Low Lighthouse is a Grade II listed building in the Tendring local planning authority area, England. First listed on 30 June 1964. A C19 Lighthouse, museum.
Low Lighthouse
- WRENN ID
- forbidden-cornice-fern
- Grade
- II
- Local Planning Authority
- Tendring
- Constituency
- Harwich and North Essex MP: Sir Bernard Jenkin (Con)
- Country
- England
- Date first listed
- 30 June 1964
- Type
- Lighthouse, museum
- Address
- Low Lighthouse, the Esplanade, Harwich
- OS grid reference
- TM 262 323
- Coordinates
- 51.94342, 1.29097
- Source
- Historic England listing
Description
The Low Lighthouse in Harwich is a former lighthouse that has been converted into a maritime museum. It was built in 1818 by the architect John Rennie the Elder for General Rebow. The structure is made of yellow stock bricks with stone dressings that have been painted white. It features a tapering 10-sided shaft topped with a black painted stone 'tent' roof that has a cornice overhang and a lotus finial.
The lighthouse has three adjoining faces to the southeast and the back that originally housed light openings, but these are now covered with painted timber panels. There is a timber balcony that encircles the building, complete with a tubular metal handrail. The base has a low pitched felt roof, which is partially open on thin columns and partially enclosed in 20th-century painted brickwork. The small windows are adorned with prominent hoodmoulds. Although similar in detail to the High Lighthouse, its character has changed due to the painting of its cladding materials.
Local climate
Low Lighthouse sits in a drier-than-average part of the UK, with an average of 730 mm of rain a year. This makes it drier than 79% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is greater than that of 70% of listed buildings.
It experiences an average of 11 freeze-thaw cycles a year, fewer than 89% of listed buildings. Of these, 6 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.
Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.
More on this building
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- No EPC on record for this property
- No sale records on file
- No related consent applications matched
- Detailed attributes — period, style, materials, features
- Flood risk assessment
- Radon risk assessment
- Weather exposure and heating demand — rain and frost month by month and year by year, wind direction, solar and humidity
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