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THE LISTENING POST

THE LISTENING POST, BEACH ROAD, PO20 0TA

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

Overview

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: II
List Entry Number:: 1271803
Date first listed:: 12-Mar-1999
List Entry Name:: THE LISTENING POST
Statutory Address:: THE LISTENING POST, BEACH ROAD, PO20 0TA

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Date:: 2007-05-01
Reference:: IOE01/16398/32
Rights:: © Mr David Easton. Source: Historic England Archive

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Official list entry

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: II
List Entry Number:: 1271803
Date first listed:: 12-Mar-1999
Date of most recent amendment:: 25-May-1999
List Entry Name:: THE LISTENING POST
Statutory Address 1:: THE LISTENING POST, BEACH ROAD, PO20 0TA

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

This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.

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:: THE LISTENING POST, BEACH ROAD, PO20 0TA

The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.

County:: West Sussex
District:: Chichester (District Authority)
Parish:: Selsey
National Grid Reference:: SZ8636893496

Details

This list entry was subject to a Minor Amendment on 15/08/2012

SZ 5289 SE 23/10031

SELSEY BEACH ROAD (North side) The Listening Post

(Formerly listed as No 2, The Listening Post, East Beach Road)

II

Sound mirror, now incorporated within house. 1916, converted into house by late 1930s. Sound mirror built of reinforced concrete, the shuttered lifts to the exterior clearly visible. House has slate-clad stud walls and corrugated asbestos roof, with 2-window front and window inserted into left-side wall; extensions to rear and right.

INTERIOR: curved profile to mirror wall.

HISTORY: This house incorporates a complete example of a sound mirror, built in 1916 (recorded as under construction in March of that year) and one of a series of listening posts built for the Admiralty along the south-east and north-east coasts. The attacks by the German Fleet on east coast ports in December 1914 had alerted the Admiralty to the need to provide early warning of future raids, soon underlined by the threat posed by Zeppellins to British ports and urban areas. The sound signal was reflected by the dish, via a duty observer armed with a stethoscope, to a microphone which enabled the course of the intruder to be plotted. These signal stations thus formed a precursor to the development of radar from 1936. Due to the obsolescence of the technology from the late 1930s, and later coastal clearance work and urbanisation, very few examples (such as Fulwell in Sunderland and the Hythe/Dungeness group in Kent) have survived. It also bears a very direct relationship, through its form and design, to its intended use and thus its technological and historical context. Source: (Chichester Observer, March 1916).

Listing NGR: SZ8636893496

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:: 473129
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.