Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

A building assessment was carried out in the warehouses on Cambridge Road in 1996 ahead of proposals to convert them into retail outlets. Building four appears to be of 19th century date (location accurate to the nearest 1m based on available information).

Monument Types

• WAREHOUSE (Post Medieval to Modern - 1801 AD? to 2050 AD?)

Full description

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A building assessment was carried out in the warehouses on Cambridge Road in 1996 ahead of proposals to convert them into retail outlets.

Taken from the source (1996): Building four is a long rectangular warehouse immediately to the south-west of building three and consists of a yellow stock brick structure (flemish bond) with a concrete floor and a pitched roof of corrugated asbestos sheeting painted red-pink supported on a framework of steel girders. A brick cross wall towards the north-western end of the building sub-divides the structure and creates a small room adjacent to the Slip Quay. Below the main floor of the building was a basement lined with cast concrete in the form of a long narrow gallery, perhaps a late insert. Access to this was by means of a trap door and ladder within the building and a passage way leading from Slip Quay. Immediately to the north-east was a separate small basement room opening onto Slip Quay, close by half height double blue painted wooden doors. The north west wall of the building stands slightly forward of building 3 and 5. At ground level it contained, on the north east side, a pair of high sliding wooden doors with a projecting steel girder for a hoist above. A large wooden window with a concrete lintel lies on the south west side of this wall, and at the west corner a cast iron down pipe. The brick built party wall between building three and four is pierced by two doorways at the north west giving access to the first floor rooms in building three. The south east wall of the building is pierced by a large wooden window with a wooden louvre and gable above. The window itself is cut into the brickwork (English bond) which blocks a large earlier gateway. Iron hinges for double gates survive in the gate piers inside the building. This gateway can be identified on the 1861 OS map opening through the boundary wall running along the north-west side of Cambridge Road. On the south west side, the part wall between building 4 and 5 had been largely replaced by vertical steel girders attached to the roof framework. A change in the height of the roof about half way along suggests that the structure may include two phases of work. A number of the girders within the building are marked DORMAN LONG& CO. LTD, MIDDLESBOROUGH, ENLAND. The Dorman company were involved with the development of the Kent coalfield after the first world war and subsequently amalgamated with Pearson and Son, the main contractors for the construction of the present day Dover Harbour. (1)

<1> Canterbury Archaeological Trust, 1996, The Dover Harbour Cambridge Road Warehouses: An Historic Building Survey (Unpublished document). SKE12340.

Sources and further reading

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