The Conservancy Board and Pilots' Office

The Conservancy Board and Pilots' Office

This complex began as a public bath house built in 1856, to which a Pilots' Office with associated stores and workshops were added in 1864. The buildings were combined and adapted to form the present Conservancy Board's premises and Pilots' Office in 1987.

The complex is constructed of red brick with painted stucco dressings and Gault brick detailing to the openings. The roofs are covered in slate and felt.

The offices and workshops form an L-shaped plan. The Conservancy Board offices and Pilots' Office face west towards the quay, while an attached workshop range extends to the north. The remaining sections of the former bath house are located to the rear, to the east.

The west front of the office range is predominantly single-storied, dominated by a three-bay semi-circular arched narthex arcade that originally formed the entrance to the baths. This arcade is set between pedimented and pilastered end bays, each containing a single window of paired narrow semi-circular arch-headed lights, now with uPVC frames. The pediments are topped with ball finials. Behind the arcade, set back behind a shallow brick parapet, is a three-bay two-storied section with a hipped roof and three sash windows with moulded surrounds set within recessed panels.

North of the arcade, a single-storey connecting bay links the former baths to the corner observation tower. This bay contains a blocked doorway and a four over four-pane sash window, both with semi-circular Gault brick gauged arches. The three-stage corner tower rises from a square base with painted quoins and paired sashes with Gault brick arched heads on its east and north faces. Above the base, broaches transition to the octagonal upper stages. The second stage has occuli to alternate faces, while the uppermost stage features paired multi-pane windows on each facet, with sills linked by a dentilled string course. The shallow pitched roof supports a weathervane connected to a compass inside the tower.

Running the full length of the west frontage at first floor level is a frieze beneath a moulded cornice. Raised lettering on the tower reads "PILOTS' OFFICE" and "MOORING DUES" on the section to the right.

The north elevation displays a narrow advanced entrance bay with a hipped roof, featuring a semi-circular arch-headed doorway with a panelled door and semi-circular overlight, above which is an occulus matching those in the tower. To the left is a set-back bay with stacked paired glazing bar sash windows.

Attached to the east is a long single-storey brick range containing workshops and storage. The exterior brickwork shows at least three phases of development and the range possibly predates the construction of the Pilots' Office and public baths. Two wide double doorways beneath shallow segmental arches provide access at each end, with three high-level window openings, one now blocked, and three added narrow windows at the west end. Near the centre, a single doorway opens to a small room with a vaulted ceiling, referred to as the Magazine Room and presumed to have stored explosive flares. At the east end stands an attached five-bay single-storey 20th-century workshop.

Behind the west frontage range are the remains of the public bath facilities, including the swimming pool and a boiler room with the remains of a stepped square chimney.

The interior of the Conservancy Board premises and Pilots' Office has been substantially refurbished in recent years and now contains an entrance lobby, port operations room, pilots' office, harbour master's office, accounts office and service areas. Most spaces have modern fixtures and fittings. Primary 19th-century survivals include a number of panelled doors, cupboard doors and stick baluster stairs within the tower and beyond the entrance lobby. In the former public baths, the pool with its stepped north end survives beneath an inserted floor. The building retains its curved east end wall and above, a complex shallow pitched roof structure with scissor-braced principal rafters supporting slender purlins and short king posts.