Description

GILLINGHAM

TQ77SE DOCK HEAD ROAD, Chatham Dockyard
686-1/6/57 (North side)
06/06/84 No.8 Machine Shop

GV II

Dry dock cover, now machine shop, disused. c1845 by Fox
Henderson & Co at Woolwich, re-erected and extended 1880.
Cast-iron frame with corrugated-iron cladding and
Mansard-style roof.
PLAN: rectangular aisled plan and 3-bay N extension.
EXTERIOR: single-storey; 15-bay range. Gabled ends with very
wide gambrel roof, with 7 blocked square headed dormer-type
louvres each side and ridge ventilator. Large central windows
to N and S, the latter divided horizontally into 2, flanked by
shallower side windows. Entrances in N and S with larger
sliding boarded doors.
INTERIOR: an iron frame has cast-iron I-section columns
tapering at the top, connected by high level segmental-arched
cast-iron braces, and with full-height cross braces to the
last but one bays each end; cantilevered principals are braced
each side of the columns with double tapered framed openwork
struts, and trussed purlins between the frames. Northern 3
bays have trusses with plate gussets and trusses members over
the aisles.
HISTORY: moved to Chatham from Woolwich Dockyard after it
closed in 1865. The earliest of the surviving metal-framed
slip covers, and apparently closely modelled on the earlier
timber covers such as that at No.3 slip, Chatham (qv). The end
bays may have been added when it was moved.
Part of a fine group of slip covers including the nearby
boilershop (qv), moved to Chatham at the same time. The Prom
(EW) factory, the third of the metal-framed buildings from
Woolwich, was demolished c1990.
(The Newcomen Society: Sutherland RJM: Shipbuilding & the
Long-Span Roof; Paper read at Science Museum: 1989-: 14).

Listing NGR: TQ7635270029

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17551406

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

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