Why Warrior's boilers and engines needed a long passage

Why did HMS Warrior have such a long corridor between her boiler and engine rooms?

The passage gave engineers direct access to the boilers and engines at a time when naval steam practice still depended heavily on close observation and experience.

The long route between Warrior's boiler and engine rooms gave engineers direct access to both systems. Large marine steam machinery was still new enough that operating it remained closer to a practical art than a settled science. Engineers therefore needed to move between the machinery that produced steam and the engines that used it while monitoring how both behaved. The arrangement reflects the command-and-control demands of an early steam warship rather than merely inefficient use of internal space.