1-6 The Sail Loft

Warehouse. Built in the late 18th or early 19th century. The building is constructed mostly of local stone rubble, with some sections of weather-boarded timber framing; it has a slate roof.

The building is a long rectangular structure with its long side facing the street. The front bay of the long side wall is blank. Behind this are six bays (with two additional bays at the rear, now hidden behind a later 19th-century house) defined by full-height stone piers. Many bays have stone rubble up to first-floor level, but most contain full-width garage or workshop doors. The first and second floors are weather-boarded. Some first-floor windows have old vertical glazing bars and overlapping panes, but most are 20th-century replacements. The second bay back features a full-width loading bay at first-floor level and a small boarded hatch with remnants of a hoist at second-floor level. The third bay back has stone steps leading to a first-floor plank door. The front gable-end wall has a ground-floor doorway under a low segmental brick arch, now with a 20th-century glazed door, a first-floor loading hatch door, and a weather-boarded second floor with a wide loading bay under a hoist. The rear gable-end wall has a doorway and a window above, set into the blocking of an original loading hatch.

The interior has plain, sturdy carpentry, although much is concealed. The roof is boarded and inaccessible.

These warehouses on Mayors Avenue and No.26 Foss Street have historic importance due to their connections with Dartmouth’s maritime history. The street facing the building was constructed between 1876 and 1877 on reclaimed land.