Clock Tower Building

The Clock Tower Building is a Grade II* listed structure located on Main Gate Road in Chatham Dockyard. Originally built in 1723 as a store, mould loft, and saw pits, the upper storeys were rebuilt and encased in brick in 1802, while the ground floor was bricked in around 1830. The building features a timber frame on a brick ground floor, topped with a slate hipped roof.

It has a rectangular single-depth plan with a central axial stair and stands three storeys tall, comprising a 16-window range. The exterior is a large, uniform block with double doors at the left end and six bays to the right, featuring segmental-arched heads to 6/6-pane sash windows. The rear and sides are similar, with two windows on each side. A prominent square two-stage clock tower, added in 1802, has a low base with mullion windows, a weathered band with clock faces on each side, and four curved brackets supporting a swept pyramidal roof topped with a gilded ball and finial.

Inside, the building retains a timber frame made of heavy square timbers arranged in three bays, with posts originally enclosed in the walls. It features bolted heavy kneelers to the roof and aisle posts with pillows, along with a wide central stair flight. The roof, originally a single pitch, was altered in 1802 to include inserted posts and a central valley, with the clock tower situated above.

Historically, the six left-hand bays on the ground floor were open to the saw pits, which were retained when the previous building was rebuilt and later bricked in during the mid-19th century. The clock tower was salvaged from a 17th-century building on the site. This building is the oldest surviving store in a royal dockyard, constructed during the early 18th-century reconstruction of the dockyard, and is notable for its scale compared to larger storehouses built in the 1760s. It was built during the same phase of construction as the Sail Loft and boundary walls, contributing to a significant collection of Georgian naval buildings.