Exploring Kent's Past

It should not be assumed that this site is publicly accessible and it may be on private property. Do not trespass.

Monument details

Summary

Grade II* listed building. Main construction periods 1764 to 1999

Summary from record TQ 76 NE 92 :

The Police Offices. Listed Grade II. C18 long single storey building. The South half of the building has a long colonade of 10 wooden Doric columns.

Monument Types

• SITE (Post Medieval to Modern - 1764 AD to 1999 AD)

Full description

If you do not understand anything on this page please contact us.

The following text is from the original listed building designation:
TQ 7568 NE CHATHAM MAIN GATE ROAD
(East side) Chatham Dockyard
762-1/1/63
Former Police Offices and
attached wall
24.5.71
GV II*
Guard house, police offices, now offices. 1764, altered 1815. Stucco and stone dressings, cast-iron columns, rear lateral stack and slate hipped roof. Late Georgian style. Single-depth plan. EXTERIOR: single storey; 11-bay colonnade. A long open colonnade of 10 cast-iron Doric columns to an entablature and coped parapet, with a flagged pavement in front of 4 doorways set back; three early C19 6/6-pane sashes, the rest later C19 and C20 horned replacements. Parapeted 7-window left-hand range level with the colonnade, with a doorway 2 from the left with a cornice. Backs on to the former perimeter wall which extends from the Main entrance and south stables (qqv).
INTERIOR: contains late C20 offices. SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: Wall encloses small yard to extreme left. To the right is a rendered brick wall, ramped at the left-hand end and with a doorway to the right, which extends to meet the Main Gate (qv).
HISTORY: built to house the marines who were in the late C18 increasingly responsible for dockyard security. The columns were originally timber, and replaced in iron in 1815. Backs onto the perimeter wall attached to the Main Gate (qv), and forms an important element at the entrance to the Dockyard. Part of a fine assemblage of Georgian naval buildings.
(Sources: Coad J: Historic Architecture of Chatham Dockyard 1700-1850: London: 1982: 152 ; MacDougall P: The Chatham Dockyard Story: Rainham: 1987: 164).
Listing NGR: TQ7590468928

Description from record TQ 76 NE 92 :
(TQ 7591 6895) SAM No. 208 [Police offices: scheduled]. (1)

The Police Offices. Listed Grade II. C18 long single storey building. The South half of the building has a long colonade of 10 wooden Doric columns. (2)

The offices were ordered in 1764 after marines took over policing of the yard from civilian watchmen. Wooden Ionic clonade added in 1813. (3)

<1> English Heritage 1:1250 SAM location maplet (OS Card Reference). SKE41612.

<2> DOE (HHR) Chatham Borough May 1971 (6) (OS Card Reference). SKE39952.

<3> Jonathan G Coad, 1989, The royal dockyards 1690-1850: architecture and engineering works of the sailing navy. No.1, Page Nos. 84, Plate Nos. 69 (Bibliographic reference). SKE6362.

Sources and further reading

Related records