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Monument details

Summary

Grade II* listed building. Main construction periods 1767 to 1828

Summary from record TQ 76 NE 113 :

Cashier's Office

Monument Types

• SITE (Post Medieval - 1767 AD to 1828 AD)

Full description

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The following text is from the original listed building designation:
TQ 76 NE CHATHAM CHURCH LANE
(West side) Chatham Dockyard
762-1/8/39
Former Cashier's Office
24.5.71
GV II*
Cashier's office. Late C18, extended at Wend c1808 by Edward Holl, architect for the Navy
Board. Red brick with patterned brick jambs to upper windows and stone dressings, brick rear lateral stacks, and hipped slate roof. Mid Georgian style.
PLAN: single-depth axial 4-room plan. EXTERIOR: 2 storeys; 12-window range. A long parapeted range has a plinth and broad pilasters to the ends, 2 doorways 1 and 5 bays from the right, with rusticated pilasters to a triglyph frieze and modillion cornice, and doors with 8 raised panels half glazed, the right-hand one set in an elliptical-arched recess with imposts. Segmental-arched windows with shallow-recessed 6/6-pane sashes. Blind rear elevation includes a French window with raised surround and cornice to the N end. 2-window returns, that to the S end with step up to an inserted doorway. A lower single storey; 5:7-window range extends from the N end, in 2 sections, with a parapet ramped up to the S end. Rubbed red brick arches over 4 doors and 6/6-pane sashes as the main range. INTERIOR: a rear late C19 stair against the wall to a large formerly open first floor, with rear plain stone fire surrounds. Stair case has been moved from its original position at the Wend. HISTORY: John Dickens, Charles' father worked in these offices between 1817 and 1823, when the building contained the Navy Pay Office on the first floor. The lower Wend was built for offices for the Commissioner and his staff, first floor clerk's office, and a waiting lobby at the E end. The presence of specialist pay offices reflects the size and complexity of the dockyards in the C18. Occupies a prominent position in this complete Georgian dockyard.
(Sources: Coad J: Historic Architecture of Chatham Dockyard 1700-1850: London: 1982: 173 ; Coad J: The Royal Dockyards 1690-1850: Aldershot: 1989: 48 ; MacDougal1 P: The Chatham Dockyard Story: Rainham: 1987: 102, 166).
Listing NGR: TQ7592969081

Description from record TQ 76 NE 113 :
(TQ 7594 6907) SAM No. 236 [the Cashier's Offices: scheduled]. (1) Cashier's Office. Built in 1808. 2 storeys. 12 windows. Red brick. [Full architectural description]. John Dickens, father of Charles Dickens, worked here as a clerk from 1817-1823 when the building was the Navy Pay Office. Listed Grade II. (2) The pay Office remains substantially as built although the main pay room and the clerks office have been subdivided and the staircase repositioned. (3)

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

<2> DOE (HHR) Borough of Chatham May 1971 (9) (OS Card Reference). SKE39910.

<3> Jonathan G Coad, 1989, The royal dockyards 1690-1850: architecture and engineering works of the sailing navy. No.1, Page Nos. 48, Plate Nos. 26 (Bibliographic reference). SKE6362.

Sources and further reading

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