Officers Barracks Tilbury Fort

The Officers Barracks at Tilbury Fort is a terrace of approximately 22 officers' houses, now comprising 7 houses and a museum. Built in 1772 by the Board of Ordnance, it was altered in the early 19th century. The building is constructed of yellow stock brick, featuring brick ridge stacks and a steep slate hipped valley roof, reflecting the Mid Georgian style.

The structure has a double-depth plan, possibly originally back-to-back, and stands two storeys tall with a 23-window range. The symmetrical front includes a brick cornice and parapet, a central keyed round-arched doorway with a 6-panel door and small flanking lights, all beneath a wide ground-floor pediment and a first-floor oculus. There are flat-headed doorways with bracketed canopies leading to panelled doors in the end bays, and paired doorways to bays 6 and 7 from both ends. The windows have rubbed brick flat arches with 6/6-pane sashes, although half of the original small 3/3-pane sashes on the first floor have been replaced by deeper sashes similar to those on the ground floor. The rear elevation is similar, featuring canopied doorways to the first, third, seventh, and central bays from each end, with all but the middle two first-floor windows being original.

Inside, the central house has been preserved as a museum, showcasing a central axial dogleg stair, Ordnance Board iron grates, and original joinery. Each house originally had two fireplaces, but they were combined as the fort was occupied by fewer officers during the 19th century.

Historically, this building is believed to have been rebuilt on the site of a late 17th-century officers' range, which itself was rebuilt in 1742. It serves as a good and rare example of Ordnance Board housing from that period and is notable for its terrace plan designed to provide officers' lodgings. The Officers Barracks is part of one of the finest and most complete late 17th-century forts in England and is listed as a free-standing building independent from the scheduled fortifications and attached structures.