The Boathouse, 27 Ferry Road

The Boathouse, 27 Ferry Road

The Boathouse is a six-bay, two-storey building originally designed as a working boathouse with upper floor workshops, now converted to offices. It sits on the river with a river wall now curtailing access to the water.

The main building's ground floor is constructed of red brick with white brick dentil storey bands and other white brick dressings, some of which are painted. The upper floor is clad in weatherboarding, with each bay enriched by pilaster strips. An eastern single-storey range of similar red brick construction, painted, appears to be original or was added shortly after the building was built. This range was formerly a boat store, later converted to a chandler's shop. A western single-storey workshop extension, added towards the end of the 19th century to enclose the previously partially open-sided boathouse, is clad in horizontal boarding. The roofs are of slate. Most gables feature pierced bargeboards, present from around 1900.

The ground floor openings are set below shallow four-centred arches. On the south-west gable wall, a pair of outer arches frame recessed gauged brick arches above an entrance with a pair of boarded doors and a two-light window with a shaped head. The boathouse formerly had a pair of similarly arched doors facing the river, but one has been blocked with a window inserted, leaving the vestigial outer arch intact. The other has been enlarged under a flat lintel and fitted with a steel rolling shutter door. The side bays have wide, arched entrances facing the river, each with a pair of vertically boarded doors. The chandlery has a smaller entrance to the south gable with a pair of similar doors. At upper level, the riverside gable wall has a central, square-headed doorway flanked by pilasters, now internal, with round-headed windows to each side, each of two fixed panes in a continuous moulded architrave. Early photographs show these as a pair of part-glazed doors to a loading bay, as unlike many recreational boathouses, there was no upper floor balcony. The eastern elevation of the chandlers' shop was ventilated by lunette openings, one of which retains its 19th-century iron grille, while one is replaced by an inserted window. Upper floor windows are late 20th-century timber casements or windows inserted around 2010, replacing casements in similar openings.

The interior of the boathouse retains a ramped floor leading to the external slipway. When the internal space was opened to accommodate larger boats, the shafts supporting the upper floor were removed and replaced with horizontal support. The south-east wall between the boathouse and chandlers' shop is of solid brickwork and appears unaltered. The north-west wall, originally external, is a blind arcade of four-centred arches in gauged white brick, supported on chamfered brick piers with a chamfered brick plinth cut to accommodate doorways. Set back within each alternating bay is a lunette with a cast iron ventilation grille under a gauged white brick arch. The other bays have altered or inserted doorways under original gauged brick four-centred arches. Many of the original floor boards remain in place on the upper floor, though the southern end was reputedly repaired after a fire. The main space has a kingpost roof. There are no surviving interior fittings.