Medway Ports Authority Offices (Dockyard House)

This is a mid-1820s Commissioners' house, now offices, built within the Sheerness Dockyard. It was designed by George Ledwell Taylor, architect to the Navy Board, and Sir John Rennie, an engineer. The building is constructed of yellow stock brick with rubbed brick detailing, rendered dressings, central ridge and brick stacks at each end, and a slate hipped roof, exhibiting a Late Georgian style.

The plan is a double-depth one. The exterior presents two storeys, an attic, and a basement, with a symmetrical front featuring a rendered plat band, cornice, and a full attic storey with a parapet. A timber porch has paired pilasters, a cornice, a blocking course, architraves to the doorway, and a double six-panel door with nine-pane lights on either side. Windows are flat-headed with six/six-pane sashes, possibly retaining original outer sashes for potential double glazing; the attic windows have three/three-pane sashes. The two single-storey outer sections have a thin cornice and parapet. The five-window ends have blind windows aligned with the chimney stacks; the north end features a central tripartite first-floor sash with a segmental-arched head, while the south end has a later full-height brick extension one bay from the rear, which has lost the front stack. The rear elevation is similarly styled though with mid-20th century ground-floor casements. Outer sections of three windows incorporate an early 19th-century porch three bays from the north end, featuring a cornice and round-arched door and windows.

The interior, which has not been inspected, reportedly retains many original features, including a curved central staircase with a mahogany rail, panelled shutters and doors, and enriched cornices.

Attached to the front and rear are cast-iron basement area railings, featuring urn finials and diagonal bars. Originally the house served as the residence and office of the Commissioner of the Yard, and was designed as a matching building to the adjoining officers' terrace, Regency Close. Sheerness Dockyard was unique within the royal dockyards as it was entirely rebuilt at the same time, and this building is located within a relatively unaltered southeastern corner of Sir John Rennie's model layout, which includes the entrance chapel and officers' accommodation, representing a unique planned early 19th-century dockyard layout.