Toll House On Island At Allington Lock

This is a small, early 19th century toll house located on an island at Allington Lock, with an extension added in the early 20th century. The building was constructed for the Lower Medway Company, established in 1792 to improve navigation on the River Medway.

The building is constructed of irregular Kentish ragstone with yellow brick quoins, with the rear section of sandstone. The front features a prominent double recessed, gauged yellow brick four-centred arch doorway, with a label mould above. The roof is pitched and tiled, with wide eaves and a bargeboard with a wavy decorative edge to the gable. The east elevation has a window and a door, both under the eaves, with arched recesses using gauged brick and dressed sandstone respectively. An upper section of the door opens independently for toll collection. The west elevation also has two windows, similar to those on the east. All windows are wooden, arched, with downward sloping wooden sills. A line in the stonework and roof tiling indicates a later extension roughly doubling the building’s size, likely occurring sometime between 1908 and 1936.

The interior consists of a single room with modern fittings, including a counter and monitoring equipment. Original features include a shelf at sill height inside the east door and a possible bench along the rear wall, potentially used by a lock keeper.

A small square building was present on the island in the same location on Ordnance Survey maps from 1876 to 1895, serving as a lock keeper’s office and toll house. The later structure, dating to 1939, represents a replacement or substantial alteration of this earlier building. The building has architectural merit and is historically significant as it relates to the navigation of the River Medway, and it also has a visual and functional relationship with the nearby 1833 Lower Medway Company Lock House.