]. Eight timber posts support the four main crossbeams creating an interior five bays east-west and three north-south. In fact, only the eastern four posts are original – massive square pine posts with chamfered corners, with some displaying ‘batch-marks’ which were produced in their Scandinavian or Baltic country of origin, by the exporting merchants, to ensure their safe and traceable delivery to wherever they were sent. The western four are replacements from the 1960s or 70s [Fig.25]. These are of lesser scantling than the originals and sometimes made up of two or three timbers; these

Fig.24 The ground floor level looking east showing the first floor structure.

Fig.25 One of the replacement posts - north arcade, east of centre.

Fig.26 Detail of an intermediate crossbeam looking west.

21 are the posts with cement settings inserted into the primary cobbled floor. All support original hefty square-section crossbeams – those on primary posts augmented by cast-iron straps. Further there are axial (east-west) upright timbers set between the posts and supported by straight up-braces from the posts; these are designed to support secondary crossbeams half-way between the main crossbeams [Fig.26]. A series of primary upended joists are notched over the main crossbeams but pass over the top of the lesser intermediary crossbeams where they are held tight by X-braces. These lesser intermediate crossbeams are further strengthened by applied timbers which rise from notched joints in either the side wall laces or the inside lower axial timbers to meet short horizontal pieces supporting a short horizontal piece fixed to the top of the timber, and being the width between the central joists in each bay. The intermediate posts are secondary insertions probably from the mid-late 20th century. The primary structure is rather difficult to read in places where it is confused by the insertion of new, or removal of old, timbers in the 1960s or 70s. The ground floor has always been open to the underside of the first floor boards.

The first floor includes a small office in the northeast corner and the stairwell in the northwest corner, both walled with 1960-70s concrete blockwork. A major mid-late 20th century intervention was the removal of the second floor structure from the centre of the space.

The floorboards appear to be largely original. Patches of secondary boarding show the sites of the primary stair against the south wall and a couple of hatches just inside the western front doorway. The largest patch is central and represents the position of a primary hatch and is directly below the trimmers in the ceiling joists for s second floor hatch. These indicate that goods could be moved between all three floors inside the warehouse.

Fig.27 The double doors in the middle of the east wall. The hinges are not hung on pintles.

22 The walls include laces on all four sides situated just below windowsill level and the side walls have higher laces to support the second floor crossbeams and joists. The first floor is carried on a similar arrangement of braced posts, along with main and intermediate crossbeams as found on the ground floor except that the timbers are of lesser scantling [Fig.28]. At the west end there is the retractable hoist-beam [Fig.29]. It is strapped to the western intermediate crossbeam by an iron hanger which includes a roller on which the beam sits. The underside of the beam contains a loop set west of the strap and there is evidence for another to east. An iron hook fixed to the east side of the western crossbeam. Using the loops, the hanger and maybe the hook with a rope the beam could be moved outside the west front or retracted to its present position.

Fig.28 The first floor level looking northeast.

Fig.29 The hoist beam.

23 The second floor is open to the roof. As below the well of the mid-late 20th century stair is in the northwest corner. The floor includes a boarded-over hatch situated directly above the central hatch in the western bay in the floor below. To east there are boards over the well of the original stair rising against the south wall.

Here the hoist-beam appears to be fixed so the front which is shown projecting outside on the pre-1900 photograph has evidently been sawn off. Inside there is a winch system based on a large iron drum connecting to belt wheels. This probably 19th century system was converted to electric power when rope was replaced by wire [Fig.30].

The roof is a particularly strong construction [Fig.31]. It is carried on three king post trusses with queen struts fixed together with cast-iron straps and vertical tie-rods. Each end hip is made up of three half trusses. They carry two sets of back purlins and a ridgeboard with dragon ties to the corners. The common rafters and the boards lining the roof pitches are primary. The boarding is covered with late 20th century paper between the common rafters.

Fig.30 Detail of the winch machinery.

Fig.31 The second floor level and roof structure looking northwest.

24 4.2 - Unit 2

Building Materials

English bond red brick and the rear (east) wall includes some earlier masonry from the c.1835 wall of the canal precinct. Welsh slate roof.

Layout

In c.1835 there was a gateway through the eastern precinct wall from the riverside wharf into the canal precinct. It was situated close to the south side of Green’s warehouse (Unit 1). In c.1838-9 a pair of warehouses were erected to south of the wagonway from the gateway (Units 3 & 4). In 1901 Unit 2 was built between the existing warehouses infilling the former wagonway. The front and rear walls are flush with the older warehouses each side and it was built up as tall as Green’s warehouse to north. It is only two storeys high with a tall first floor space open to the roof and the front and rear walls include three tiers of windows to harmonize with its neighbours. The original stair rose against the west end of the north wall. All the partitions on the ground floor level date from the late 20th century or early 21st century [Fig.32].

Exterior

The west front faces onto the canal basin and like the other warehouses, the roof is hipped front and back. Originally there were central doorways to ground and first floor levels, each flanked by windows, with two more windows to the false second floor level. The ground floor level was rearranged in the mid-late 20th century when the doorway was enlarged to south destroying the southern window and the northern window was converted to a man-sized doorway.

Fig.32 The west front.

25 The new openings are flat-headed and are framed with cement. The wide doorway contains double doors dating from the mid-late 20th century but designed to match the 19th century doorways which remain in all four warehouses. The man-door appears to be a genuine 19th century door reused in this former window opening. It is a framed and braced plank door hung on hefty L-shaped strap hinges hung on pintles.

The first floor double doorway is primary [Fig.33]. It has a plain solid timber frame and contains a pair of framed and braced plank doors with internal strap hinges hung on pintles. The original iron locking bar and top bolt also survive on the inside. Three of the upper window openings remain intact but the first floor northern window has been reduced in size with 20th century brickwork associated with the erection of the iron-framed shelter across the front. The windows are timber-framed two-light casements with glazing bars and external vertical iron bars set into the frames. They are judged to be mid-late 20th century replacements.

Fig.33 The fist floor central doorway and flanking windows.

The east front faces onto the river [Fig.34]. The lower walling includes some Torquay limestone from the c.1835 precinct wall. Inside the gateway shows more obviously with the remains of plain gate piers built of rusticated ashlar blocks projecting eastwards a little from the remains of the boundary wall [Fig.35].

Otherwise the east front is 1901 brick with two windows to each level. The ground floor level windows are boarded, but inside the south one can be seen to contain mid-late 20th century timber frame with contemporary shutters. The other contains a simple mid-late 20th century frame designed as the backing for the external boarding. The upper windows are timber two- light casements with glazing bars similar to those in the west front except that they do not have vertical iron bars within the frames. The top two have external iron grilles set into the brick, and repaired brickwork on the first floor windows suggest the same at this level. The 1962-3 photograph [Fig.18 - see above] shows the south first floor window still containing its outer

26 Fig.34 The east front.

Fig.35 The rear (east) wall contains the remains of c.1835 gate piers.

grille and the first floor north window is boarded up. The latter window has since been rebuilt as a timber two-light casement with glazing bars. Since the upper three windows are so similar in style and detail it is assumed that they too have been rebuilt since 1962.

27 Interior

Ground Floor

The floor is cement and the first floor is supported on a series of brick piers built against the walls of the flanking warehouse. The ceiling is seven bays defined by RSJs with the space between comprising plastered jack arches (probably of brick). There is a gap at the west end of the north wall which was presumably provided for the original stair.

First Floor

This tall space is open to the roof over a cement floor. The openings along the long sides belong to the flanking warehouses (Units 1 & 3).

The roof is six bays and carried on king post trusses held together by iron straps [Fig.36]. The hipped ends are created using single central half-trusses with dragon ties to the outer corners. The trusses carry a single set of back purlins and a ridgeboard. The common rafters and boarding are probably primary. The east end of the southern pitch includes original trimmers around a large oval hole in the boards [Fig.37]. Its purpose is not clear.

Fig.36 The roof looking east.

Fig.37 The hole in the southern pitch of the roof. The iron rod projecting from the easr wall could be associated with whatever formerly occupied the hole.

28 5 - Units 3 and 4

Documentation

In July 1834 the Exeter Chamber Navigation Committee reported that James Green had pro- duced a ‘general plan’ for the Basin warehouses, which was approved. (DALSS, ECA book 5/1. Quay and Haven Committee (Navigation Committee), 07.07.1834). The north warehouse (Unit 1), built to his specifications, was completed in January 1835 with a boundary wall on the river Exe side that extended south of his warehouse. In May 1835 Messrs Hooper were reported as having applied for a lease of land adjoining and it was recommended that they should be granted ‘sufficient land to build two warehouses on a three-life lease and at a ground rent of ten shillings per foot frontage. The Hoopers were one of the largest building firms in Exeter, building St Davids Station and the Higher and Lower Markets. Henry Hooper rose to be the City’s Conservative party boss (Newton, 1968, 39) and Mayor of Exeter in 1844. A three-life lease, common in Devon, was held on the length lives of three individuals, with an option for ‘buying in’ a life if one of the original leaseholders died. It made sense for young people with long lives ahead of them to be named on the lease. Hooper’s lease was for 99 years determinable on the lives of Edwin Hooper (Henry’s son), aged 4, Henry Drew, aged 8 and J B Ellicombe, aged 15. Ellicombe was probably a relation of Hugh Ellicombe, who became the City Treasurer in the 1840s.

