Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

Proposals for a new Cook House, built to replace those located within the left flank casemate, was constructed across the face of the earlier one, were drawn up in February 1911. After little more than fifteen years the use of the West Flank Casemates for dining ceased; drawings made in 1927 detail proposals for a new Dining Room, built immediately north of the 1911 Cook House, to which it was linked by a short covered way. Just five years later, in 1932-3, the Dining Room was extended to provide a new Cook House and additional dining accommodation. It was a single storeyed building of brick laid in English Bond with a Welsh Slate Roof. This building has since been adapted for use as a gymnasium.(location accurate to the nearest 1m based on available information)

Full description

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Summarised from report:

Proposals for a new Cook House, built to replace those located within the left flank casemate, was constructed across the face of the earlier one, were drawn up in February 1911. The new building was to serve half a battalion, and was planned in conjunction with the conversion the two northern rooms of the West Flank Casemates from barrack rooms into Dining Rooms. The new Cook House was a single-storeyed steel-framed building of four bays, with a roughcast exterior. The timber hipped roof was laid originally with Countess slates. After little more than fifteen years the use of the West Flank Casemates for dining ceased; drawings made in 1927 detail proposals for a new Dining Room, built immediately north of the 1911 Cook House, to which it was linked by a short covered way. The new Dining Room, now converted to a Gymnasium, is a single-storeyed building, gabled north-south. It has eleven bays of pier-and-panel construction in yellowish brick, laid in English bond on a chamfered plinth, with pale brick flat arches to the original openings and concrete sills to the windows. The roof is carried on steel trusses and covered with Welsh slate. Empty plates and crockery were dealt with in the Wash-up, forming the western half of the southernmost bay, the other half formed the Boiler House. Just five years later, in 1932-3, the Dining Room was extended to provide a new Cook House and additional dining accommodation. The Cook House, together with an expanded range of service rooms and facilities, formed the centre of the new complex, set between the 1927 Dining Room to the west and a new Dining Room to the east. The additions were again in yellowish brick, with roofs of Welsh slate carried on steel trusses. The new Cook House formed part of a T-plan range, the stem of the ‘T’ aligned north to south. The Cook House occupied the centre of the east-west range, extending backwards into the stem of the ‘T’, while Serveries opened onto the Dining Rooms on either side of it, and Wash-ups alongside received dirty crockery. The effect of these changes was to leave the 1911 Cook House available for other uses. According to drawings dated February 1932 the original building was divided between a Carpenter’s Shop and a Weapons Training Store, while a Plumber’s Shop occupied the former Preparation Room. The building has since been adapted for use as a gymnasium by the HMPS. (1)

<1> English Heritage, 2004, The Western Heights, Dover, Kent: Report No. 2: The Citadel (Unpublished document). SKE17690.

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