Watch House is a Grade II listed building in the East Suffolk local planning authority area, England. First listed on 22 November 1971. Museum.
Watch House
- WRENN ID
- idle-barrel-snow
- Grade
- II
- Local Planning Authority
- East Suffolk
- Constituency
- Suffolk Coastal MP: Jenny Riddell-Carpenter (Lab)
- Country
- England
- Date first listed
- 22 November 1971
- Type
- Museum
- Address
- Watch House, Gun Hill, Southwold
- OS grid reference
- TM 507 757
- Coordinates
- 52.32239, 1.67885
- Source
- Historic England listing
Description
The Watch House is a garden house that was later used as a coastguard look-out and is now a museum for the Royal National Lifeboat Institution. It was built in 1800 and underwent conversion and alterations in the mid-20th century. The structure is made of colourwashed brick and features a pyramidal slate roof with a cupola.
The building is single storey and has an octagonal shape. Steps lead up to a boarded door, and three sides facing the sea are fitted with 20th-century plate glass viewing windows. The interior is plain. Originally known locally as The Casino, the building was constructed to serve as a garden reading house.
Local climate
Watch House receives an average of 780 mm of rain a year. This makes it drier than 62% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is greater than that of 79% of listed buildings.
It experiences an average of 6 freeze-thaw cycles a year, fewer than 96% of listed buildings. Of these, 4 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
- Sale history — 2 transactions since 2005
- 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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