The basin warehouses were an investment development for Messrs Hooper. The firm was quick to take advantage of new developments at the quay and basin: they were building one of the five-storey bonded warehouses on the east side of the quay in 1835.

A City property schedule of 1839 suggests that the mirror plan warehouses (Units 3 and 4) had not been erected by 1839. It records William, Henry and William Wills Hooper occupying the land ‘Together with the warehouse and buildings to be erected on the said parcel of land’. However, the 1839 tithe map for St Thomas parish shows the warehouses built. They are also shown on an 1850 map. In 1852 the City Council granted Messrs Hooper a lease on a rever- sionary term in one of the recently built warehouses (ECA D2/661). This included a plan.

Early tenants have not been identified. In 1871 the residue of a lease on ‘All that Extensive Warehouse on the Basin’ was up for sale, determinable on the deaths of three lives, aged 40, 45 and 27. This would square in age with two of Hooper’s original named lives, perhaps with the third having died and a new life bought in. The tenant at the time of the sale was Mr James Sanders.

By 1876, the date of the OS map 1:500, sheet 80.10, secondary external staircases had been added at both the north and south ends [see Fig.7]. These were presumably to improve access for undertenants using different floors. In 1877 Haycroft & Pethick, importers of salted foreign hides and other tanning materials and Isaac Lang, corn and seed merchant, were tenants. An 1887 schedule lists them occupying the ‘large warehouse (late W W Hooper)’ although at the time this may have been leased from the wholesale grocers, Peters and Hamlin. The 1st edn. 25” OS map, sheet 80.10, surveyed in 1888 shows railway sidings had been built down both sides of the north end of the basin with wagon turntables at each corner. These extended only as far as Unit One [see Fig.8].

By 1900 Peters and Hamlin were paying rent on Units 3 and 4 and were certainly occupying Unit 3. Unit 2, built for Peters and Hamlin in 1901 infilled the 1830s roadway between the two stone warehouse blocks and made the north wall of Unit 3 an internal party wall. In 1922 Peters and Hamlin were still paying rent on ‘Two Warehouses and Buildings, the Basin’ (DALSS,

29 ECA Property Schedule Rentals). Keystone has not discovered when they vacated the warehouses.

By the date of the 1932 OS map the wagon rails had been extended south, past the basin front of Units 3 and 4 and beyond. A small block had been added to the south end of Unit 4, on the east side [see Fig.12]. By the date of the 1969 OS map the wagon rails between the basin and warehouses had been removed [see Fig.13]. A photograph of 1963 is a useful record of some of the window infill on the east elevation. The range of warehouses was listed together as one Grade 2 item ‘North Warehouse’ in 1974.

From 1969-1997 the row of warehouses and the basin were used as a Maritime Museum, displaying a diverse and important collection of boats belonging to Major David Goddard. Before the 1980s the entrance to the museum was from the quay, using part of the two quay warehouses for exhibits and the ticket office. Visitors crossed the river on the ferry to see the exhibits in the basin and in the quay warehouses. In the 1980s the museum moved over to Haven Banks and vacated the quay. The relationship between Major Goddard and the City, as his landlords, proved a difficult one. The Museum went into temporary liquidation in 1992 but was re-opened. Documentation covering the problems between the City and the owner of the boat collection was deposited at the DALSS. One of the issues was the condition of the warehouses. Some of the documents have been withdrawn from the DALSS, others have restricted status or are closed until 2028. None has been seen by Keystone.

After 1997 the warehouses had various temporary functions, including retail and arts uses. Units 3 and 4, currently disused, are proposed to be adapted for shared office space.

Fig.38 The west front of the pair of southern warehouses looking across the canal basin.

30 Building Materials

Stone rubble, predominantly purple volcanic trap but includes the odd block of other stone including one block of Ham stone. The ground floor level of the rear (east) wall is built of Torquay limestone rubble since the warehouses incorporated the c.1835 boundary wall of the basin precinct.

Layout

The two three-storey warehouses were built together and each is a mirror of the other in terms of plan and appearance. There is no clear evidence for the positions of original stairs on the ground and first floor levels of both warehouses due to 20th century repairs, but there is an ancient timber stair still surviving in the southwest corner of the southern warehouse (Unit 4). The first edition OS map of 1875 clearly shows external stairs rising against the northern and southern end walls of the warehouses but there is clear evidence that the southern external stair is secondary since the first floor doorway from the stair was built as a window. The same is assumed at the north end but the evidence there is less conclusive.

The warehouses are separated by a stone crosswall. There are no connecting doorways at ground floor level but there are two primary openings at both first and second floor levels. Both warehouses have their own roofs which are hipped to front and rear.

Exterior

The west front faces onto the canal basin. The pair have an overall symmetrical four-bay appearance (Fig.38). The ground floor comprises a row of four wide doorways under segmental arch heads, whilst the first and second floor levels have outer doorways and inner windows. The first floor doorways and all four windows have segmental arch heads. The doorways here are different from those in Units 1 & 2 [ Figs 39 & 40]. They have no timber doorframes, and the framed plank double doors have no braces. They have long strap hinges (which curve round the heads where they are under segmental arches) and are fixed to the doors with bolts. They are hung on pintles which are set into the masonry sides of the openings. The ground floor doors have original locking bars on the outside. Those to Unit 3 have been repositioned higher than they were originally. The doors on the upper floors have internal locking bars [Figs 41 & 42].

Fig.39 The outside of the southern ground floor Fig.40 The inside of the northern ground floor doorway of the northern warehouse. doorway of the northern warehouse.

31 Fig.41 The inside of the first floor doorway to Fig.42 The inside of the second floor doorway to the the northern warehouse. southern warehouse with an associated frame containing a pulley. The windows contain timber-framed two-light casements with glazing bars. They look rather similar to those depicted on a 1975 photograph [Fig.12 - see above] except for the second floor window of the southern warehouse (Unit 4) which then had a slatted window; it is now boarded over a late 20th century plain frame. The glazed frames are judged to date from the mid 20th century (before 1975). The first and second floor northern windows are similar timber-framed two-light casements with glazing bars [Fig 43] and are protected by external iron grilles inserted after 1975. The other is the southern first floor timber window containing four fixed panes which also appears to be extant in 1975. There are two more similar windows to the first floor level of the southern warehouse [Fig.49 - see below].

Fig.43 The inside of the second floor window to the northern warehouse.

On the inner jambs of each first floor doorway there are granite blocks set near the top and bottom, each containing a circular hole. It seems that these were provided for pivoting gantries for hoists, as can be seen on the outer sides of the second floor doorways [Fig.44]. However, the pre-1900 Heard photograph shows no sign of such gantries. Instead there are horizontal hoist-beams over the second floor doorways. It seems most likely that these gantries were added in the mid-late 20th century. Even so, the pre-1900 Heard photograph [Fig.9 - see above] does appear to show the granite blocks although the Keystone copy of the photograph is too low a resolution to be sure.

32 Fig.44 Detail of the upper doorways to the southern warehouse with the granite blocks and the iron gantry thought to have been introduced in the late 20th century.

The north and south end walls are both blind at ground floor level. Both had two windows to the first floor and two to the second floors and the arrangement at the south end is shown in an historic photograph from before 1901 - see Fig.10 above. As mentioned above the west ones at first floor level were converted to doorways before 1875. This was certainly the case in the south end wall [Fig.45]. At the north end the other first floor window openings is blocked up with brick and the first floor openings now contain single-pane windows dating from the mid-late 20th century [Fig.46]. At the south end the remaining first floor window frame is probably a pre-1975 20th century fixed four-pane window similar to two others at this level in the southern warehouse [Fig.49 - see below]. The two second floor window openings at the south end are boarded on plain timber frames.

Fig.45 The southern doorway with its blocked overlight is clearly inserted into a primary window opening. It now contains a replacement mid-late 20th century door

33 Fig.46 The upper levels of the originally external north wall of the northern warehouse looking southeast from the first floor level of the 1901 warehouse.

The east elevation presents an overall regular four-window front to the river [Fig.47]. Most of the windows are timber-framed two-light casements with glazing bars. It is instructive to compare the present fenestration with that of a photograph showing the east side of the warehouses from across a frozen Exe in the winter of 1962-3 [Fig. 18 -see above]. Despite its low resolution this shows the northern three windows boarded; they now contain late 20th century replacement casements. The south end window is a fixed four-pane window similar to two others at the same level in the same warehouse[Fig,48]. The photographs also show that the southern warehouse (Unit 4) had two slatted windows to the second floor level and the northern one still survives [Fig 49]. As described above in Unit 1, these windows are considered early but cannot be closely dated. It is fair to state that Keystone cannot justify dating any of the other windows earlier than c.1900. Most of the external iron grilles on this side clearly date from the mid-late 20th century but there is one which is different; it is in the southern ground floor window. At first sight it looks a likely contender for an early date until one realises it is set into a late 20th century cement sill.

