Old Lower Lighthouse, with boundary walls and coastguard house
Old Lower Lighthouse, Portland Bill Road, Portland, DT5 2JT
Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places
Overview
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II
- List Entry Number:
- 1280466
- Date first listed:
- 21-Sept-1978
- List Entry Name:
- Old Lower Lighthouse, with boundary walls and coastguard house
- Statutory Address:
- Old Lower Lighthouse, Portland Bill Road, Portland, DT5 2JT
Location
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Images of England Project
- Date:
- 2001-08-14
- Reference:
- IOE01/05395/03
- Rights:
- © Mr Reg Perry. Source: Historic England Archive
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Official list entry
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II
- List Entry Number:
- 1280466
- Date first listed:
- 21-Sept-1978
- List Entry Name:
- Old Lower Lighthouse, with boundary walls and coastguard house
- Statutory Address 1:
- Old Lower Lighthouse, Portland Bill Road, Portland, DT5 2JT
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:
- Old Lower Lighthouse, Portland Bill Road, Portland, DT5 2JT
The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.
- District:
- Dorset (Unitary Authority)
- Parish:
- Portland
- National Grid Reference:
- SY 68117 68973
Details
This list entry was subject to a Minor Amendment on 12/12/2019
SY67NE
969-1/1/164
PORTLAND
Portland Bill
PORTLAND BILL ROAD, (south east side)
Old Lower Lighthouse, with boundary walls and coastguard house
21/09/78
II
Lighthouse and house with bird observatory. 1869, modified 1960. Rendered and painted, slate roofs. Slender tapered cylindrical tower, lantern top; domestic block to northeast, linked by flat-roofed one- storey annular extension of c 1960.
Tower has various openings, two-light casements set in deep reveals under cambered projecting lintels and plain cills, crowned by bold cornice carrying cast-iron balustrade with heavy posts and three plain rails to balcony around lantern. Single storey extension has C20 steel casements. Domestic block in two storeys with original three-window unit and a slightly smaller and lower unit added, left. Twelve-pane sashes; central gabled porch, coped verges to bold kneelers, boldly modelled linked triple stack to left gable, and double stack to ridge, right of entrance. Extension also with gable stack to left.
First lighthouse here built 1716, replaced 1789, and again in 1869. Decommissioned 1906 with opening of New Lighthouse (qv); at this time the commemmorative plaque of 1789 removed to the New Lighthouse. Since 1962 used for bird observatory. Used in conjunction with the Old Higher Lighthouse (qv).
Subsidiary Features: enclosed in rubble boundary wall to half-round oversailing copings and a set-back quadrant at entry on the north side, with pair of square piers to pyramidal cappings.
Listing NGR: SY6811768973
Legacy
The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.
- Legacy System number:
- 382000
- Legacy System:
- LBS
Sources
Books and journals
Inventory of Dorset, (1970), 253
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 11-Jun-2026 at 14:33:32.
Download a full scale map (PDF)End of official list entry
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