Rosherville Quay Walls, Steps, Drawdock And Wwii Mine Watching Post

Quay walls, steps, drawdock and attached Second World War mine watching post at Rosherville, designed in 1837 by the architect Henry Edward Kendall and his son Henry Edward Kendall Junior for Jeremiah Rosher. The mine watching post dates to circa 1940.

The quay walls are built of coursed stone rubble with ashlar dressings and stuccoed gatepiers. The steps are of York stone. The drawdock has lower walls of coursed stone with clunch to the rear wall, and the upper part is of stock brick in English bond. The mine watching post is constructed of yellow brick with a concrete roof.

The structure comprises linear quay walls with a central entrance. The quay walls rise to approximately 9.6 metres high at the centre, sloping down at the sides, and extend 70 metres either side of the central arch. They feature stone coping, patched in places with cement, and in the centre are two stuccoed gate piers with pyramidal stone caps linked by cast-iron railings. The western side terminates in a stone pier with pyramidal caps; the eastern pier is missing. Two raised stone bands and a round-headed culvert appear on the western side. The central entrance gives access to two flights of York stone steps descending either side of a 7-metre-high round-headed arch with ashlar voussoirs. Attached to the west side of the arch is the Second World War mine watching post, constructed of yellow brick in English bond with a flat concrete roof, flat-arched entrance and window opening. In front of the large arch is a projecting platform with a smaller round-headed arch approximately 5 metres high, also with ashlar voussoirs; the sides of this platform were encased in concrete during the 1960s. The drawdock is approximately 7 metres high, 5 metres wide and 20 metres deep, with a series of putlog holes in the brickwork at the north river-facing end, providing evidence of a former room at this level. The landward or south end roof terminates in a semi-circular dome lined in clunch. A missing section of brick and stonework to the western side of the rear wall reveals a further brick wall behind. Remains of stone structures in the side walls towards the rear are thought to be the remains of winches used for hauling boats into what was effectively a drawdock.

The quay walls and drawdock were constructed during the 1830s as part of Rosherville New Town. Jeremiah Rosher, born in Rotherhithe, recognised the potential of chalk excavation along the Thames at Northfleet for use in cement manufacture for the building industry. By marriage to the daughter of Benjamin Burch he acquired a large property with grounds called Crete Hall. He conceived the idea of building a new town, taking advantage of Gravesend's popularity as a resort town with Londoners visiting by day steamboat or purchasing houses in the area. Rosher began building houses in 1830, designed for businessmen able to travel to London by steamboat. In the Gravesend and Milton Journal of 1 August 1835, the architect Henry Edward Kendall was advertising building plots at Rosherville. The same journal of 1 July 1837 mentions the "stone building of the present pier", confirming that the stone quay walls and a wooden pier were built by that date. Jeremiah Rosher had just leased the pier to an unnamed businessman connected with the steamboat company. Kendall was employed to lay out an esplanade and build a hotel. Various elaborate architectural designs by him survive, one showing an impressive quay wall with round-headed arch and a very elaborate stone pier with two-storey pavilions. It appears that only the stone quay wall with steps and arch of this design were constructed, with the proposal for an expensive stone pier replaced by a cheaper wooden pier. A print of September 1844 shows the quay walls, central arch and attached wooden pier with the Italianate style Rosherville Hotel on the esplanade behind.

Rosherville New Town was not as successful as Jeremiah Rosher hoped. In 1837 he leased the large excavated chalk pit for 99 years to George Jones, a businessman from Islington who formed the Kent Zoological and Botanical Gardens Company. From 1842, Rosherville Gardens were a great success, mainly because of day visitors from London arriving by steamer at Rosherville Pier. However, after a successful three or four decades, decline was precipitated by the sinking of the Princess Alice paddle steamer with great loss of life in 1878 and the rise of affordable train trips to the seaside. In 1886 a railway station, Rosherville Halt, was constructed specifically to bring visitors to Rosherville Gardens and took some trade from the pier. In 1900 Rosherville Gardens went bankrupt and, despite reopening following changes in 1903, continued to lose money. The pleasure gardens closed in 1913 and never reopened.

On the 1863 Ordnance Survey map the area of the quay is marked "quays" and in the centre Rosherville Pier is marked with a projecting section at the river end. Rosherville Pier is shown on the 1898 map, although by that date the projecting section at the end had been lengthened. By the 1910 map the projecting section at the end is entirely missing and the structure is now marked "Rosherville Pier (Disused)". The pier no longer exists.

During the Second World War a mine watching post was constructed adjacent to the western steps of the quay. In the 1960s the lower steps to the beach were enclosed in concrete.