Fig.47 The eastern rear elevation of the southern pair of warehouses is built over the c.1835 boundary wall of the basin precinct photographed from across the river.

34 Fig.48 The inside of the southern first floor Fig.49 The inside of the northern window of the southern warehouse probably second floor window of the southern dates from before 1975. All three examples warehouse is similar to the second floor have similar internal vertical bars. front window in Unit 1. It is considered the earliest window type. Interior

Ground Floor

Both ‘cellars’ have largely primary mortar floors. They are of four uneven bays deep since the front (west) wall follows the alignment of the basin which is different from the river causing the warehouses to narrow from north to south. The three (north-south) crossbeams are supported centrally by piers of granite ashlar blocks [Fig.50]. A couple of the piers required timber bolsters to bring them up to the required level. The crossbeams are of hefty scantling and support a series of relatively close-set upended plank joists. All internal partitions, raised floors and other features are mid-late 20th century insertions.

Fig.50 The ground floor level of the southern warehouse looking southeast.

35 The First Floor

This level was remodelled in the mid-late 20th century with new floorboards and most internal partitions.

As below both of the warehouses are of four uneven bays deep but here the posts support square section pine main axial beams of large scantling and remarkable length [Fig 51]. The posts here are timber sitting on stone pads with timber bolsters. In the deeper northern warehouse the axial beam is just too short to span the space from east to west. To compensate the builders supported the west end with a horizontal plate supported by a

Fig.50 The fist floor level of the northern warehouse looking northeast.

Fig.51 The brace at the west end supporting the axial beam on the first floor level of the northern warehouse.

Fig.52 The strengthening of the east end of the axial beam over the first floor of the northern warehouse.

36 hefty brace, with a slight curve, rising from the masonry of the west front to support a plate which carries the east end of the beam [Fig.51]. Managing the rest of the second floor structure is something of a tour de force in the opinion of this writer. First of all there appears to have been a worry about the other end of the same northern long axial beam (Unit 3) where, towards the east end, the beam is seriously strengthened. L-profile iron plates support the underside of the beam on both sides, and horizontal iron plates were introduced on top of the beam [Fig.52]. Five north-south iron plates were introduced to fix the mend using bolted vertical tie-rods. In each warehouse there are two sets of secondary axial beams, that is to say primary in dating but lesser in scantling. This arrangement supports a relatively close-set series of upended north-south joists. The structural system is further strengthened by double joists in places with iron ties between every fifth joist or so and X-braces above the lesser axial beams.

Fig.53 The blocked doorway towards the east end of the dividing wall between the two warehouses from the south.

The Second Floor

This space is the least affected by 20th century alterations.

The stair rising from the first floor in the southwest corner is certainly ancient, but not certainly primary. There is an uncertain suspicion that it could be associated with the secondary external stair on the south side. It is a plain affair, but certainly associated with the warehouse use of the building. It uses metal strips across the front of the steps to reduce wear. The partitions in Unit 4 date from the late 20th century, as too do the double doors in the western doorway connecting the warehouses at this level.

Both front doorways present something of a conundrum containing evidence of rope rollers and holes through the west wall. Keystone is unable to explain their purpose.

Both roofs are four bays of equal length, but not parallel, since they are arranged to accommodate the angles required to adapt to the changes of axis between the east and west sides. Here the east and west trusses are true king post trusses augmented by vertical tie rods whereas the central truss has only a central bolted iron tie-rod flanked by timber tension

37 braces [Fig,54]. The hipped ends are made by a central axial half-truss with dragon ties across the corners [Fig.55]. The trusses carry two sets of back purlins and a ridge board. In the northern warehouse most of the common rafters are primary and they were once clad with lath and plaster. It is unclear whether this was the case in the southern warehouse since its common rafters have no nail-holes for laths.

Fig.54 The tie-rod roof truss east of centre over the second floor level of the northern warehouse.

Fig.55 The western hip assembly of the roof over the southern warehouse.

38 SCHEDULE OF EXTERNAL JOINERY Part 1- Windows As a series of industrial buildings the form of the warehouse windows is functional, based on the need for security and ventilation and not determined by the stylistic changes of architectural fashion that make it possible to date windows in domestic and public buildings with some confidence. When Keystone worked with English Heritage on the conversion of Charles Darwin’s house in Bromley we were able to identify windows from several modernisations and extensions from between c.1800 and the 1870s based largely, but not exclusively, on detailed examination of the internal mouldings on the glazing bars. Such sophistication is largely missing from the utilitarian construction of the windows and doorways of these industrial warehouses.

The variety of window types now (2019) in the warehouse indicates a long history of replacement. However, in the absence of original drawings or elevation images before the late 19th century (one photograph) it is not possible to date or sequence the surviving windows with any accuracy. Comparative examples are not particularly helpful. Many factories and warehouses of the early 19th century had cast iron small-pane windows with various forms of opening elements, e.g. at the Royal William Yard in Stonehouse Plymouth. Slatted elements for ventilation are commonplace. The Royal William Yard storage buildings have extensive evidence of window replacement, although on that site, with a single institutional owner and occupier, the replacements (in timber and aluminium) are in series, rather than one-by-one.

The obvious comparison for this warehouse range is the windows in the Exeter quay bonded warehouses, on the other side of the River Exe, built at about the same time, although taller. Here we have the same problem of no design drawings and historic photographs taken over a century after the warehouses were built. Photographs of the quay warehouses held by storic England at Swindon are all dated in the second half of the 20th century, e.g. AA98/05345; UXC01/01/01/0603/06. These show a mixture of windows, suggesting a history of 19th century replacements. However, there is a discernible pattern of slatted windows on the upper floors, the lower floors with heavy vertical security bars and internal shutters, i.e. no glazing at all.

The following numbering system is based on drawings provided by Shape Studio for Forward Space.

39 UNIT 1 – West Front

GFD-01 Primary window opening – later converted to doorway. See Part 2 below.

GFW-01 Primary window opening intact. Contains plain two-light timber frame of uncertain, but probably 20th century, date. The provision of ironwork for and external lock bar might indicate a date earlier than the Maritime Museum tenancy. The close-set sturdy vertical iron bars, which are set into the window frame, are judged to be from the Maritime Museum period (notably when compared to the west front windows from Unit 2 which include similar security bars – see below).

FFW-01 Primary window opening intact. The pre-1900 photograph shows a slatted window two-light window here – see Fig.9 above. It now contains a plain two-light timber frame of uncertain, but 20th century, date. Each light contains two fixed panes. This design is found in other warehouses and can be recognised on the first floor level of Unit 4 in the 1975 – see Fig.14

40 above, and the 1963 photograph shows another at fist floor level in the east wall of Unit 4 - see Fig.18 above.

FFW-02 Primary window opening reduced when lower half blocked with brickwork associated with the construction of the external shelter frame made up of RSJs embossed with the date 1914. The pre-1900 photograph shows a slatted window to-light window here – see Fig.9 above. It now contains a plain two-light timber frame of uncertain, 20th century date - later than 1914 and before 1963. Similar in style to FFW-01 but each light contains a single fixed pane.

SFW-01 Primary window opening intact. Contains a plain two-light timber frame of uncertain date infilled with inclined horizontal slats, and with internal vertical iron security bars. This is one of the two surviving examples of this type (cf. SFW-10) to survive in the four warehouses. Photographs from the earliest late 19th century example to the second half of the 20th century show that there were once many more examples of this type in the first and second floor windows. Others can be seen in historic photographs from the upper floors from the contemporary warehouses on the east bank of the river. In short, this is the earliest recognisable type of window. It cannot be proved to be original, but there is a possibility that the design is.

SFW-02 Primary window opening intact. The pre-1900 photograph shows a slatted window to-light window here – see Fig.9 above. It now contains a plain two-light timber frame of uncertain, but 20th century date. Each light now contains a fixed single pane.

UNIT 1 – East Front

GFW-08 Primary window opening intact It contains a plain two-light fixed-pane timber frame of uncertain date. It is not possible to determine any detail of its former arrangement. The external iron grille dates back at least as early as 1963 – see fig.18 above

GFW-09 Primary window opening intact It contains a plain two-light fixed-pane timber frame of uncertain date. It is not possible to determine any detail of its former arrangement. The external iron grille dates back at least as early as 1963 – see fig.18 above

FFW-14 Primary window opening intact, but it was never a window – simply a blind recess to maintain a symmetrical appearance.

