Main Gate and Attached Dockyard Perimeter Wall to South West

Details

TQ 7568 NE CHATHAM MAIN GATE ROAD
Chatham Dockyard
762-1/1/71
Main Gate and attached
Dockyard perimeter wall to
south west
24.5.71

GV I


Gatehouse and dockyard wall. 1718-22. Brick with 4 rear corner stacks and a tall exterior stack to the rear, and a slate hipped roof. PLAN: single-depth square towers connected by bridge with W extension, with W single-depth house.
EXTERIOR: each tower 3 storey; 1-bay range. Towers have clasping pilasters to a moulded brick cornice and corner turrets, floors with paired strings and 2 blind oculi each with small pairs of recessed panels above.
Between the towers is a depressed 3-centre archway set back with key and imposts, beneath a large Royal Coat of Arms of George III in Coade stone, signed Coade and Sealy and dated 1812, which replaced the original when that was moved to the N side, with a Lombard frieze and parapet above. Rear has two 6/6-pane sashes with cambered heads to each floor and above the arch, with a round-arched ground-floor window each side. A smaller Coade stone cartouche between the middle windows. Double doors of 6 fielded panels each to front and rear, with gate-keepers' lodge on the S side.
To the W a 2-storey house recessed back from the N side, parapeted with 2-window N end, 2:5-window W side, the rear 2-window section a single storey; the longer section rendered with a small porch between the two, with segmental brick arches to 6/6-pane sashes. To the rear against the perimeter wall is a tall exterior stack.
INTERIOR: not inspected but reported to contain stairs in each tower and accommodation on the upper floors.
SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: tall dockyard wall, built 1718, of coped brick, which extends approx 350m terminating against the quay to enclose the Dockyard to the S. A smaller wall extends to the S to connect with The Cottage (qv).
HISTORY: built in the Baroque style associated with the early C18 Board of Ordnance at the .Woolwich Arsenal, Berwick-on- Tweed (probably by Hawksmoor), and Devonport, for example.
The gatehouse was originally occupied by the Yard porter and boatswain. Construction of the wall and four towers, of which two, North Tower House and South Tower House (qqv) survive, was authorised 1716; to bound land on the hill to the E which the navy acquired, and on which the Officer's Terrace was built. The Ropeyard was enclosed 1718. The wall to the N and two Tower Houses are included in the list as separate items, (qqv College Road).
(Sources: Coad J: Historic Architecture of Chatham Dockyard 1700-1850: London: 1982: 141 ; Coad J: The Royal Dockyards 1690-1850: Aldershot: 1989: 81-83 ; The Buildings of England: Newman J: West Kent and the Weald: London: 1976: 204).

Listing NGR: TQ7588168888

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

462103

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Newman, J, The Buildings of England: West Kent and the Weald, (1976), 204
Coad, J, Historic Architecture of Chatham Dockyard 1700-1850, (1982), 141
Coad, J, Historic Architecture of Chatham Dockyard 1700-1850, (1982), 141

End of official list entry

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