Former Penlee Point lifeboat house, slipway, retaining and boundary walls, and memorial garden

Former RNLI lifeboat house and slipway, designed by WT Douglass and built between 1911 and 1913, with alterations carried out in 1922 and 1931. The building closed for active service in 1983. A memorial garden was added in 1985.

The lifeboat house is constructed of cement render with ashlar markings, granite cills and copings. The roof is finished with asbestos and reconstituted tiles with terracotta ridge tiles. The retaining walls and slipway supports are Portland cement concrete, with the slipway grid made of reinforced concrete.

The rectangular building is orientated north-east to south-west, with the north-east elevation facing the sea. This seaward elevation features the 1931 extension, which has a gable end with a tooled granite coping and kneelers and a concrete date stone marked '1911'. Below the gable is a single window. The extension has a flat roof above a cornice and full-height timber double bi-fold doors on rollers. Each door comprises four hinged leaves of ledge-and-brace construction. The south-west elevation has the same gable arrangement without the datestone, with a single window above the pedestrian entrance, a timber ledge-and-brace door with a horizontal overlight. The south-east and north-west elevations diminish in height from the seaward to landward end, each with three windows featuring sloping tooled-granite cills. Concrete steps provide access on both sides.

The roller slipway has a shallow V-shaped section with a central metal keelway channel, flanked by angled pre-cast sections of reinforced-concrete grids. This rests on in-situ concrete supports, with the 1911 plans specifying a 4 to 1 Portland cement concrete aggregate mix for works below high water. A north-west gangway with steps provides access, with cast-iron safety railings featuring ball joints.

Internally, the building comprises a single double-height space sloping from the south-west down to the seaward doors, organised into five bays defined by the king-post roof structure. Exposed timber joists run along a timber-clad ceiling. A steel gantry or runway attached to the tie-beam carries a sliding pulley for engine removal and maintenance. The central bay retains the drop-keel pit, a steel tipping cradle made by the Lanarkshire Steel Co., and the roller mechanism. Two ridged-concrete sloping walkways with steel ball-jointed handrails flank this central feature.

A timber matchboard-clad loft at the north-east end, formerly the mechanic's shop, is accessed via a timber ladder and supported on a steel beam resting on granite corbel pads. It contains fixed timber cupboards and is accessed through a framed and braced door with a wrought-iron hoop handle. At the south-west end is a concrete pad supporting a winch motor manufactured by John H Wilson & Co of Birkenhead, possibly dating to the 1922 refurbishment. Walls are plastered and painted with an incised stepped dado border. Windows are timber, each comprising two casements with chamfered edges and metal catches, with a horizontal fixed light above. Thirteen continuation of service boards are fixed to the walls, including one for the 'Solomon Browne' from December 1981. Near the seaward doors is a row of timber oar-brackets. Additional fixtures include a large riveted-steel water tank on timber brackets (shown on the 1911 plans) at the south-west end, fixed cupboards, and a matchboard-clad telephone booth on the north-west side (shown on the 1931 plans).

The lifeboat house is enclosed on the seaward side by massive Portland cement concrete retaining walls. Principal pedestrian access is via two flights of concrete steps from road level with cast-iron handrails featuring ball joints. The upper part of the retaining walls comprises granite rubble with rounded coping stones, topped with spiked wrought-iron railings. Set into the wall is a granite commemorative stone inscribed in lead lettering: 'THE COST OF ADAPTING THIS HOUSE / AND SLIPWAY TO ACCOMMODATE THE / MOTOR LIFE-BOAT "THE BROTHERS" / WAS DEFRAYED BY THE / MISSES EDDY OF TORQUAY. THE / DONORS OF THE BOAT. / 1922'.

The memorial garden, built in 1985, is located north-west of the lifeboat house and accessed from the footway. It is surrounded by granite rubble walls with concrete copings and comprises concrete steps descending to a paved sunken area. The walls are set with several plaques commemorating those lost in the Penlee Lifeboat Disaster on 19 December 1981.