FFW-15 Primary window opening intact It contains a plain two-light timber frame casement window with six panes to each light. This window probably dates from after 1963 when it was shown as boarded see fig.18 above and probably from the from the Maritime Museum

41 period. The external iron grille certainly dates from the mid-late 20th century.

FFW-16 Primary window opening intact It contains a plain two-light timber frame casement window with six panes to each light. It certainly dates from the 20th century. A similar window is shown on the 1963 photograph - see fig.18 above. The crisp finish of the timbers might suggest its replacement since 1963, but the internal iron lock-bar fitting could suggest otherwise.

SFW-15 Primary window opening intact It contains a plain two-light timber frame casement window with single panes to each light. This window probably from after 1963 when it was shown containing slatted lights - see fig.18 above - and probably from the from the Maritime Museum period.

SFW-16 Primary window opening intact It contains a plain two-light timber frame casement window with single panes to each light. This window probably from after 1963 when it was shown containing slatted lights - see fig.18 above - and probably from the from the Maritime Museum period.

SFW-17 Primary window opening intact It contains a plain two-light timber frame casement window with single panes to each light. This window dates from after 1963 when it was shown containing slatted lights - see fig.18 above - and probably from the from the Maritime Museum period.

UNIT 2 – West Front

GFD-03 Primary window opening – later converted to doorway. See Part 2 below.

GFD-04 Original doorway enlarged to south destroying primary window. See Part 2 below.

FFW-03 Primary window opening reduced when lower half blocked with brickwork associated with the construction of the external shelter frame made up of RSJs embossed with the date 1914. Contains plain two-light timber frame of mid-late 20th century date. Similar in style to FFW-04 but each light contains only vertical glazing bars. It includes sturdy vertical iron security bars set into the outside of the frame.

FFW-04 Primary window opening. Contains plain two-light timber frame of mid-late 20th century date. These frames are distinctive having segmental arch heads. The casements have six panes each behind sturdy vertical iron security bars set into the outside of the frame.

SFW-03 Primary window opening. Contains plain two-light timber frame of mid-late 20th century date. These frames are distinctive having segmental arch heads. The casements have six panes each behind sturdy vertical iron security bars set into the outside of the frame.

42 SFW-04 Primary window opening. Contains a plain two-light timber frame of mid-late 20th century date. These frames are distinctive having segmental arch heads. The casements have six panes each behind sturdy vertical iron security bars set into the outside of the frame.

UNIT 2 – West Front

GFW-06 Primary window opening intact Now boarded over a probably mid-late 20th century plain timber two-light window frame, which contains mid-late 20th century shutters.

GFW-07 Primary window opening intact Now boarded over a probably mid-late 20th century frame of unfinished timbers. It is shown boarded on the 1963 photograph - see fig.18 above.

FFW-12 Primary window opening. Contains plain two-light timber frame of mid-late 20th century date. These frames are distinctive having segmental arch heads. The casements have six panes each. Alterations in brick jambs indicate that and an external iron grille (shown extant in 1963 - see fig.18 above) has been removed.

FFW-13 Primary window opening. Shown boarded in 1963 - see fig.18 above. Contains plain two-light timber frame from after 1963. These frames are distinctive having segmental arch heads. The casements have six panes each. Alterations in brick jambs indicate that and an external iron grille (shown extant in 1963 - see fig.18 above) has been removed.

SFW-13 Primary window opening. Contains plain two-light timber frame of mid-late 20th century date. These frames are distinctive having segmental arch heads. The casements have six panes each. It has the same external iron grille as shown on the 1963 photograph - see fig.18 above.

SFW-14 Primary window opening. Contains plain two-light timber frame of mid-late 20th century date. These frames are distinctive having segmental arch heads. The casements have six panes each. It has the same external iron grille as shown on the 1963 photograph - see fig.18 above.

UNIT 3 – West Front

FFW-05 Primary window opening intact Contains plain two-light timber frame of mid-late 20th century date. The casements have six panes each. Possibly the same window shown on a photograph of 1975 – see Fig.14 above. External iron grille added since 1975.

43 SFW-05 Primary window opening intact Contains plain two-light timber frame of mid-late 20th century date. The casements have six panes each. Possibly the same window shown on a photograph of 1975 – see Fig.14 see above. External iron grille added since 1975.

UNIT 3 – East Front

GFW-04 Primary window opening intact Old plain timber frame of uncertain date, possibly as as early as the late19th century, but maybe not. It contains an eight fixed panes and it is protected externally by two horizontal iron bars.

GFW-05 Primary window opening intact Old plain timber frame of uncertain date, possibly as as early as the late19th century, but maybe not. It looks as though it was a fixed pane window similar to GFW-04, but has lost its glazing bars and glass. On the inside there are the wrought-iron fittings for a lock-bar. Internal iron security grille from the mid- late 20th century.

FFW-10 Primary window opening intact Shown boarded on the 1963 photograph – see Fig.18 above Contains plain two-light timber frame built since 1963. The casements have six panes each. External iron grille added since 1963.

FFW-11 Primary window opening intact Shown boarded on the 1963 photograph – see Fig.18 above Contains plain two-light timber frame built since 1963. The casements have six panes each. External iron grille added since 1963.

SFW-11 Primary window opening intact Contains plain two-light timber frame of mid-late 20th century date. The casements have six panes each. It appears to have an external iron grille on the 1963 photograph – see Fig.18 - but it is not clear whether or not it is the same one as remains today.

SFW-12 Primary window opening intact Contains plain two-light timber frame of mid-late 20th century date. The casements have six panes each. It appears to have an external iron grille on the 1963 photograph – see Fig.18 - but it is not clear whether or not it is the same one as remains today.

UNIT 4 – West Front

FFW-06 Primary window opening intact. Contains plain two-light timber frame of uncertain, but probably 20th century, date.

44 Each light contains two fixed panes. This design is found in other situations and this window appears on the 1975 photograph – see Fig.14 above. It has an internal grille of vertical iron security bars.

SFW-06 Primary window opening intact Now boarded over a post-1975 frame of unfinished timbers. An early slatted window is shown here in the 1975 photograph - see fig.14 above.

UNIT 4 – East Front

GFW-02 Primary window opening intact. Contains plain timber three-light plain window frame containing outer fixed panes and central small casement, dating from the mid-late 20th century. Attractive external wrought-iron grille of similar date.

GFW-03 Primary window opening intact. Contains plain timber frame, dating from the mid-late 20th century. Late 20th century external security grille.

FFW-08 Primary window opening intact. Contains plain two-light timber frame of uncertain, but probably 20th century, date. Each light contains two fixed panes. This design is found in other situations and this window appears on the 1963 photograph – see Fig.18 above. It has an internal grille of vertical iron security bars.

FFW-09 Primary window opening intact Shown boarded on the 1963 photograph – see Fig.18 above Contains plain two-light timber frame built since 1963. The casements have six panes each. External iron grille added since 1963.

SFW-09 Primary window opening intact An old slatted window is shown on the 1963 photograph – see Fig.18 above It now contains plain two-light timber frame built since 1963 with fixed single panes in each light.

SFW-10 Primary window opening intact Contains a plain two-light timber frame of uncertain date infilled with inclined horizontal slats, and with internal vertical iron security bars. This is one of the two surviving examples of this type (cf. SFW-01) to survive in the four warehouses. Photographs from the earliest late 19th century example to the second half of the 20th century show that there were once many more examples of this type in the first and second floor windows. Others can be seen in historic photographs from the upper floors from the contemporary warehouses on the east bank of the river. In short, this is the earliest recognisable type of window. It cannot be proved to be original, but there is a possibility that the design, at least, is primary.

45 UNIT 4 – South End

FFD-05 Primary window opening – later converted to doorway. See Part 2 below.

FFW-07 Primary window opening intact. Contains plain two-light timber frame of uncertain, but probably 20th century, date. Each light contains two fixed panes. It has an internal grille of vertical iron security bars.

SFW-07 Primary window opening intact Now boarded over a mid-late 20th century frame of unfinished timbers.

SFW-08 Primary window opening intact Now boarded over a mid-late 20th century frame of unfinished timbers.

Part 2 - Doors

UNIT 1 – West Front

GFD-01 Secondary doorway inserted into primary window opening sometime between the building of the warehouse in c.1835 and the pre-1900 photograph of the warehouse which shows the doorway extant – see Fig.9 above. The window opening was wider than the intended door so there is a stub framed wall to north. The door is hung in a plain timber frame and is of framed and braced plank construction. It is hung on mid-late 19th century cast-iron strap hinges, and includes other contemporary ferramenta. It also includes a cat-hole. Cats were commonly encouraged into warehouses and farm buildings to keep down vermin.

GFD-02 Primary front doorway comprising double doors set in a sturdy plain timber frame. Doors of framed, braced and ledged plank construction with evidence of some repair. They have been re-hung on 20th century hinges, but retain other maybe primary ferramenta such as the fittings for locking bar and the top and bottom bolts.

