The Dock Tower

The Dock Tower is a hydraulic tower built between 1851 and 1852 by JW Wild for The Grimsby Dock Company. It is a building of group value, considered to be of the highest architectural and historical significance. The tower stands within the Royal Dock, Grimsby. Constructed of red brick with a limestone ashlar plinth and ashlar cap, it features an iron lantern. The design is modelled on the Palazzo Publico at Sienna, with an added oriental-style minaret.

The tower has a square section and is approximately 94 metres tall. It is divided into three distinct stages. The tall main stage has a rock-faced rusticated plinth and a recessed board door on the east side, set beneath a rubbed-brick arch. This stage is punctuated by six tiers of three tall slit lights on each side and contains a brass memorial plaque to the west side, inscribed "1939 A TRIBUTE TO THOSE WHO SWEPT THE SEAS 1949". A stepped brick and ashlar string course runs along the main stage. The top section steps outwards, featuring deep imitation machicolations and a tall parapet with brick-coped, pointed arched crenellations. Above this is a smaller stage replicating the lower stage, with a single tier of two slit lights to each side and a similar crenellated head. A short, octagonal stage sits above this, incorporating a round-headed door leading to a balcony. The tower is crowned by a moulded cap, tall octagonal iron lantern, an openwork spire, and a finial.

The interior of the tower has not been inspected.

Originally, the hydraulic gear within the tower operated the gates to the adjacent east and west locks, along with dockside cranes. The tower represents one of William Armstrong’s earliest applications of hydraulic power, and is believed to be the only system of its kind to be built. It exemplifies the first stage of hydraulic-power technology, utilising height to generate pressure from an elevated water tank. It was superseded in 1892 by a nearby high-pressure hydraulic accumulator tower. Together, the two towers represent a rare survival of early hydraulic systems.

The Dock Tower serves as a major local landmark and seamark.