Boilershop

BOILERSHOP, DOCK HEAD ROAD

Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places

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Overview

Heritage Category:
Listed Building
Grade:
II*
List Entry Number:
1267821
Date first listed:
06-Jun-1984
List Entry Name:
Boilershop
Statutory Address:
BOILERSHOP, DOCK HEAD ROAD
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Date:
2001-06-30
Reference:
IOE01/05072/33
Rights:
© Mr David G. Smith. Source: Historic England Archive

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Official list entry

Heritage Category:
Listed Building
Grade:
II*
List Entry Number:
1267821
Date first listed:
06-Jun-1984
List Entry Name:
Boilershop
Statutory Address 1:
BOILERSHOP, DOCK HEAD 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.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

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.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

Location

Statutory Address:
BOILERSHOP, DOCK HEAD 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 76403 69941

Details

GILLINGHAM

TQ7669NW DOCK HEAD ROAD, Chatham Dockyard 686-1/1/56 (South side) 06/06/84 Boilershop

GV II*

Dry dock cover, now boilershop, disused. 1847, by Fox Henderson & Co at Woolwich Dockyard, re-erected at Chatham c1876. Cast- and wrought-iron frame with corrugated-iron cladding and roof. PLAN: rectangular with lower aisles. EXTERIOR: single-storey; 11-bay range and 3-bay W extension. Gabled ends with raking aisles, frame expressed externally, with louvred ridge and moulded gutters. Irregular scattering of small windows to sides. Lower side brick additions along sides. A decorative square clock tower at the W end with clocks to each face, and a louvred octagonal cupola and finial. INTERIOR: a rigid iron frame has cast-iron columns to wrought-iron roof trusses, and aisles with segmental-arched cast-iron braces with pierced spandrels. HISTORY: covers for ship-building dry docks were introduced in c1814 to protect wooden ships during construction against the weather. The original building was cast and erected at No.4 slip, Woolwich, and re-erected at Chatham by convict labour after Woolwich closed in 1865. It represents a significant step forward in the development of rigid metal-framed structures, and 'established the principal of (portal) bracing through stiff joints',(Sutherland). A fine group with the No.8, Machine Shop (qv), moved at the same time from Woolwich, and the timber and metal slip covers in Chatham Dockyard (qv). (The Buildings of England: Newman J: West Kent and the Weald: London: 1976-: 207; The Newcomen Society: Sutherland R J M: Shipbuilding & the Long-Span Roof; Paper read at Science Museum: 1989-: 16).



Listing NGR: TQ7639969945

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:
462556
Legacy System:
LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Newman, J, The Buildings of England: West Kent and the Weald, (1976), 207
Sutherland, R J M, Shipbuilding and the Long Span Roof, (1989), 16

Legal

This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.

Ordnance survey map of Boilershop

Map

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End of official list entry

All text content is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0 , except where otherwise stated. Any supplied maps are © Crown Copyright [and database rights] 2026 OS AC0000815036 and may not be reproduced without permission.

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