FFD-01 Primary front doorway comprising double doors set in a sturdy plain timber frame. Doors of framed, braced and ledged plank construction with evidence of some repair. They retain probably primary ferramenta such the hinges, the locking bar arrangement (internal at this level) and the top and bottom bolts. The frame includes a series of iron loops outside the doors associated with an original flap which could be lowered to provide a temporary external platform.

SFD-01 Primary front doorway comprising double doors set in a sturdy plain timber

46 frame. Doors of framed, braced and ledged plank construction with some of the top parts of both doors missing. They retain probably primary ferramenta such the hinges, the locking bar arrangement (internal at this level) and the bottom bolt. The northern jamb includes an ancient, if not original, iron grip handle and rope-loop.

UNIT 2 – West Front

GFD-03 Secondary flat- headed doorway inserted into primary window opening in the mid-late 20th century by the Maritime Museum. The window opening was narrowed to accommodate a sturdy plain solid timber frame which contains an apparently re-used door from the late 19th or early 20th century. The door is of framed, braced and ledged plank construction with large bolted L-hinges hung on pintles. It is similar in style with the other doorways of all four units, but differs in detail such as the use of L-shaped hinges. Probably late 19th or early 20th century internal cast-iron door handle with fleur de lis finials and bolt.

GFD-04 Secondary flat- headed wide double doorway created in the mid-late 20th century by the Maritime Museum by enlarging the primary central doorway to south to include the site of the primary southern ground floor window opening. It contains a mid-late 20th century plain solid timber frame and contemporary pair of doors, built to match the warehouse style, with new strap hinges hung on pintles. All other ferramenta from the mid-late 20th century.

FFD-02 Primary front doorway with segmental arch head comprising double doors set in a sturdy solid plain timber frame. Doors of framed, braced and ledged plank construction with evidence of some repair. They have sturdy, bolted cast-iron strap hinges hung on pintles: the upper ones curving to follow the segmental arch of the doorhead. Other primary ferramenta includes the internal lock-bar system and upper bolt. The frame includes a series of iron loops outside the doors associated with an original hinged flap which could be lowered to provide a temporary external platform.

UNIT 3 – West Front

GFD-05 Primary front doorway with segmental arch head comprising double doors without a timber frame. Here the pintles are set directly into the masonry of the doorway opening. Doors of framed, braced and ledged plank construction with evidence of some repair. They are on long bolted cast-iron strap hinges hung on the pintles: the upper ones curving to follow the segmental arch of the doorhead. Other primary ferramenta includes the external lock-bar system and internal upper and lower bolts. In fact the lock-bar system has been re-located at a higher level than they were originally.

47 GFD-06 Primary front doorway with segmental arch head comprising double doors without a timber frame. Here the pintles are set directly into the masonry of the doorway opening. Doors of framed, braced and ledged plank construction with evidence of some repair. They are on long bolted cast-iron strap hinges hung on the pintles: the upper ones curving to follow the segmental arch of the doorhead. Other primary ferramenta includes the external lock-bar system and internal upper and lower bolts (although the lower bolt may be a replacement). In fact the lock-bar system has been re-located at a higher level than they were originally.

FFD-03 Primary front doorway with segmental arch head comprising double doors without a timber frame. Here the pintles are set directly into the masonry of the doorway opening. Doors of framed, braced and ledged plank construction with evidence of some repair. They are on long bolted cast-iron strap hinges hung on the pintles: the upper ones curving to follow the segmental arch of the doorhead. Other primary ferramenta includes the internal lock-bar system and lower bolt. There is no evidence for an original upper bolt. The sides include includes a series of iron loops outside the doors associated with an original hinged flap which could be lowered to provide a temporary external platform.

SFD-02 Primary front doorway with flat arch head comprising double doors without a timber frame. Here the pintles are set directly into the masonry of the doorway opening. Doors of framed, braced and ledged plank construction with evidence of some repair. They are on long bolted cast-iron strap hinges hung on the pintles: the upper ones stepped up to head-pieces of the doors. Other primary ferramenta includes the internal lock-bar system and back-plate of the lower bolt. There is no evidence for an original upper bolt.

UNIT 4 – West Front

GFD-07 Primary front doorway with segmental arch head comprising double doors without a timber frame. Here the pintles are set directly into the masonry of the doorway opening. Doors of framed, braced and ledged plank construction with evidence of some repair. They are on long bolted cast-iron strap hinges hung on the pintles: the upper ones curving to follow the segmental arch of the doorhead. Other primary ferramenta includes the external lock-bar system and internal upper and lower bolts.

GFD-08 Primary front doorway with segmental arch head comprising double doors without a timber frame. Here the pintles are set directly into the masonry of the doorway opening. Doors of framed, braced and ledged plank construction with evidence of some repair. They are on long bolted cast-iron strap hinges hung on the pintles: the upper ones curving to follow the segmental arch of the doorhead. Other primary ferramenta includes the external lock-bar system and internal upper and lower bolts.

48 FFD-04 Primary front doorway with segmental arch head comprising double doors without a timber frame. Here the pintles are set directly into the masonry of the doorway opening. The interior faces of the doors were not available for inspection at the time of survey, but they are assumed to be similar to its equivalent in Unit 3 – see FFD-03 above. The sides include a couple of iron loops outside the doors associated with an original hinged flap which could be lowered to provide a temporary external platform.

SFD-03 Primary front doorway with flat arch head comprising double doors without a timber frame. Here the pintles are set directly into the masonry of the doorway opening. Doors of framed, braced and ledged plank construction with evidence of some repair. They are on long bolted cast-iron strap hinges hung on the pintles: the upper ones stepped up to head-pieces of the doors and the lower ones stepped down to the sill-pieces. Other primary ferramenta includes the internal lock-bar system and the lower bolt. There is no evidence for an original upper bolt.

UNIT 4 – South End

FFD-05 Secondary first floor doorway at head of external flight of steps with segmental arch head inserted into primary window opening before 1876 on map evidence – see Fig.7 above. The window opening was narrowed to accommodate a sturdy plain solid timber frame which includes an unglazed overlight protected by a series of vertical iron bars, above the head of the doorframe. The doorway was also flanked by narrow unglazed side-lights rising from the sill, level of the primary window sill. Both are protected by vertical iron security bars. They and the overlight were boarded over in the second half of the 20th century. All this and the plain solid doorframe date from the mid 19th century, but the door itself was replaced in the mid-late 20th century by the Maritime Museum. It was built to match the style of the other doors being of framed, ledged and braced construction with three large external cast-iron strap hinges.

49 PHASED AND ANNOTATED PLANS - GROUND FLOOR LEVEL

50 51 52 53 PHASED AND ANNOTATED PLANS - FIRST FLOOR LEVEL

54 55 56 57 PHASED AND ANNOTATED PLANS - SECOND FLOOR LEVEL

58 59 60 61 62 6 - Heritage Assessment of the warehouse range in 2019

6.1 Archaeological Potential below Ground Archaeological monitoring and recording has been undertaken on two sites adjacent or close to the warehouses. In 2010 land on the north west corner of the canal Basin was investigated prior to redevelopment with a report by Exeter Archaeology, ‘Archaeological Monitoring and Recording of Land Adjacent to 60 Haven Road, St Thomas, Exeter’, Report N0.10.63. The conclusion was:

‘The results of the archaeological works demonstrated that deposits associated with the 19thcentury development of the canal basin survived below modern deposits, and also demonstrated that no earlier quay surface has survived in this area’.

The watching brief on a service trench along the SW and SE edge of the development exposed no significant new deposits associated with the canal basin, although construction details of the canal basin wall were exposed in two places.

Part of an 1867 turntable situated at the head of the canal was exposed, enabling details of its construction and operation to be determined. Further lengths of rail were exposed nearby, all of which were of the ‘bullnose’ type secured to sleepers with iron chairs. None were flatheaded as used by Brunel in his broad gauge railway, which probably reflects the initiation of the line by the city council rather than a railway company (The new line linked into the existing South Devon Railway line and connected with St David’s Station.)’

In 2012 an archaeological watching brief was undertaken on the site of what is now the Haven Banks Outdoor Education Centre, i.e. extending south from the south end of Unit 4 of Maclaines. A report by AC Archaeology was produced in 2013 ‘Haven Banks Outdoor Education Cetnre, Exeter (SX92652 93185). Results of an Archaeological Watching Brief. The summary includes the following:

‘No early archaeological deposits or features were exposed. Records of the basin boundary wall were prepared. All exposed deposits were associated with the construction of the 1820s wharf and basin as well as the extension of the railway siding into the wharf in the early 20th century.’

It seems likely from the above that any below-ground discoveries associated with the warehouse range or its immediate setting are likely to be 1820s or 1830s.

