Dock Offices

Dock Offices

Dock offices built in 1885 by Mills and Murgatroyd for the Grimsby Dock Company. The building is constructed of red brick with ashlar and terracotta dressings, and features a 20th-century Spanish slate roof. Late 20th-century alterations include re-roofing, truncating chimney stacks, and fitting uPVC windows within the original frames.

The building follows an H-plan with its entrance front facing south. It stands three storeys tall with a basement, arranged in a 2:2:3:2:2 bay pattern. The three central bays break forward, while the outer wings project as two narrow bays. The facade is symmetrical apart from a slightly irregular central three-bay section containing a staircase window to the right.

The ground floor features recessed panels in each bay with moulded brick reveals and segmental-headed windows. The central section contains 2-light windows, the flanking bays have 3-light windows, and the wings have 4-light windows. Each window panel has moulded brick reveals and arches with stone sills and terracotta aprons decorated with raised circular reliefs, some serving as ventilation grilles. Single circular terracotta ventilators sit above each window. The first and second floors repeat similar segmental-headed recessed panels containing windows of comparable widths, except the wings which have twin panels with 2-light windows.

The central entrance to the south has an ashlar surround with steps flanked by short curved balustrade walls. The round-arched doorway features ornate wrought-iron 2-fold outer gates decorated with a wheel motif and radial fanlight. The moulded arch contains an archivolt and carved keystone, while panelled pilasters with palmette capitals, keystones, and scrolled side brackets carry a moulded cornice and piers supporting a balustraded balcony. An internal porch contains a plain inner entrance. To the left stands a 2-light window; to the right, a circular window in an ashlar surround with 2-light stair windows above arranged in a full-height segmental-headed panel rising through three storeys, with the two upper windows replaced in the 20th century and a plain panel between them.

The eaves feature an elaborate frieze with an ashlar string course and moulded brick Lombardy frieze with tall fluted brackets supporting a moulded ashlar cornice. The roof is hipped to the wings and central section, decorated with finials and topped by a central clock tower.

The clock tower consists of a square section with three stepped-in stages. The base is panelled with a moulded ashlar string course. The second stage is pilastered with twin louvred openings and an ashlar entablature with moulded brick and ashlar cornice. The upper stage has a swept base with a clockface to each side and a bold modillioned cornice supporting a four-sided two-stage spire with a swept base, ornate round-headed louvres to the lower stage, and a modillioned cornice to the top stage topped with a wrought-iron weather-vane.

The left and right returns feature original basement windows with glazing bars and narrow round-arched lights, with upper floors repeating the details of the entrance front. The left return displays six irregularly-spaced first-floor windows, with a section to the right of centre breaking forward beneath a hipped roof and a projecting chimney-breast between the two right-hand windows. The windows throughout are 2-light, except for 3-light windows in the projecting bay. Fire escape doors are positioned to each floor in line to the left. The right return is similar but lacks fire escape doors and features a second chimney breast to the far right.

The rear features six 3-light windows to the central section and a central projecting square-section chimney stack with moulded ashlar offsets and a tall chamfered shaft. The rear wings are longer than those facing the south front. The right wing contains a rounded section in the angle with 2-light windows and three narrow single-light windows to the front. The left wing has a full-height canted bay with 3-light and flanking single-light windows to each floor beneath ashlar lintels and a hipped roof.

The interior is largely plain, featuring segmental arched doorways and painted brick walls. Twentieth-century alterations include suspended ceilings. The interior was not fully inspected.

The building occupies a prominent position near the southern head of the Royal Dock, facing the Dock Tower to the north at the dock entrance and the Albert Memorial to the south.