Dungeness Lighthouse
DUNGENESS LIGHTHOUSE
Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places
Overview
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II*
- List Entry Number:
- 1390640
- Date first listed:
- 26-Mar-2003
- List Entry Name:
- Dungeness Lighthouse
- Statutory Address:
- DUNGENESS LIGHTHOUSE
Location
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Official list entry
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II*
- List Entry Number:
- 1390640
- Date first listed:
- 26-Mar-2003
- List Entry Name:
- Dungeness Lighthouse
- Statutory Address 1:
- DUNGENESS LIGHTHOUSE
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:
- DUNGENESS LIGHTHOUSE
The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.
- County:
- Kent
- District:
- Folkestone and Hythe (District Authority)
- Parish:
- Lydd
- National Grid Reference:
- TR0929316882
Details
TR 01 NE
845/6/10005
26-MAR-03
LYDD
DUNGENESS
Dungeness Lighthouse
GV
II*
Lighthouse. Designed 1957, built 1959-60. Architects: Ronald Ward and Partners in association with Trinity House. Builders: Taylor Woodrow Construction. The construction comprises 21 concrete drums, each 5ft high, surrounded by a white concrete spiral ramp enclosing the machine room and lifted into position by a specially designed crane. High tensile steel wires were then run through the walls from top to bottom and post-tensioned using the Freyssinet system to provide the strength required to resist 80 mph gales. There is extra strength towards the base of the tower by having extra prestressing cables rather than the traditional taper, giving it a more sophisticated and elegant form. The old lighthouse was originally banded black and white (now black to show that is no longer an active Aid to Navigation), and this design was repeated in the new one by making the drums in black and white coloured cement and special aggregates, although it is now also painted black and white. The tower is 130ft high and 12 feet in diameter, with walls only 6 inches thick. The six bands of perforations towards the top contain the loudspeaker units of the fog signal (no longer functioning since a new system was provided in 2000), and give a rich textural contrast. The interior contains an elegant cantilevered spiral staircase, slightly kinked on plan and with a steel handrail, which leads to the miniaturised 134,000 candlepower lantern (installed 2000, and with a range of 21 miles). There is no need at Dungeness for living accommodation, and all the machinery and electronics are housed within the spiral ramp at the base. The new equipment installed in 2000 has updated the building sympathetically, but is not itself of special interest.
`The first major new lighthouse to be built in Britain for fifty years' (Architects' Journal, 18 August 1960), it replaced the old Dungeness lighthouse, the light from which was to be obscured by the atomic power station built nearby. It cost c.£35,000. The lighthouse was officially opened by the Duke of Gloucester on 29 June 1960, within a year of construction work beginning. `The new Dungeness lighthouse offers a high degree of sophistication with a degree of visual appropriateness comparable to the best work of the past' (Architectural Review, September 1960).
Sources
The Builder, 25 September 1959, pp.286-7
The Builder, 8 July 1960, pp.53-5
Architects' Journal, 18 August 1960, pp.267-8
Architectural Review, September 1960, p.225
Architect and Building News, 25 January 1961, p.107
Legacy
The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.
- Legacy System number:
- 490912
- Legacy System:
- LBS
Sources
Books and journals
Architects Journal in 18th August, (1960), 267-8
Architectural and Building News in 25th January, (1961), 107
The Builder in 25th September, (1959), 286-7
The Builder in 8th July, (1960), 53-55
Architectural Review in September, (1960), 225
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 10-Jun-2026 at 20:23:50.
Download a full scale map (PDF)End of official list entry
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