Navigation Warehouse (formerly known as Warehouse at the Junction of Riverhead and Riverhead Road)

A former canal-side warehouse built c.1790 following the completion of the canal in 1770, now converted to offices.

MATERIALS, PLAN and EXTERIOR: The warehouse is of three storeys, 5 bays and of rectangular plan. Built of red brick, it has a pantile roof and raised coped gables. Dentilled brick eaves extend along both the canal side and the road side elevations.

The south-west gable front, has a doorway on the first floor with a plank door, and above a two-light glazing bar window with a segmental head. A flight of brick and concrete steps have been added, probably at the time of conversion, to provide access to the first floor. A wooden plank door provides access to storage beneath.

The south-eastern, canal front, elevation has central taking-in doors on all three floors, the first-floor example has a wood and steel balcony, the door on the third floor is jettied and would probably have housed a hoist beam. .Either side of these, on all three floors, are two wooden, glazing-bar windows. Those on the lower two floors are with segmental heads, those on the upper floor are aligned with the dentiled eves. All the windows are C20 replacements. Iron fixings are evident at regular intervals across the elevation at first and second-floor level.

The north-western, street front elevation is almost identical, although on the second floor, glazed doors replace the original wooden plank doors.

On the north-eastern gable are two wooden, glazing-bar windows, one each on the first and second floor.

INTERIOR: Originally the warehouse is most likely to have been open plan on all floors, but since conversion into offices partition walls have been inserted to divide the space. However, the majority of the original features are retained and visible.

Access via the canal-side, taking-in door leads into an entrance hall with a C21 open-well stair. The internal structure of the building is made up of timber floors with heavy cross-beams, joists and floorboards, all of which are evident in the hall. The ground floor has a series of evenly-spaced timber posts running along the centre, supporting the first-floor structure. The taking-in doors are visible on the central landing on each floor and from the landings, via corridors, access is gained to offices at each end. The roof structure comprises collar and tie beam trusses, (with later added vertical struts giving the appearance of queen posts) , together with a single tier of staggered purlins.