6.2 - The Setting Maclaines relates immediately to both the river to its east and the Basin to its west. The relationship with the Basin, built as part of the same phase of port improvements and also with the involvement of James Green is both closely historic and evidently functional in the warehouse loading doors. The quayside on both sides of the warehouses is covered with utilitarian tarmac [Fig.56, two photos]. A fragment of cobbled paving survives outside Unit 4 and the ground floor of Unit 1 is cobbled. On the west side the tarmac extends to the robust granite edge of the Basin, on the east side to the concrete coping of the river edge. Further north more self-conscious ‘heritage’ paving has been installed: concrete slabs pave the open area of the Piazza Terracina, opened in 1996 between the extensive housing of the Haven Banks development and the Basin. Authentic remains of the wagon rails that ran down the east side of the basin - standard and broad gauge - survive in this paving. A feature has been made in the ground of the site of the wagon turntable at the north east corner of the Basin [Fig.57]. To south the design of the Haven Banks Education Centre, opened in 2013, was

63 Fig.56. The quaysides are tarmaced on both long sides of Maclaines. The photograph of the east elevation shows the visual relationship with the Quay across the river.

64 Fig.57. The turntable feature and wagon rails for both Broad and Standard gauge. clearly influenced by the design of Maclaines. It has low pitched hipped roofs and a similar relationship of blind walling to relatively small window openings, although its surfaces have a highly-polished appearance, contrasting with the rubble masonry of the early 19th century warehouses [Fig.58]. As noted above, instead of a wide pedestrian link between it and Maclaines, as recommended in the Masterplan for the Basin, there is a narrow railed-off gap cluttered with plastic barrels and ducting.

Boats continue to use the Basin but the majority are moored up further south on its west side. However, at the north end there is plenty of activity from kayaks. Across the Basin is the listed Grade 2 ‘South Warehouse’. Largely brick-built with a double gable to the Basin this is a less imposing building than Maclaines. It was much altered in the early 20th century and has been converted to a bakery and cafe. An outside sitting area gives the very best views of the principal facade of Maclaines, with reflections in the Basin. Although some of the window openings appear to be original the South Warehouse has not preserved any primary windows or doors. It is flanked to its north by a 2-storey 21st century retail building [Fig.59]. To its south a small group of single-storey 20th century sheds are a reminder of what was once a larger group of ramshackle utilitarian boat-related buildings [Fig.60].

The north end of Unit 1, the warehouse and the head of the Basin form part of the boundary of the Piazza Terracina. The open ground north of Unit 1 was once bounded by walls. The 1830s Basin boundary wall on its east side survives, but the rest of the area is now open and grassed with a couple of small trees. It functions as the Topsham Brewery garden. Although the Conservation Area Appraisal identifies green spaces and tree planting as ‘untypical’ of the area’s industrial past (5.2) the garden provides a small but welcome green patch in the hard surfacing of the setting.

65 Figs.58-60. Clockwise from top. The design of the Haven Banks Outdoor Education centre influenced by the form and massing of Ma- claines. The South warehouse, converted to a cookery school and bakery. Looking down the Basin towards the canal from the warehouses.

66 There are views south from the Piazza, which is well-used as an open space for organised and informal outside activities, along the Basin with Maclaines on the east, the warehouse range representing an authentic visual survivor of the industrial history of the area [Fig.61]. The for- mer electricity station to the west provides an attractive, more ornamental historic building en- closing the piazza space. Views north from Maclaines are across the Piazza to the Haven Banks residential development. This was criticised in the Conservation Area Appraisal for itsscale and massing (including its complicated roofscape), choice of materials, and colours [Fig.62]. Like the housing along the west side of Haven Road, the built form here is less substantial than the warehouses.

There are visual links between the massing and form of Maclaines and the range of the co-eval, but converted bonded warehouses on the east side of the quay. These views have been limit- ed by the construction of the Rockfish restaurant, which helps to enclose the Piazza but at the expense of extensive visual access to the river and quay. The longer view down of the whole area of the quay and Basin from Colleton Crescent, noted in the Conservation Area Appraisal, has also been recently lost to all but the residents of Colleton Crescent. Its gardens, which used to function as public open space, are now railed off and have been privatised.

Fig.61.

Fig.62.

67 6.3 - The Warehouse Range

Maclaines is rightly described as a ‘typical’ warehouse of the 19th century in the list description. It is built for strength, security and ventilation, the shallow-pitched roofs of Units 1, 2 and 4 designed to maximise 2nd floor storage space. Loading doors are symmetrically arranged in each built unit. The more or less co-eval warehouses on the east side of the Quay are grander; both in height and with some obvious architectural show, especially in the north unit which employs sharply contrasting coloured stone for quoins and openings, but the pattern of doorways and windows are asymmetrical.

A very small number of medieval port warehouses survive, e.g. the wool hall/ town cellars at Poole, Dorset, also built for strength and security. The largest and most architecturally ambitious warehouses in Devon are those at the Royal William Yard, Stonehouse, built for the navy in the 1830s. These are all of national importance and listed Grade 1. They were designed by Sir John Rennie, the son of the Rennie to whom Green was apprenticed.

6.3.1 - Material Heritage Significance

If Maclaines is a modest warehouse range relative to other surviving examples, it is highly significant in its Conservation Area context. It stands out in its 2019 setting as a building range of an authentic industrial character, battered by use with plenty of patina and associated with other surviving elements of the 1830s port improvements, particularly the Basin and the warehouses on the quay. The exterior has none of the ‘polish’ of new elements associated with adaptations of historic buildings or with the new late 20th century and later buildings and spaces that have been developed in its setting. This makes it both a rarity in this part of the Conservation Area and, along with the Basin, a structure that continues to represent the grittiness of Exeter’s waterside industrial past amongst new, post-industrial elements.

The history of heavy physical function is apparent at eye level in the door repairs, the multiple phases of robust door furniture and the scars of door furniture use. Alterations to openings have been made on a functional basis, e.g. the canopy over the quay, which necessitated the shortening of two window openings, and the vehicle doorway knocked through Unit 2, destroying its symmetrical ground floor front. The diversity of the infill of window openings in 2019, and photographic evidence for a different diversity in the past, illustrates a history of adaptation and change for practical reasons.

6.3.2 - Historical Heritage Significance

The warehouses are important for representing part of the 1830s phase of the history of the City’s relationship with the River Exe and the City’s investment in improvements to the port of Exeter. At the same time the City was redeveloping Exeter’s market buildings. Dues on goods traded via the canal provided the major part of the City’s income.

Unit 1 is a building specified by James Green, who, on documentary evidence, also provided the ‘general plan’ for Units 3 and 4. Green is an important figure in south-west engineering history, his career reflecting his versatility as a designer of buildings as well as engineering works ranging from bridges to canals and docks in Devon, Cornwall, Somerset and Wales.

The goods stored in the warehouses, particularly the goods of Peters and Hamlyn (mostly dried Labrador cod and sugar), provide a small window into Exeter’s trading links and the City’s food history including what were national links between sugar and slavery, in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

68 7 - Impact Assessment The following is based on drawings provided to Keystone by Shape Studio 28.11.2019 in addition to floor plans provided previously and comments received on 28.11.2019 by Robbie Thompson on a draft impact assessment provided by Keystone. We understand from Robbie Thompson that equal access for all to the upper floors of Units 1, 3 or 4 is not required or proposed.

Exterior (Drawings MAC-EX-30-SOUTH WEST ELEVATION; MAC-EX-33-NORTH EAST ELEVATION; MAC-EX-31-NORTH WEST ELEVATION; MAC-EX-32-SOUTH EAST ELEVATION)

External Doors It is assumed here that all the existing external doors with various phases of ironwork will be repaired and kept for their important contribution to patina, even if only used as ‘shutters’ to new doors inside. Formerly external doors to Unit 1 (now internal) are dealt with under ‘interior’ below.

All the double doorways apart from Unit 2 GFD-04 are original doorways still containing a great deal of primary ferramenta – see schedule.

Rooflights 27 rooflights are proposed. While most of these will be invisible from the ground, it should be noted that after dark there will be some visibility impact. Given that the Basin area is now well-lit at night, the impact of this is probably insignificant.

Windows The current (2019) diversity of window (slatted; 2-light small-pane timber casements; plate glass timber casements, and fixed pane window ) is part of the weathered character of the exterior of the building, along with a variety of security bar design. The probable earliest (pre- 1901) window is in Unit 1, now internal: unglazed and barred with an internal shutter.

The variety of window design is part of the weathered character of the building, although it seems likely that the glazed elements, although impossible to date with confidence, are all 20th century (see schedule). Perhaps some of the existing diversity could be retained by as much repair (rather than replacement) as possible or like-for-like replacement. It would be beneficial to reinstate windows that are currently blocked.

Proposed Bespoke Bicycle Shelter along the N side of the Topsham Brewery Garden While there are no elevation drawings of this it is presumed that it would reinstate a physical boundary (probably a wall?) to the open space to North of Unit 1 that is known from map evidence to have existed from between 1888 and 1904. The shelter seems likely to be used by cyclists who may not be visiting the Topsham Brewery, as well as those who are. A boundary here would clarify the separation of the Topsham Brewery garden from the Piazza Terracina: the present boundary is vague. A bicycle shelter would contribute to the City’s commitment to cycling and the proposed shelter (subject to design) would have a beneficial impact in encouraging cycling.

