Former Wheelwrights Shop is a Grade II* listed building in the Medway local planning authority area, England. First listed on 13 August 1999. Museum, restaurant.
Former Wheelwrights Shop
- WRENN ID
- empty-latch-pigeon
- Grade
- II*
- Local Planning Authority
- Medway
- Constituency
- Rochester and Strood MP: Lauren Edwards (Lab)
- Country
- England
- Date first listed
- 13 August 1999
- Type
- Museum, restaurant
- Address
- Former Wheelwrights Shop, Main Road
- OS grid reference
- TQ 760 693
- Coordinates
- 51.39631, 0.52949
- Source
- Historic England listing
Description
The Former Wheelwright's Shop is a building located on the east side of Chatham Dockyard, dating from the late 18th to early 19th century. Originally a mast house, it later became a wheelwright's shop and is now used as a museum and restaurant. The structure is timber-framed, featuring weatherboarding and a tiled roof, with a plan consisting of three rectangular parallel ranges.
The exterior is a single storey with three gable ranges. Each matching gable has double carriage doors and small-paned metal framed windows. The northern end has three ground-floor windows on the left side and wide attic windows above the doors, while the southern end has three ground-floor windows in the middle and tall attic windows. The west side has rendered brick infill.
Inside, the building showcases timber roof trusses supported by heavy former ships' knee braces and king posts. Historically, mast houses were significant in the sailing ship dockyard, and the roofs exemplify shipwright techniques used in construction. After the decline of sailing ships, the building was repurposed for various uses, including as a wheelwright's shop. It has group value with the Mast House and is part of a notably complete Georgian dockyard.
Local climate
Former Wheelwrights Shop 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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