The Royal William Yard was originally designed by the architect Sir John Rennie and was named after King William IV. It was built between 1826 and 1835 and occupies a site covering approximately 16 acres (65,000 m2). Plymouth City Council Building Control have been involved in the majority of the conversion works to domestic apartments and the many retail and business units within the yard. Examples include The Brewhouse, Clarence Building, Slaughterhouse Mills Bakery, The Cooperage, Seco Lounge and the Factory Cooperage to name but a few.
The site comprises of Scheduled Monuments to Grade I/II listed buildings. Main development partners Urban Splash and architects Gillespie Yunnie were engaged to carry out the specialist conversion of the site into a mixed-use development and Plymouth Building Control have been involved on site from the very first phase of development.