External Hoisting Arrangements

We understand from Robbie Thompson that the surviving external hoisting arrangements will be retained.

69 Interior

Ground Floor (Topsham Brewery) (Drawings 193-GA-01 A, MAC-EX-20-SECTION A-A)

Enlarged Stair Cell: new stair The proposed new stair will require the removal of the north end of the western first and second second floor crossbeams which are primary fabric.

We are advised by Robbie Thompson that this is required to fit a compliant stair in an enlarged stair cell and there is no alternative design that would retain the beams.

Doors Of the three doorways between Units 1 and 2, external before 1901, two contain doors that are early (although probably not primary) and consistent in style with the older surviving joinery of the warehouses ). One is a symmetrical 2-leaf door, associated with threshold cobbles, the other is a man-sized door with a stub wall finished in the same style as the door filling the width of the window of Unit 1 front door in original window.

We understand from Robbie Thompson that the existing doors will be refurbished to achieve 1 hour fire resistance. We do not know whether or not this will impact on the patina or surviving door furniture.

Ground Floor (Forward Space) Drawing 192-GA-01

At present the structural elements of the warehouse: the texture of the stone walls (painted) is visible and the timber of the first floor structure, is exposed. We understand from Robbie Thompson that ‘beams will be left exposed where possible. If they require treatment for 1 hour fire resistance ‘intumescent varnish or paint will be used’.

New Partitions These are justified on grounds of viability and no major impact on material significance anticipated.

New Stair This will involve some loss of historic carpentry but is justified on grounds of viability to connect the ground to upper floors.

New Doorway in masonry wall between Units 3 and 4 Some loss of historic fabric is justified by connecting the Units for their new use.

First Floor (Topsham Brewery) Drawing 193-GA-02

The enlarged stair cell and removal of primary structural beams is noted above.

Interior Partitions/Fittings These are considered here to have a trivial impact on the heritage value of the first floor. The spaces identified as ‘bar/kitchen’ and ‘store/potential kitchen area’ are not shown associ- ated with vents through the north wall of Unit 1, so it is assumed that these areas would not be used for cooking.

70 Fire Doors Three fire doors are proposed between Units 1 & 2. These opening were originally external windows. The west one has already been converted to a generous doorway and the other two are blocked, but contain the remains of probably 20th century timber top-tilting casement windows.

Robbie Thompson notes that the plans have been amended to use existing openings only and there will be one set of doors.

First Floor (Forward Space) Drawing 192-GA-02

Interior Partitions/Fittings These are considered here to have little impact on the heritage significance of the warehouse units.

Removal of Stair to Second Floor The stair to the second floor is a steep industrial timber staircase, the treads reinforced with iron bars for protection against heavy boots. Its loss would remove the only surviving 19th century staircase inside the building (there is evidence for several lost internal staircases).

We are advised by Robbie Thompson that the justification for removal is incompatibility with the fire strategy and permission for removal was granted in a previous application.

Second Floor (Topsham Brewery) Drawing 193-GA-03

The date of the winch arrangement on the second floor has not been discovered. We understand from Robbie Thompson that it will be retained and this will be shown in planning application drawings. A specialist assessment of this winch would be valuable.

Enclosing the central void This would have been used for hoisting goods from floor to floor and enclosure will have an impact, but appears to be essential for fire prevention and highly desirable for sound insulation.

We understand from Robbie Thompson that this will be done using a retractable fire curtain to minimise impact on the historic feature.

Re-glazing internal windows into Unit 2 The infill of the large, originally external window openings is 20th century and reglazing would not represent a great loss. However, the infill of the window opening on the east side predates 1901. In the opinion of Keystone it may represent the earliest arrangement of window infill in the whole range, and is possibly primary. It is unglazed. It is shuttered on the Unit 1 side, with blacksmith-made hinges to shutters constructed of planks of different widths. On the Unit 2 side, originally external, there are stout vertical security bars from the sill to the timber lintel of the window frame. Replacement would lose this evidence and it should be retained in situ.

Second Floor (Forward Space) Drawing 192-GA-03

Removal of Stair This will be a loss, noted above under First Floor

71 Amendments to doorways between Units 3 and 4 No significant impact on heritage values

Fire escape This extends the external south stair to the second floor with a new door replacing the east window opening, which does not contain an historic window (SFW-08). This will have little effect on the appearance of the building as views of this end are restricted by the adjacent building to south.

72 Sources

Publications

George, Brian, James Green, Canal Builders and County Surveyor (1781-1849), 1997

Unpublished Reports

‘Canal Basin Masterplan’, 2004

Exeter Archaeology & Keystone Historic Buildings Consultants, Archaeological, Historic and Conservation Study of the Exeter Canal Basin, Exeter Archaeology, Report No. 00.18, April 2000

Exeter City Council, Conservation Area Appraisal and Management Plan, 2005

Keystone Historic Buildings Consultants, The Royal William Yard, Stonehouse, Report No. K/438, April 1994

Keystone Historic Buildings Consultants, The Poole Wool Hall/Town Cellars, Report No. K/918, April 2019

Passmore, Andrew, Haven Banks Outdoor Education Centre, Exeter: Results of an archaeological watching brief. ACD434/2/2 on behalf of Midas Construction Ltd. July 2013

Steinmetzer, M F R, Archaeological Monitoring and Recording on land adjacent to 60 Haven Road, St Thomas, Exeter, Exeter Archaeology, Report No. 10.63, Project No. 6339 & 6584, September 2010

Primary Sources

DALSS, ECA book 5/1. Quay and Haven Committee (Navigation Committee), 03.06.1834 DALSS, ECA book 5/1. Quay and Haven Committee (Navigation Committee), 07.07.1834 DALSS, ECA book 5/1. Quay and Haven Committee (Navigation Committee), 12.01.1835 DALSS, ECA Property Schedule Rentals (includes ECA 211) DALSS, ECA Navigation Committee Minutes 1896-1906, 12.12.1900 DALSS, ECA Navigation Committee Minutes 1896-1906, 11.12.1901 DALSS, ECA Property Schedule/Rental, June 1910 ECC Planning Applications, 14/1823/03, December 2004 ECC, 06/2495/LBC, 2006 ECC, 18/1359/FUL. 2018

Tithe map 1852 lease plan The OS 1:500 map of Exeter, surveyed in 1875 The 1st edition OS map, surveyed in 1888 The 2nd edition OS map 1:25”, revised in 1904 The Ordnance Survey map revised in 1932 The 1969 OS map Drawings provided to Keystone by Shape, Drawing (190323-02-P1 Topsham Brewery - Elevations 31-05-19); Drawings 193-GA-01 A; 192-GA-01; 193-GA-02; 192-GA-02; 193- GA-03; 192-GA-03

73 Websites https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk www.exetermemories.co.uk www.heardfamilyhistory.org.uk

Acknowledgements

Thanks to: David Cornforth, permission to reproduce images Sandi Ellison, proofreading and document production Nick Heard, permission to reproduce images Andy Pye, Exeter City Council Robbie Thompson, Shape Studio Lucinda Walker of Historic England for helping to sort out a muddle of mislabelled photographs held at the Swindon office Michael Wride, permission to reproduce images Topsham Brewery for access and information

74 Appendix One

Timeline

Documentary references below have been selected primarily for the information they provide on the primary phases and later alterations to the warehouse range plus some references to use.

1830 Exeter and Plymouth Gazette - Saturday 10 July 1830 Account of the construction of the Basin ‘The work in question is a Basin, or wet dock, near 700 feet in length, with a width graduating from about 110 to between 90 and 101 feet, and 18 feet deep; its form approaches a parallelogram, from the strictness of which it departs about its centre by the previously rectilinear side walls making a slight bend, apparently to accommodate the course of the river from which the Basin is separated by a bank of no great extent. The upper part rapidly approaches completion,—its walls are of massive description, and carried down throughout its line, the rock, which has then been cut through to the required depth. Mr. Green, skilful civil engineer, of this city, has the direction of the whole, and a number of men are now employed in finishing the excavation of the lower part towards the Canal, with which it will have the most direct and easy communication ; indeed in the construction of everything appertaining to the whole line of Canal; and in the means in progress for the completion of the Basin, the gates, drawbridges, and all other etceteras the progress of art is clearly discernable [sic]—all is upon the most simple yet effective principle. The accumulation of water is prevented by a steam engine, the excavated material is removed by inclined plane, a temporary Canal being dug on the southern side of the Basin, of sufficient capacity to admit a flat bottomed Barge, into which the carriages, as they successively reach the top of the plane, discharge their burthens, in order to its being taken off, the Canal itself being filled as the progress of the work renders its further use unnecessary. In this Basin or Dock Vessels will be kept afloat, and the ground around form a fine site for the erection of warehouses, stores, &c. &c. ; in addition to which, the present Quay will also gradually receive improvement and some extension, and the whole, at no distant day, will form a work of vast magnitude, and which for security will scarcely have its parallel!’

