Docks 1 To 6 (Consecutive) Quay Walls And Bollards (Including North And South Camber Mast Pond And Tunnel To Same)

Docks 1 to 6, Quay Walls, and Bollards (including North and South Camber, Mast Pond and Tunnel)

A complete complex of ship building and repairing docks with associated quay walls and mooring fixtures, spanning the late 18th and early 19th centuries. The site incorporates the mast pond, originally dug in 1665, and elements of an earlier dockyard complex dating from the late 15th century and substantially rebuilt between 1689 and 1698.

The existing basin and docks were largely constructed from 1796 onwards under the direction of General Samuel Bentham, Inspector General of Naval Works. Individual docks were built over extended periods: Dock No.1 (1790–1801), Dock No.2 (1799–1802, designed by Bentham with contractors Parlby and Rankin), Dock No.3 (1799–1803, designed by Bentham), Dock No.4 (1772, replacing two earlier building slips), Dock No.5 (1769, incorporating 1690s work), and Dock No.6 (1737–43, modified in the 1760s and 1777, then rebuilt in 1810). The North Camber was constructed between 1773 and 1785 by contractors Templar and Parlby to provide additional wharfage capacity. These works represent significant engineering innovations: Bentham's inverted masonry arch tying together the entrance walls was probably the first use of this principle in dock building, and he also introduced Smeaton's waterproof cement and the practice of using masonry rather than wooden floors. Dock No.5 incorporates work from the 1690s, while Dock No.6 occupies the site of Dummer's smaller dry dock of the 1690s, which was notable as one of the first dry docks in England to employ stepped stone sides instead of timber.

The quay walls are constructed in large blocks of tooled coursed squared stone, marked with Roman numerals indicating water levels. Round-cornered granite kerb stones with iron mooring rings are set into the walls, with additional mooring rings fixed at lower levels. The docks have stepped sides with flights of steps and haulage slides; some retain later metal gates. Dock No.4 features a floor with a central strip of granite setts flanked by brick paving. Narrow flights of steps line the quay and basin walls. On the north side of the entry to the North Camber is Kings Stairs, a flight of steps with wide, shallow treads (since resurfaced). Adjoining Kings Stair Jetty on the north side is a slipway of granite setts with three cannon barrels reused as bollards. The basin entry on the south side is inscribed "BRITANNIA ?th June 1801", commemorating the year of completion of the basin extension. Bollards are mostly square on plan with curved tops and embossed lettering reading "VR", dating to the 1840s–60s.

The mast pond is rectangular in plan and constructed of diagonally-tooled stone, with granite corbels designed to carry boathouses above. The tunnel connecting to the mast pond has a vault of red bricks, with segmental-arched entries featuring giant voussoirs aligned to the stonework courses. At the west end are recesses for former lock gates, added in 1797. The west entry, opening off the South Camber, has the quay wall built up against it, suggesting a possibly earlier date of construction for the tunnel itself.

The 1690s Basin, which survives beneath the Block Mills, employed vertically tooled stonework, contrasting with the diagonal tooling of the mast pond. The complex has undergone substantial repairs and alterations throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. Originally, the quayside capstans were steam-powered before being converted to compressed air in the early 20th century. The site is recognised as the finest surviving group of such 18th-century dock structures in Europe.