Listed Building: WATTS' ALMSHOUSES (1086457)

ROCHESTER MAIDSTONE ROAD TQ 7467 NW 11/175 Watts' Almshouses 19-2-70 GV II Almshouses. 1858, by Charles Foord. Mainly red brick with Portland limestone dressings, the bays of yellow brick and the central block of random rubble ragstone; Welsh slate roof. 'Jacobean style with knobs on' (John Newman). Central tall 2 storeyed block containing 1st floor Trustees Board Road; long identical flanking ranges, 1 and 2 storeys, originally with spine corridor serving accommodation to rear and front, now re- organised. Central block consistsw of a porch (to right) with round-headed arched doorway of several orders, stopped and moulded with voussoir straps, approached by stone steps with railings, under a low Flemish-style gable. To the right an angle buttress with many set-offs supports a tall polygonal turret with leaded spire. To the left of the porch and linked to it by a string-course, a tall storeyed wing also with Flemish-style gable; trefoil-section oriel with parapet and much moulded corbelled base (with foliage and inscription frieze) supported on large central buttress with set-offs flanked by 2-light windows with transoms. Transomed and mullioned windows to side elevations. The flanking ranges (containing the almshouses) with a mixture of storeyed red brick wings (2 window front walls each window under Flemish-style gables of different heights) with transomed windows under flat arches, and canted bays; bays with Flemish gables, and simple canted bays, all in yellow brick. Porches with similar arched doorways to central block; shaped ridge stacks, the shafts set at an angle to the bases. Rear with low gable wings, the windows all renewed. Detached at rear is a separate washroom/laundry with raised louvred ventilators. Interior: the central block with open-well staircase; the Board Room with robust hammer-beam roof; the internal walls with alternate red and buff brick banding, the brickwork and fine pointing of very high quality. The whole building is a good example of vigorous, studiedly detailed, mid-Victorian C17 domestic revival architecture. Listing NGR: TQ7418567778