Clock Tower And Former Lifeboat House

Clock Tower and former Lifeboat House, Dover

The Clock Tower was built in 1876-7 by the architect George Devey to a design commissioned by Dover Harbour Board. The former Lifeboat House dates to 1866, constructed by the Royal National Lifeboat Institution, with alterations made in the late 1870s and the 20th century.

The Clock Tower is constructed of rough-faced snecked ragstone with dressed stone details. It has a square plan arranged in four stages with an offset hexagonal stair tower at the north-west corner. Each face of the tower carries a circular clock-face beneath a projecting modillion cornice with parapet above. A flag pole with weather vane rises from the roof. The hexagonal stair tower is topped with a lead-covered hexagonal roof with ball finial, supported on shaped columns. Two doors at the first stage provide access to the base of the stair tower and an electricity sub-station in the main tower base. The principal entrance, accessed via stone steps with solid stone balusters, is on the second stage. The door surround is dressed stone with a four-centred head and stop-moulded jambs. Fenestration is irregular and sparse, comprising small rectangular openings surrounded by dressed stone. On the east elevation's second stage is a canted oriel window with mullioned lights. The tower contains a stone spiral staircase, with the clock mechanism housed in the fourth stage. Metal-framed casement windows light the tower.

The former Lifeboat House stands at an angle to the north-west of the Clock Tower. It is a single-storey rectangular building with pitched roof, gable-end parapets to east and west, a parapet to the north, and eaves to the south. A central pitch-roofed half dormer to the north features a louvred oculus with a pair of casement windows beneath, flanked by two further casement windows. To the west, the original lifeboat doors have been replaced with a simple timber shop-front comprising a half-glazed door and shop window. A continuous hoodmould runs around the timber lintel above the shop-front and continues along the north elevation. Above the shop-front is a stone mullioned window with three six-light casements and an infilled oculus above the central casement, with hoodmould above. The west gable is topped with a ball finial. The building has timber-framed casement windows and a modern commercial interior of no special interest.

The two buildings are linked by a short section of decorative cast iron railing.

The Lifeboat House was originally constructed with doors to the north. When completed, the Clock Tower was positioned to the east of the Lifeboat House, with the two buildings linked to the north by an archway. George Devey's design created both a stylistic and physical link, presenting the two structures as a unified complex rather than isolated buildings. In 1892, construction of the new Prince of Wales Pier required both buildings to be carefully dismantled and re-erected nearby but on a different alignment; the connecting archway was lost at this time.

The Lifeboat House was built in 1866 following the Royal National Lifeboat Institution's assumption of the lifeboat service from the Dover Humane and Shipwreck Institution in 1855. Late 1870s modifications enlarged the building to accommodate a larger lifeboat. The Clock Tower was built to designs by George Devey, with building work undertaken by local builder W.J. Adcock. After the Clock Tower's completion, Devey received further commissions from Dover Harbour Board to design a marine bathing establishment and to lay out adjacent building land, though these works were destroyed by shelling during the Second World War.

George Devey (1820-1886) was born in London and attended King's College School between 1832 and 1835, where he studied drawing under John Sell Cotman. He was articled to and later employed by architect Thomas Little in Northumberland Street, London, before establishing his own practice in 1846. Devey's work encompassed both new house design and the remodelling of older buildings, and he gained particular recognition for designing estate buildings that demonstrated his understanding of and sympathy for vernacular architecture. He is now recognised as a pioneer of the interest in English vernacular architecture in the late 19th century. Devey enjoyed the patronage of several Liberal politicians, and it was his friendship with Lord Granville, a Liberal statesman and Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports, that secured him the commission for Dover's Clock Tower.