Watts' Almshouses
WATTS' ALMSHOUSES, MAIDSTONE ROAD
Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places
Overview
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II
- List Entry Number:
- 1086457
- Date first listed:
- 19-Feb-1970
- List Entry Name:
- Watts' Almshouses
- Statutory Address:
- WATTS' ALMSHOUSES, MAIDSTONE ROAD
Location
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Images of England Project
- Date:
- 2004-02-09
- Reference:
- IOE01/11798/11
- Rights:
- © Mr M.K Lofthouse. Source: Historic England Archive
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Discover moreOfficial list entry
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II
- List Entry Number:
- 1086457
- Date first listed:
- 19-Feb-1970
- List Entry Name:
- Watts' Almshouses
- Statutory Address 1:
- WATTS' ALMSHOUSES, MAIDSTONE ROAD
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.
Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.
For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.
Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.
For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.
Location
- Statutory Address:
- WATTS' ALMSHOUSES, MAIDSTONE ROAD
The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.
- District:
- Medway (Unitary Authority)
- Parish:
- Non Civil Parish
- National Grid Reference:
- TQ 74183 67781
Details
ROCHESTER MAIDSTONE ROAD TQ 7467 NW 11/175 Watts' Almshouses 19-2-70 GV II Almshouses. 1858, by Charles Foord. Mainly red brick with Portland limestone dressings, the bays of yellow brick and the central block of random rubble ragstone; Welsh slate roof. 'Jacobean style with knobs on' (John Newman). Central tall 2 storeyed block containing 1st floor Trustees Board Road; long identical flanking ranges, 1 and 2 storeys, originally with spine corridor serving accommodation to rear and front, now re- organised. Central block consistsw of a porch (to right) with round-headed arched doorway of several orders, stopped and moulded with voussoir straps, approached by stone steps with railings, under a low Flemish-style gable. To the right an angle buttress with many set-offs supports a tall polygonal turret with leaded spire. To the left of the porch and linked to it by a string-course, a tall storeyed wing also with Flemish-style gable; trefoil-section oriel with parapet and much moulded corbelled base (with foliage and inscription frieze) supported on large central buttress with set-offs flanked by 2-light windows with transoms. Transomed and mullioned windows to side elevations. The flanking ranges (containing the almshouses) with a mixture of storeyed red brick wings (2 window front walls each window under Flemish-style gables of different heights) with transomed windows under flat arches, and canted bays; bays with Flemish gables, and simple canted bays, all in yellow brick. Porches with similar arched doorways to central block; shaped ridge stacks, the shafts set at an angle to the bases. Rear with low gable wings, the windows all renewed. Detached at rear is a separate washroom/laundry with raised louvred ventilators. Interior: the central block with open-well staircase; the Board Room with robust hammer-beam roof; the internal walls with alternate red and buff brick banding, the brickwork and fine pointing of very high quality. The whole building is a good example of vigorous, studiedly detailed, mid-Victorian C17 domestic revival architecture.
Listing NGR: TQ7418567778
Legacy
The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.
- Legacy System number:
- 173105
- Legacy System:
- LBS
Legal
This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.
Map
This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale. This copy shows the entry on 22-Jun-2026 at 04:52:23.
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