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

This is a former canal-side warehouse, built around 1790 shortly after the completion of the canal in 1770, and now converted into offices. The building is rectangular in plan, three storeys high, and five bays wide. It is constructed of red brick with a pantile roof and raised coped gables. Decorative dentilled brick eaves run along both the canal-side and road-side elevations.

The south-western gable front features a doorway on the first floor with a plank door, and a two-light window with a segmental head above. Brick and concrete steps, likely added during the conversion, provide access to the first floor. A wooden plank door allows access to storage space underneath.

The south-eastern, or canal front, elevation has central taking-in doors on each of the three floors. The first-floor door has a wood and steel balcony. The third-floor door is jettied and likely would have housed a hoist beam. Flanking these doors on each floor are two wooden windows with glazing bars. The lower two floors have windows with segmental heads, while those on the upper floor align with the dentilled eaves. All windows are replacements from the 20th century. Iron fixings are visible at regular intervals on the first and second floors.

The north-western, or street front, elevation is similar, although glazed doors have replaced the original wooden plank doors on the second floor.

The north-eastern gable has two wooden windows with glazing bars, one on each of the first and second floors.

Originally, the warehouse was probably open-plan on all floors, but partition walls have been added since its conversion to offices. Many original features remain visible. Access from the canal-side taking-in door leads to an entrance hall with a 21st-century open-well staircase. The building’s timber floors are supported by heavy cross-beams, joists, and floorboards. The ground floor has evenly-spaced timber posts that support the first-floor structure. The taking-in doors are visible on the central landings of each floor, providing access to corridors and offices at each end. The roof structure consists of collar and tie beam trusses—some with later added vertical struts that give the appearance of queen posts—along with a single tier of staggered purlins.