Looking north to Robert Potts' shipbuilding yard at SW corner of old South Dock.
Coal Store on skyline just left of centre.
Date of photograph not known but possibly well before 1890.
Detail fron previous picture (SDFS 001)
Looking north to Robert Potts' shipbuilding yard at SW corner of old south dock. a patent slipway was used at this yard.
This yard originally belonged to William Henzell from 1834 until the 1850s probably primarily a ship repair yard he certainly built the"William" here in 1839 maybe more but I have no record of any other shipbuilding until Robert Potts built the "Caspian", the "Jane Duncan" and the "Robert and Mary" in the 1860s. All wooden sailing ships, with the advent of iron ships he turned to ship repair until after a fire in 1880 he ceased trading.
A room in this building was used to isolate any sailors taken ill with suspected typhoid, cholera or smallpox even after 1894 when the Isolation Hospital was built. Known as the Quarantine Station it was still in use for this purpose in 1932.
Princess Rd Fire Station now occupies the site of the Isolation Hospital.
Wm Henzell was landlord of the Royal Oak Inn, Pilot Terrace by 1858.
Old South Dock in the 1860s or 70s, the 'patent slipway' of Robert Potts shipbuilding yard is clearly visible in the SW corner of the dock. His shipbuilding/repair business was destroyed by fire in 1880.
