Greenock, Eldon Street, Torpedo Works

Opened 1910-12 as the Royal Naval Torpedo Factory, designed at that time to be the principal centre of Torpedo manufacture in Britain. The factory extended a considerable way to the E, across the area now occupied by Battery Park Avenue. There was also another range of sheds to the W. These 2 buildings are therefore the last surviving examples of a much larger group and are of great historical importance as they formed one of the main centres Torpedo manufacture and development before and during both World Wars. The architectural treatment of the buildings is necessarily simple but of good quality, especially the round-arched openings with their prominent keystones. The use of artificial stone is for also interesting and probably marks a later building period. The buildings have been somewhat altered with many windows blocked and a few later openings created, but on the whole the original design has not been not greatly disturbed. The office stood infront of the W group of sheds and was used as a VAT office, but demolished post 1976.

Torpedoes were invented in 1866-8 by a British inventor, Robert Whitehead, who was working in Austria. In 1871 the British Government purchased the right to manufacture torpedoes and in the following year production commenced at Woolwich Arsenal. In 1910 the Navy transferred production to this site in Greenock, making it the main centre for Torpedo construction in Britain, although Whitehead also ran a private company producing Torpedoes for the Navy, near Weymouth. In 1936 another Torpedo Works was opened by the Navy at Alexandria and an Experiment and Design Department was opened at Greenock. It is likely that some of the later buildings at Greenock date from this period. The Greenock factory was closed in 1951 when all production was transferred to Alexandria.

Information from HS/RCAHMS World War One Audit Project (GJB) 4 July 2013.