Lock House

Lock House

A Navigation Office for the Medway Navigation Company, dated 1833, this is a two-storey building constructed in irregular Kentish ragstone with dressed stone quoins and tiled roofs. A modern extension adds a single-storey red brick section with brick quoins.

The building is L-shaped in plan with a porch in the corner of the L. Two gabled projections project to the rear: one is original, the other dates to the early 20th century and comprises an upper storey only, with its south-east corner resting on a square brick column and a flat-roofed single-storey section linking both projections. All other roofs are pitched.

The front elevation features one arm of the L projecting forward, displaying a gable end with kneelers. A date stone painted white is placed high in the gable, above a wooden oriel window with a tiled roof and five lights with four-centred arched heads. Immediately below is a rectangular recessed wooden window with three lights with four-centred arched heads, a dressed stone lintel and downward-sloping stone sill. Windows throughout the front and side elevations follow a similar pattern, except for the office window on the side elevation.

The main entrance is through the porch set in the corner of the L, a single-storey structure with a crenellated top. The recessed wooden door stands within a four-centred arch with a label mould above. The roof line of this arm is lower than the forward-projecting arm and features a gabled dormer with a three-light window set below the gable, with a similar, slightly larger window immediately below. The west gable end has two two-light windows, one above the other, with the smaller top window set within the gable. The east elevation displays a gabled dormer with a two-light window similar to that in the front elevation, with a two-light window below, south of a projecting chimney stack that has lost its top. Immediately to the north of the chimney is the wooden office window with a tiled canopy or weather hood. The rear elevation shows the gable ends of both early and later wings. The earlier western wing has two windows with segmental arches in gauged brick, the top one almost wholly within the gable. A flat-roofed brick extension connects this with the modern upper-storey bathroom extension set against the back gable of the east arm of the L.

Interior

Entering the porch, to the right is a single-light window; to the left is the door to the office. Straight ahead is a four-centred recessed arch enclosing a door with glazed door and sidelights. The office contains a long fitted desk with a sloping top and drawers with brass inverted cup handles, and an ornate cast iron fireplace in the south-east corner with decorative detail and the name Scotia picked out in bronze above the grate. Three other rooms occupy the downstairs. The front room in the west wing has a modern tiled fireplace; a door in its west wall leads down two steps into a walk-in cupboard, partially under the stairs. The room immediately behind the office is unplastered and contains an arched recess in the back wall next to a plank door under a segmental arch, possibly the original back door. All other doors are four-panelled with moulded architraves.

A dog-leg staircase with stick balusters and a moulded handrail rises from the small entrance hall to a narrow landing. Straight ahead are wide double four-panelled doors of a cupboard occupying the landing's width. To the right is the original entrance to the boardroom, with a moulded architrave. The door has been relocated across an inserted corridor to what is now the front room entrance. The boardroom has been subdivided into two rooms by fixing in place wooden folding doors originally used to divide the space when necessary. The boardroom is lit to the front by the oriel window overlooking the lock, with its domed roof springing from a deeply moulded cornice, and features deep skirting boards. Opposite the boardroom, across the landing, a Tudor arch leads into another corridor giving access to two further rooms, now empty, and a small cupboard. All doors are four-panelled with moulded architraves.

History and Context

The Lower Medway Company was founded in 1792. An Act of Parliament granted it authority to improve the navigation of the Lower Medway by building Allington Lock and making a towpath. The lock was enlarged in 1881, with the current structure dating to 1939. The Lock House was built in 1833 to house the company's offices and to provide a director's boardroom. A small building on the other side of the lock appears to have served as the toll house, though the office window in the Lock House indicates tolls could also be paid there. The 1868 Ordnance Survey map shows both buildings and a shed to the rear, approximately half its current size. Later maps document further extensions and accretions, including the lengthening of the outbuilding. Of these later additions, only the extended outbuilding and the bathroom extension, in place by 1946, survive. This latest extension was built when the building was converted to a dwelling for the lock keeper. Behind the house stands a long brick shed with a brick hearth, reportedly used by bargees waiting for the tide to turn.

The Lock House demonstrates special architectural interest through its early 19th-century Tudor picturesque design, its successful use of historicist references to create an imposing building on a modest scale, and as a relatively rare example of specialised canal architecture. It remains largely intact both inside and out despite later additions and minor internal modifications. It holds special historic interest through its association with the history of inland navigation in England and has group value in its relationship with the small building on the island over the lock and with Grade II listed No 3 Lock Cottage in Sandling, just across the Medway.