The Guard House (Cafe) is a Grade II* listed building in the Medway local planning authority area, England. First listed on 13 August 1999. Guard house.
The Guard House (Cafe)
- WRENN ID
- silver-marble-root
- Grade
- II*
- Local Planning Authority
- Medway
- Constituency
- Rochester and Strood MP: Lauren Edwards (Lab)
- Country
- England
- Date first listed
- 13 August 1999
- Type
- Guard house
- Address
- The Guard House (Cafe), Main Gate Road
- OS grid reference
- TQ 758 690
- Coordinates
- 51.39295, 0.52623
- Source
- Historic England listing
Description
The Guard House, now a cafe, is an early 19th-century brick building located on the west side of Main Gate Road in Chatham Dockyard. It features a slate hipped roof and has a single-depth plan with a single storey. The building consists of three bays on each side, with chamfered surrounds and rubbed brick flat arches above the central doorway, which is recessed. It has 6/6-pane sash windows. The east front includes a left-hand doorway with a 4-pane overlight and a boarded door, along with 6/6-pane sashes. The north and south returns each have three doorways with narrow overlights and boarded doors.
Inside, the building has been simply converted into a cafe. Historically, it pairs with a matching guard house opposite, which is now the Customs House, and is part of a complete group of Georgian dockyard buildings. Its prominent position next to the ropery complex contributes to its historical significance as an important element within this notably complete Georgian dockyard and factory.
Local climate
The Guard House (Cafe) sits in a drier-than-average part of the UK, with an average of 720 mm of rain a year. This makes it drier than 84% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is lower than that of 74% of listed buildings.
It experiences an average of 23 freeze-thaw cycles a year, fewer than 76% of listed buildings. Of these, 11 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
- No sale records on file
- 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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