1834 June. DALSS, ECA book 5/1. Quay and Haven Committee (Navigation Committee), 03.06.1834 ‘Recommended that a Warehouse of 3 stories be forthwith built on the Basin according to the plan produced by Mr Green making the clear width of the building in the interior 35 feet instead of 30 and the clear height of the understorey 10 feet instead of 9 feet. The estimated expense of which with the alterations will not exceed £450 exclusive of the materials in the Chamber’s possession.’

1834 July. DALSS, ECA book 5/1. Quay and Haven Committee (Navigation Committee), 07.07.1834 ‘Mr Green having produced a general plan for Warehouses on the Basin, it was recommended that the same be approved and that the first building a Warehouse at the head of the Basin be forthwith built according to the specification to be drawn out by Mr Green.

75 Recommended that Mr Payne, Mr James Chapple, Robert Harvey and James Seddon be desired to deliver tenders to R R Sanders Esq [he was an alderman on the Committee] of the price at which they will perform the Masons work the Chamber finding all materials except scaffolding and that the tenders be delivered on or before Friday 11th inst.’

1835 January. DALSS, ECA book 5/1. Quay and Haven Committee (Navigation Committee), 12.01.1835 Recommended that Mr Julian’s Bill of £38 10s 11d for slating the new Warehouse on the Basin according to his contract be paid by the Receiver.

1839 DALSS, ECA Property Schedule Rentals (includes ECA 211) Particulars of all the Property belonging to the Council of the City of Exeter ‘All that piece or parcel of Ground adjoining the new floating Dock or Basin in the parish of Saint Thomas the Apostle in the County of Devon containing in front towards the said Basin 78 feet and in depth at the Higher End towards the Warehouse erected by the said Mayor Bailiff and Commonalty 55 feet 18 inches and in depth at the Lower End 43 feet. Together with the Warehouse and Buildings to be erected on the said parcel of ground’. Date of last consideration 29.05.1838. Lease for 99 years determinable on the lives of Edwin Hooper, son of the said Henry Hooper, aged 7. Henry Drew, son of Samuel Drew of Exminster, yeoman, aged 12. John Bradford Ellicombe, son of Hugh Myddleton Ellicombe of Exeter, attorney, aged 16.

1869 Exeter and Plymouth Gazette Daily Telegrams, Thursday 02 December 1869 An advert from W A Gilbey, Wines and Spirits agent, offering, obtained from F J Williams, the Old Post Office, South Street, whisky, rum cognac and brandy from Peters and Hamlin, St Sidwell’s and South Street.

1880 Exeter and Plymouth Gazette Daily Telegrams , Monday 06 December 1880 NEW FISH. JUST ARRIVED, at the “CITY BASIN,” ex- HIRONDELLE, a PRIME CARGO of LABRADOR COD. For prices, apply PETERS AND HAMLIN, IMPORTERS, EXETER.

1881 Exeter and Plymouth Gazette Daily Telegrams, Wednesday 23 February 1881 SUGAR

NOW DISCHARGING, at the CITY BASIN, ex-Roker, a CARGO of ETIENNE LOAVES AND CUBES. PETERS AND HAMLIN, IMPORTERS.

1881 Exeter and Plymouth Gazette Daily Telegrams , Monday 17 October 1881 Peters and Hamlin acquired the business of Messrs G and B Pitt. They described their own business as ‘Importers of Foreign Loaves, Newfoundland Cod Fish and General Merchants’.

1900 December. DALSS, ECA Navigation Committee Minutes 1896-1906, 12.12.1900 Application to enlarge stores at Basin

Read letter from Messrs Peters and Hamlin asking if it would be convenient for the Council to enlarge the Stores at the City Basin by covering the space between the

76 two existing Blocks of Buildings; a Ground Floor with another over would meet the requirements and they would pay a fair percentage of the outlay and in all likelihood considerably enlarge their traffic through the Canal. The Surveyor submitted sketch plans of the Building required, and reported that his Estimate of the cost of the works was £400. The Committee agreed on the terms of a 14 year lease at £2 per annum and 5% on the expenditure.

1901 December. DALSS, ECA Navigation Committee Minutes 1896-1906, 11.12.1901 Messrs Peters and Hamlin’s Store, The Basin The City Surveyor reported that the work in connection with Messrs Peters and Hamlin’s New Store at the Basin would be completed tomorrow, and that a detailed statement of the cost was being prepared.

Read letter from Messrs Peters and Hamlin stating that in April last in consequence of the increased duty on Sugar it became necessary for them to provide a Bond at the Basin for the Storage of that commodity to meet the requirements of H.M. Customs, which necessitated certain alterations at their Store. The work had to be carried out by them with expedition to meet the urgency of the case, although it should have devolved upon the Council, to whom there was no time to appeal, and having regard to these circumstances Messrs Peters and Hamlin asked that the expense incurred, £41 9s 6d, might be refunded to them, and added to the cost of the New Store erected by the Council for them, on which they were quite prepared to pay the interest that the Council required. RESOLVED, that it be reported to the Council that the course suggested by Messrs Peters and Hamlin be pursued, and the sum of £41 9s 6d paid them upon the Surveyor being satisfied that the charge is a fair one for the work executed’.

1910 June. DALSS, ECA Property Schedule/Rental 2 Warehouses and Buildings, Basin. Occupied Albert James Hamlin trading as Peters and Hamlin. 25 year lease from 1891. Reserved rent £39.

Warehouse and Stores, Basin. Messrs Peters and Hamlin. Yearly tenancy from 1902. Reserved rent £22.

2 large warehouses, Basin. Occupied Peters and Hamlin. Yearly tenants from 1882. Reserved rent £40.

1969 Basin used (and probably Maclaines) used by the Exeter Maritime Museum

1989 The Maritime Museum moved entirely to the Basin and Maclaines, having previously had a ticket office and some displays on the Quay.

1997 The Exeter Maritime Museum closed.

2004 December. ECC Planning Applications, 14/1823/03 Change of use from disused warehouse, formerly Exeter Maritime Museum, to art gallery granted until December 2007 for Unit 3 (penultimate unit from the south).

2018 ECC, 18/1359/FUL. A planning application on behalf of the Topsham Brewery was given consent in 2018

77 (ECC, 18/1359/FUL). This included covering the cobbled ground floor of Unit 1 with a timber floor (some cobbles continue to be visible at the threshold and an internal doorway between Units 1 and 2). It also covered the installation of a bar and lavatories on the ground floor of Unit 1 and the creation of a micro brewery on the ground floor of Unit 2. Permission was also granted for an outside seating area at the north end of Unit 1. The Topsham Brewery moved into Units 1 and 2 in August 2018.

78 Appendix Two

Scope of Heritage Assessment by Andrew Pye a) Annotated as existing floor plans showing

- Locations of original doorways and other openings, including those that have been blocked

- Later alterations, such as new or widened examples of the above

- Type and date of doors, and frames, to distinguish originals/historic ones from modern replacements, and ditto for items such as crane fittings and fixtures, and other miscellaneous items

- Ditto of windows, including where modern replacements have been installed within historic frames that still remain

- Locations of original stairs and openings through floors

- Extent of survival of historic roof and ceiling/floor structures and coverings, and of later replacements, and

- Extent and potential survival of historic fabric and features in the external areas around the buildings, if these are to be affected by related works. b) A rapid search for historic floor plans and maps that may help date the above. Also of the City HER for earlier information and reports on the area. c) Coloured versions of the as existing floor plans that show clearly the sequence of building and subsequent alteration, and their dates d) A report that includes the above, a text description (and a schedule of windows and doors, with dates etc, linked to the annotated floor plan), and an assessment of the proposed alterations and works and their impact. It should also include an attempt to identify the original or historic appearance of the building, in terms of pattern of windows and fenestration, and types of door, to inform the detail of how it is proposed to treat the windows and doors.

79 Conditions and Limitations

This report has been prepared for use by Topsham Brewery and Forward Space and their professional advisers and not to give assurance to any third party.

The purpose of this report is to give an opinion on the specific matter which was the subject of the request and not to comment on the general condition of the buildings.

Parts of the structure which are covered, unexposed, or otherwise concealed and/or inaccessible have not been inspected.

Acceptance of the report will be deemed to be acceptance of the terms of engagement and limitations.

No copies, either whole or in part, may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, or stored in retrieval systems, without prior written authorisation of Keystone Historic Buildings Consultants unless they are for use by Topsham Brewery and Forward Space and their professional advisers.

Copyright of images remains that of the copyright holders identified in the captions. Permission has not been granted for these images to be put on the internet.

No liability for use by unauthorised persons shall be accepted.

Keystone Historic Buildings Consultants 50 Blackboy Road Exeter EX4 6TB 01392435728 [email protected] https://www.keystone-historic-buildings.com Report K/928 December 2019

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