Joiners Shop

Joiner's Shop, dating from 1840-60, with mid-to-late 19th-century infilling on the east side, forms a significant part of the Chatham Dockyard. Constructed of English bond brick with stone dressings and a slate, corrugated asbestos and iron hipped roof, the building has a rectangular plan, originally around an open courtyard, with a west extension.

The symmetrical east front is two storeys high, with a 13-window range. Three-bay ends project forward, featuring a plat band, cornice, and parapet. The central section contains 20th-century sliding doors, while the remaining windows are 6/6-pane metal casements with doorways in the second and tenth bays from the left. A long, central first-floor window incorporates thin iron mullions. The side elevations, each with an 8-window range, have doorways on the south side, one bay from the end.

The west extension, designed with two aisles, contains segmental-arched 8/8-pane windows. The gables are possibly rebuilt, with the outer range featuring a central doorway flanked by windows, and a later large, round-arched window above the door. The inner range has three windows. North gables have similar fenestration, and the west side has a 9-window range, including a doorway three bays from the right, with a lunette to the left.

Internally, the former courtyard is defined by brick walls with segmental-arched windows, formerly open on the east side. Ground-floor beams are supported by cast-iron posts with joists set in shoes, with fish-belly profile. The inner courtyard area has timber beams to an inserted floor. The roof construction of the first floor is later than that of the courtyard and east-facing workshop area, with stone flags to the fireproof northeast corner. The first floor also features cast-iron H-section columns, with a slight batter, cast in Rochester, supporting a wrought-iron roof with cast-iron decorative compression members. A wide stone stair flight, supported on special cast-iron beams, columns, and a bridging beam with a parabolic bottom flange, leads from the entrance. The long first-floor window has cast-iron octagonal mullions on the interior.

Historically, this is a unique purpose-built workshop, its plan and constructional details directly related to the preparation of shipbuilding timber, and an integral component of the complete naval dockyard.