Shed Number 78, Sheerness Dockyard (also known as Boat Store Number 78 or simply Sheerness Boat Store) is a disused industrial building at

Sheerness Dockyard Sheerness Dockyard was a Royal Navy Dockyard located on the Sheerness peninsula, at the mouth of the River Medway in Kent. It was opened in the 1660s and closed in 1960. Location In the Age of Sail, the Royal Navy would often establish shore ...

, on the

Isle of Sheppey The Isle of Sheppey is an island off the northern coast of Kent, England, neighbouring the Thames Estuary, centred from central London. It has an area of . The island forms part of the districts of England, local government district of Borough ...

in north

Kent Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...

. The building was constructed at the

Royal Navy Dockyard Royal Navy Dockyards (more usually termed Royal Dockyards) were state-owned harbour facilities where ships of the Royal Navy were built, based, repaired and refitted. Until the mid-19th century the Royal Dockyards were the largest industrial c ...

Sheerness Sheerness () is a port town and civil parish beside the mouth of the River Medway on the north-west corner of the Isle of Sheppey in north Kent, England. With a population of 13,249, it is the second largest town on the island after the nearby ...

in 1856–60, as a store for small boats and a warehouse. It became a

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

in 1962, upgraded to Grade I in 1999, but it has been on the

Heritage at Risk Register An annual ''Heritage at Risk Register'' is published by Historic England. The survey is used by national and local government, a wide range of individuals and heritage groups to establish the extent of risk and to help assess priorities for acti ...

for many years.

History

The building was constructed for the Admiralty Works Department by Colonel Godfrey Thomas Green CB of the

Royal Engineers The Corps of Royal Engineers, usually called the Royal Engineers (RE), and commonly known as the ''Sappers'', is the engineering arm of the British Army. It provides military engineering and other technical support to the British Armed Forces ...

(1807-1886) (formerly from the

Bengal Sappers and Miners Bengal ( ) is a Historical geography, historical geographical, ethnolinguistic and cultural term referring to a region in the Eastern South Asia, eastern part of the Indian subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal. The region of Benga ...

, and later Director of Admiralty Works), and William Scamp (1801-1872), with ironwork cast by Henry Grissell's Regent's Canal Ironworks. The design was based on

slip Slip or The Slip may refer to: * Slip (clothing), an underdress or underskirt Music * The Slip (band), a rock band * ''Slip'' (album), a 1993 album by the band Quicksand * ''The Slip'' (album) (2008), a.k.a. Halo 27, the seventh studio al ...

covers at naval dockyards built during the 1830s and 1840s, for example the Grade I listed covered slips at

Chatham Dockyard Chatham Dockyard was a Royal Navy Dockyard located on the River Medway in Kent. Established in Chatham, Kent, Chatham in the mid-16th century, the dockyard subsequently expanded into neighbouring Gillingham, Kent, Gillingham; at its most extens ...

, but, unlike those buildings, it relies on the rigidity of the joints in its

iron frame The term iron frame describes the structural use of either cast iron or wrought iron in the columns and Beam (structure), beams of a building. While popular in the 19th century, the iron frame was displaced by the steel frame in the early 20th centu ...

to make the structure stable. ChathamHDYCoveredS0005

It is an unusually large example of a boat store, built using an innovative structural system, with an all-metal frame incorporating metal portal bracing. After

The Crystal Palace The Crystal Palace was a cast iron and plate glass structure, originally built in Hyde Park, London, to house the Great Exhibition of 1851. The exhibition took place from 1 May to 15 October 1851, and more than 14,000 exhibitors from around ...

(constructed 1851; destroyed 1936) and the first

South Kensington Museum South is one of the cardinal directions or compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both west and east. Etymology The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Proto-Germanic ''*sunþaz' ...

(constructed 1857; removed and reused at Bethnal Green in 1874) the building is said to be the earliest surviving example of a multi-storey iron-frame building in the world. The boat house is recognised as the world's first multi-storey building with a rigid metal frame, providing the pattern for many modern industrial and commercial buildings. A similar system used for the first

skyscraper A skyscraper is a tall continuously habitable building having multiple floors. Most modern sources define skyscrapers as being at least or in height, though there is no universally accepted definition, other than being very tall high-rise bui ...

s in Chicago, and is now widely used for steel-framed building. It became a

in 1962, and was promoted to Grade I in 1999. Its listing entry with

Historic England Historic England (officially the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England) is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. It is tasked with prot ...

states that it is "of international significance in the development of modern architecture". As of 2015, it was in very bad condition, and was listed as one of the

Victorian Society The Victorian Society is a UK charity and amenity society that campaigns to preserve and promote interest in Victorian and Edwardian architecture and heritage built between 1837 and 1914 in England and Wales. As a statutory consultee, by l ...

's ten buildings most at risk in 2015. It remains unused, and has been on the Buildings at Risk Register for many years.

Description

The building was constructed from

wrought iron Wrought iron is an iron alloy with a very low carbon content (less than 0.05%) in contrast to that of cast iron (2.1% to 4.5%), or 0.25 for low carbon "mild" steel. Wrought iron is manufactured by heating and melting high carbon cast iron in an ...

, with its walls and roof clad with

corrugated iron Corrugated galvanised iron (CGI) or steel, colloquially corrugated iron (near universal), wriggly tin (taken from UK military slang), pailing (in Caribbean English), corrugated sheet metal (in North America), zinc (in Cyprus and Nigeria) or ...

. It has four storeys, with 14 bays on the main (north) frontage and 9 bays on the side return. The bays and floors are divided into regular units by high cast iron columns which support long cast iron beams with an I or H cross-section and supporting brackets, creating a rigid

. Each unit on the north front has a full-width window with 5 casements (originally sashes), each with 3x2 panes, above a corrugated iron panel (replacing the original timber cladding, with brick infill added in 1946 on the ground floor). The west side has a gable end over the central 3 bays, above sliding doors on the ground, and hipped roofs on 3 three side bays. The south (rear) elevation is blind. Internally, the building is divided into three sections which run on an east to west axis, each with 3 bays across their width: a wide full-height unobstructed central aisle, with storage bays on four floors in the sections to the north and south. A frame of cast-iron H-section columns and I-section joists divides the side aisles into 7 bays along their length. An area on the third floor in the south east corner has an office area, divided by glazed panels. A timber winder stair leads up to an octagonal cupola above the roof.

References

Shed Number 78, The Boat Store, Building Number 78
National Heritage List for England, Historic England
The Boat Store, Sheerness Dockyard - Swale
Heritage at Risk Register, Historic England
Pier and boat store on top 10 at-risk buildings
BBC News, 16 September 2015
Sheerness Boat Store, Kent, on Top Ten Most Endangered Buildings list
The Victorian Society
Historic Sheerness Boat Store at risk of deteriorating, say experts
Kent Online, 24 March 2019
The Boat Store, Shed Number 78
Exploring Kent's Past
Boat store, Sheerness Naval Dockyard, Kent
RIBA {{coord, 51.4445, 0.7454, type:landmark_region:GB, display=title Grade I listed buildings in Kent Sheerness Military history of Kent Warehouses in England