Main Building, Courtyard Walls, Stable and Gatehouse Blocks, Admiralty Compass Observatory at Ditton Park is a Grade II listed building in the Windsor and Maidenhead local planning authority area, England. First listed on 26 April 1984. Observatory.
Main Building, Courtyard Walls, Stable and Gatehouse Blocks, Admiralty Compass Observatory at Ditton Park
- WRENN ID
- wild-thatch-pigeon
- Grade
- II
- Local Planning Authority
- Windsor and Maidenhead
- Constituency
- Windsor MP: Jack Rankin (Con)
- Country
- England
- Date first listed
- 26 April 1984
- Type
- Observatory
- Address
- Main Building, Courtyard Walls, Stable and Gatehouse Blocks, Admiralty Compass Observatory at Ditton Park, Ditton Park Road, Datchet
- OS grid reference
- TQ 000 779
- Coordinates
- 51.49139, -0.56043
- Source
- Historic England listing
Description
The Main Building, courtyard walls, stable and gatehouse blocks of the Admiralty Compass Observatory at Ditton Park were rebuilt after a fire in 1812, incorporating some remains of an older house. Constructed between 1813 and 1817, the building was designed by architect William Atkinson, a pupil of James Wyatt. It features a cement-rendered brick exterior in an early Gothic Revival style, complete with turrets and crenellations. The main building has an entrance courtyard surrounded by stables and gatehouses, all situated within an ancient moat.
The entrance facade consists of a three-storey central section with three windows that have label moulds above them. A central door is flanked by "Gothic" windows with two centred arches and is bordered by turrets and plain two-storey wings that each have one window and crenellated parapets. The garden front showcases a full-height octagonal bay window with a Gothic cast iron balustrade on the first-floor balcony.
Inside, the ground floor gallery features a heavily modelled, vaulted plaster ceiling, while the entrance hall has a beamed plaster ceiling. The main staircase is adorned with a fine cast iron Gothic balustrade. The entrance courtyard is enclosed to the north and south by 17th-century brick walls and 18th-century brick stable and gatehouses, which have rendered buttresses, plinths, and architraves. These structures were 'Gothicised' in the 19th century, and the central towers rise above a large four-centred arch. The stables include a wooden dock turret.
Local climate
Main Building, Courtyard Walls, Stable and Gatehouse Blocks, Admiralty Compass Observatory at Ditton Park sits in a drier-than-average part of the UK, with an average of 710 mm of rain a year. This makes it drier than 87% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is lower than that of 82% of listed buildings.
It experiences an average of 32 freeze-thaw cycles a year, fewer than 59% of listed buildings. Of these, 13 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
Sign in or create a free account to unlock:
- 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
Matched applications, energy data and sale records are assembled automatically and may contain errors. Flag incorrect data.
Similar buildings
The closest matches to this building from all 493,000 UK listed buildings, by architecture, period and materials.
this building 1 similar nearby listed buildings
Nearby listed buildings
- Garden Walls and Summer House at Admiralty Compass Observatory at Ditton Park
- Main Gatehouse and Bridge at Admiralty Compass Observatory, at Ditton Park
- Granary 50 Yds South-West of Ditton Farmhouse
- Barn to South-West of Ditton Farmhouse
- Ditton Farmhouse
- Milestone at Su 9999 7881
- Cemetery Chapel
- 38, Ditton Road
- Riding Court Farmhouse
- Ice House in Garden of No. 60 Lawn Close