Lower Boat Store

TQ 76 NE CHATHAM NORTH POND SIDE ROAD (North side) Chatham Dockyard 762-1/8/81 Lower Boat Store

GV II*

Workshop and boat store. 1844. Weather-boarded timber frame with corrugated-iron roof. PLAN: rectangular open plan. EXTERIOR: 2 storeys; 28-window range. Overhanging eaves; varied fenestration, most 6/6-pane sashes, with taller first-floor windows with metal glazing bars; E end has 3 large first-floor windows. E gable has ground-floor 6/6-pane sashes, first-floor 20-paned windows and large double windows to the top, with metal frames; similar W gable. N elevation has mostly paired ground-floor sashes and wide double sliding doors, 9-pane windows under the eaves, 3 larger E windows. INTERIOR: large posts with diagonal braces on knees supporting loft floor above, 3 bays deep, with king and queen posts and clasped purlins. HISTORY: replaced an earlier store. The best surviving example of a type of workshop for timber working and stores once common in the naval yards and now, with the pair of boat stores at Portsmouth, rare. Part of a fine group of naval buildings making up a complete Georgian dockyard. (Sources: Coad J: Historic Architecture of Chatham Dockyard 1700-1850: London: 1982: 155 ; Coad J: Historic Architecture of the Royal Navy: London: 1983: 60; Coad J: The Royal Dockyards 1690-1850: Aldershot: 1989: 145).

Listing NGR: TQ7624869620