The Royal Dockyard Church

The Royal Dockyard Church was built between 1808 and 1811 by Edward Holl, architect for the Navy Board, and is a late Georgian Classical style building. It was constructed to serve the employees of Chatham Dockyard.

The church is constructed of brick with stone dressings and a slate roof, incorporating internal cast-iron members. It has a rectangular plan. The east end is two storeys high with a basement, and features a wide pedimented front with recessed outer bays, a plat band, and an eaves cornice running around. A central Venetian window is located at the east end, flanked by segmental-arched ground-floor windows and round-arched first-floor windows set in matching recesses; all windows have metal frames. The north and south sides each have six bays, with windows matching those on the east end. The west end has five bays, a central doorway with a moulded surround and bracketed cornice leading to double doors with eight raised panels. Lower outer doorways have architraves and pulvinated friezes and cornices, leading to eight-panel doors, and intermediate segmental-arched windows. Upper windows match those on the sides, with an oculus in the pediment.

The interior remains largely complete and includes a gallery on three sides supported by reeded cast-iron columns. Other features are the Royal Coat of Arms centrally placed, panelled wainscot and gallery, and a panelled plaster ceiling. The east window is decorated with gilded Corinthian capitals. Large timber roof trusses use queen and prince posts. While many original fittings were replaced, the church retains C19 benches in the gallery and a good late 19th-century octagonal pulpit with an iron rail, curved steps, turned posts, and arched panels.

Prior to the church’s construction, dockyard employees used a local church or converted hulks moored at the quay. The church’s design was influenced by Non-conformist chapels, a style also used in dockyard chapels at Portsmouth and Sheerness. The building occupies a prominent position facing the entrance to the dockyard and represents the earliest use of structural cast-iron in a royal dockyard, making it an important part of a complete Georgian dockyard.

The church is designated at Grade II* for its architectural interest, historical significance as part of the world's most complete example of an historic dockyard, and for its technological innovation in employing structural cast-iron.