Harbour Office

POOLE

SZ0090SE THE QUAY 958-1/17/189 (North side) 14/06/54 Harbour Office

GV II

Harbour office. 1822. Stucco with limestone dressings, slate roof. Mid Georgian style. Single-depth plan. 2 storeys; 4-window range. A ground-floor stone-flagged open arcade of 4 Tuscan columns to an entablature and cornice carries the upper storey with a modillion cornice returning at the ends and parapet; left-hand doorway and blind, ground-floor windows with painted 8/8-pane sashes; first-floor 6/6-pane sashes, and a central sundial inscribed S.WESTON ESQ. MAYOR 1814. Right-hand return gable has a central doorway with pilasters and pediment, a 3-window range with a central sash, blind each side, and a stone plaque above with architrave containing a painted half figure inscribed BENHAMIN SKUTT, MAYOR/AN 1727/JN AUBREY FECIT. INTERIOR: a single first-floor room, restored mid C20. HISTORICAL NOTE: the original building was built 1727, and the plaque and sundial reused from it. The parapet was formerly raised to the centre with a wide panel. A notable and significant example of a harbour office in its original historic context, and built at the end of Poole's height of trading prosperity. (RCHME: County of Dorset (South East): London: 1970-: 204; Buildings of England: Pevsner N & Newman J: Dorset: London: 1972-: 320; Hillier J: A Portfolio of Old Poole: Poole: 1983-).

Listing NGR: SZ0084190300