Governor's House with Front Boundary Wall is a Grade II listed building in the Dorset local planning authority area, England. First listed on 17 May 1993. House.
Governor's House with Front Boundary Wall
- WRENN ID
- shadowed-passage-aspen
- Grade
- II
- Local Planning Authority
- Dorset
- Constituency
- South Dorset MP: Lloyd Hatton (Lab)
- Country
- England
- Date first listed
- 17 May 1993
- Type
- House
- Address
- Governor's House with Front Boundary Wall, 102, the Grove, Portland
- OS grid reference
- SY 701 722
- Coordinates
- 50.54899, -2.42208
- Source
- Historic England listing
Description
The Governor's House, built around 1850, is a detached house that formerly served as the Governor's residence for the prison. Constructed from rubble or squared rubble with a slate roof, it features a broad facade that faces directly onto the pavement. Originally designed as a compact square block, the house has a prominent central bay on the garden front and has been extended at both ends on the north side.
The building is two storeys high with a basement and has a 2:3:1 window arrangement. On the left side, there are two blank window bays followed by three 12-paned sash windows on the upper floor and two sash windows below, one of which has brick jambs. The first-floor windows in the central section are raised in part-dormers above the eaves, featuring hipped roofs and corbelled dressed stone surrounds.
To the right, there is a gabled section with a 12-pane sash window in a dressed stone raised surround, complete with capping and a bracketed cill, above another 12-pane sash. An off-centre, left-positioned 20th-century door has a small transom light and is framed by a pilaster surround with a moulded cornice. A plain mid string course runs around the entire building.
The house has a lofty central ridge stack and a smaller stack on the right ridge, both topped with thin moulded capping and a blocking course. The right return of the house is rendered and features single and paired sash windows on the first floor, along with a sash window and a door beneath a glazed lean-to porch at ground level. Adjacent to the right is a boundary wall that includes a plank door set in brick jambs.
The southern garden front has a central three-window section with a hipped canted full-height bay, featuring 12-pane sashes on both levels. The first-floor windows have part-dormers and dressings similar to those on the north side, while two ground-floor windows have been replaced with French doors. A flat-roofed two-storey unit has been added to the left, and there are two additional lofty stacks.
To the right, set back, is a wing that extends the street front, which has a steel escape stair added. This house is an important part of the group of prison buildings and holds a visually significant position at the junction of Grove Road and The Grove.
Local climate
Governor's House with Front Boundary Wall receives an average of 840 mm of rain a year. This makes it wetter than 55% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is greater than that of 77% of listed buildings.
It experiences an average of 13 freeze-thaw cycles a year, fewer than 88% of listed buildings. Of these, 5 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.
Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.
More on this building
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- No EPC on record for this property
- No sale records on file
- No related consent applications matched
- Detailed attributes — period, style, materials, features
- Flood risk assessment
- Radon risk assessment
- Weather exposure and heating demand — rain and frost month by month and year by year, wind direction, solar and humidity
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