Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

Grade II listed building. Main construction periods 1828 to 1989

Summary from record TQ 97 NW 1015:

Sheerness Docks Shed 104 (formerly listed as Expense Accounts Department).

Monument Types

• SITE (Post Medieval to Modern - 1828 AD to 1989 AD)
• PAY OFFICE (Constructed 1830, Post Medieval to Modern - 1830 AD to 1960 AD? (at some time))
• CELL BLOCK (Demolished, Post Medieval - 1864 AD? to 1892 AD? (at some time))
• GUARDHOUSE (Demolished, Post Medieval - 1864 AD? to 1892 AD? (at some time))

Full description

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The following text is from the original listed building designation:
TQ 9175 SW MAIN ROAD
(North side), Sheerness
Dockyard
933/2/104
Former Pay Office, Building
18.01.1972 No.104
GV II
Pay office, now offices. 1828, probably by William Miller, Admiralty architect, and Sir John Rennie, engineer; altered 1892, repaired and extended after fire 1980s. Yellow stock brick with stone dressings, and slate hipped roof. PLAN: central axial hall with offices and pay room in the W bay and guard room in the 2 E bays, with 1987 single-room extension to the north. EXTERIOR: 2-storeys and basement; 5-bay front with 6-bay sides. Symmetrical front with plat band, cornice and blocking course, the three central bays set back, rubbed brick heads to round-arched windows all round, those in the front in matching recesses. Outer 2-light and inner 4-light transom windows with fanlights, central doorway with 2-leaf panelled doors, flat-headed first-floor 616-pane thin-bar sashes; formerly entrance to the left of the doorway. Matching side elevations, the E side with doorways at both ends. Rear formerly as the front, has 1987 2-storey extension, slightly lower but modelled on the front, with a 2 Tuscan columns to a flat canopy. INTERIOR not inspected, but reported to contain three cast-iron Tuscan columns along the axis of the hall, cantilevered stone open well stair to the right of the door (formerly another at the opposite end), NW strong room with an iron door, basement with fish-belly cast-iron joists across central passage; king post roof. HISTORY: built during the second phase of work in the Yard, after the dock walls and engineering works were complete. Has some similarities with the Pay Offices at Devonport and Portsmouth, both of which contain fire-proof elements (qqv). Unlike the other Royal dockyards, Sheerness was rebuilt all at the same time. The Pay Office is part of the complete north-east section of the Yard, part of a unique planned C19 dockyard. (Sources: Rennie Sir J: The Formation and Construction of British and Foreign Harbours: London: 1851: 41 ; Sheerness, The Dockyard, Defences and Blue Town: 1995: NMR BI 93279).
Listing NGR: TQ9120375234 (4)

Description from record TQ 97 NW 1015:
Built 1830, large brick office buildng. 2 storeys yellow brick, granite plinth and cornice. Slate roof, 2 hips. Circular headed windows at ground, sash windows 1st floor. Large Tuscan columns inside. (1)

The former Pay Office is a rectangular brick building erected in 1828. It was probably designed by William Miller. The 1864 OS map shows the entire eastern half of the building as dockyard police cells and reveals that three cells had been erected within the soldiers guard room by that date. Alterations were carried out in 1892 by G. P. Hayes which removed these features. The northern part of the building and much of the building and much of the first floor were damaged by fire in 1980's and subsequent repair work included the construction of a large two-storeyed extension on its north side. Current function unknown. (2)

<1> Department of the Environment, KCC Greenback Index (Index). SWX9400.

<2> Royal Commission on Historic Monuments in England, 1995, Sheerness: The Dockyard, Defences and Blue Town, NMR BI 93279 (Unpublished document). SWX6974.

<3> English Heritage, List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest (Map). SKE16160.

Sources and further reading