Pump House

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A single-storey, single-bay building aligned N-S between the E ends of the two graving docks (HB26/50/090B and C). Hipped natural slate roof with oversailing eaves with timber soffits. Half-round plastic rainwater goods. Walls are painted and rendered (underlying material not known). Double-leaf timber door on E elevation and two sets of high-level metal-framed 5x2-paned windows along N gable. Small lean-to to middle of S gable. Walls otherwise blank.

A short distance SW of the building are two hand-operated cast-iron valve stands mounted on a circular concrete plinth. These are still used to cut off the water in the pipes between the bottom of the dry docks and the emptying pumps. The tops of the stands are inscribed: “Glenfield/ & Kennedy/ Kilmarnock”.

There was no internal access, but the site manager states that it contains a (relatively modern) electrically-powered pump in the basement. There is also a smaller pump to drain off any seepage.

Setting

The pump house is located on Clarendon Dock (from which there is a connection to Belfast Lough ) immediately east of the original workshop and pump house (HB26/50/090A), and between the graving docks (late eighteenth century Dock no.1 to SW and early nineteenth century Dock no.2 to NW). The area has been landscaped and is now planted with grass and ornamental trees. Three anchors and a ship’s propeller are displayed here. The area to the W and N of the dock has been paved with stone flags.

Roof: Slate
Walling: Rendered
RWG: Plastic
Windows: Metal

Historical information

The orginal pump house was superseded in the later 1800s by a new one between the two docks at their seaward end. This is still in use for no.2 dock. This building appears on the OS maps from 1884 onwards.

No.1 graving dock was constructed for the Belfast Ballast Board by William Ritchie between 1796 and 1800. Ritchie, its designer, was a ship builder from Ayrshire who had established a ship building and repair yard nearby, where the nearby Harbour Office now stands. The dock measures 235ft long by 28ft wide. It is marked on the 1832-33 OS map and subsequent editions.

No.2 graving dock was constructed for the Belfast Ballast Board by Messrs Henry, Mullins & McMahon (one of the leading contractors in Ireland at that time), under the supervision of David Logan and to a design by Thomas Burnett. It opened in 1826 and, at 285ft by 34ft, is slightly larger that No.1 dock.

In 1850-51, the Clarendon Dock was built by the Belfast Harbour Commissioners (the successors of the Belfast Ballast Board) on the seaward side of the graving docks. This is a wet dock with a sea lock separating it from the tideway. This dock is shown on the 1858 OS map and subsequent editions. It is named after George William Frederick Villiers, 4th Earl of Clarendon, who was Lord Lieutenant of Ireland from 1847 to 1852.

Primary Sources:
1. PRONI OS/6/1/61/1. OS 1:10,560 map Co Antrim, sheet 61 (1832-33).
2. PRONI OS/8/30/1A/23. OS 1:1056 map, Belfast sheet 23 (1858).
3. PRONI OS/8/30/3/23. OS 1:1056 map, Belfast sheet 23 (1883-84).

Secondary Sources:
1. R. Sweetnam & C. Nimmons, The Port of Belfast 1785-1985, pp 4 and 7 (Belfast: Harbour Commissioners, 1985).
2. R.C. Cox & M.H. Gould, Civil Engineering Heritage: Ireland, pp 133-134 (London: Thomas Telford, 1998).
3. Works Engineer, Belfast Harbour Commissioners (August 2012).

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest

Evaluation

A small late nineteenth century pump house located on Clarendon Dock between two of Belfast's earliest graving docks, and built to replace the earlier pump house which remains on the site (HB26/50/090A) and has been refurbished for office use. The pump house is of interest as one of a range of historic structures associated with the history of use of the site, and contributing to its completeness as one of Belfast's landmark maritime landscapes. However, it has been largely rebuilt and contains no original machinery; it is of not special architectural or historic interest in itself.