GILLINGHAM TQ86NW LOWER RAINHAM ROAD, Lower Rainham 686-1/8/75 (South West side) 24/02/50 Bloors Place GV II* Hall house, now house. 1470-1510, for Christopher Bloor, rear wing early C16 truncated and rebuilt late C17, partly destroyed by C18 fire. MATERIALS: timber-frame, clad in red brick to ground floor and tile-hung above, galleated limestone rubble rear wing extended in English bond brick, and the right in Flemish bond brick, brick rear external stacks, and a tall octagonal stack with crenellated cap to the rear wing extension, and a hipped roof with left-hand gable. PLAN: Wealden-type 3-room hall house of which the left-hand section destroyed in C18 fire, extended to rear C16. EXTERIOR: 2 storeys and attic; 4-window range. Former hall recessed at left-hand end has chamfered curved brackets from sides and projecting lateral beam under the overhanging eaves, a right-hand 4-centre arched moulded doorway with ribbed door and a rectangular overlight with margin panes, and a late C19 left-hand casement and first-floor casement over the entrance. Long right-hand bay refaced late C19 has C20 fenestration with a left-hand canted bay and mullion, and mullion and transom casements, with hipped dormers to the middle and left-hand return. A deep C20 weatherboarded eaves band extends along the front. The rear of the hall and the rear wing have C16 Perpendicular moulded stone mullion windows with shallow pointed heads and small panes. The hall has a rubble rear with a large external stack with a C19 star-shaped shaft, and a wide 2-storey bay in the outer corner with a hipped roof, 3 ground-floor and 5 first-floor lights, the latter leaded casements, and to the inner side of the stack are single 2-light windows to each floor; the left-hand return a 1-window range with a C19 doorway with 4-pane overlight, C18 8/8-pane first-floor sash and a C20 attic casement. Rear wing has a weathered stone plat band, with 5 irregularly spaced windows to the E with an off-centre 4-centre-arched door with moulded surround and boarded door, and arched lights as the previous section; a C19 doorway as the end of the hall. The W side has 2 paired windows, that to the left higher to a possible stairwell, a single paired first-floor window, and a hipped dormer, with a flat-headed door in the window-less rear section. C20 lower porch and probable stair well in the SW re-entrant. INTERIOR: not inspected but recorded by RCHME as having much evidence of timber-framing including heavy jowled posts in front range; original C16 4-centre arched doorways at S end of former screen passage and in first floor stair well, the latter with enriched spandrels and moulded stops; crown post collar purlin roof in front range with octagonal crown posts with bases and capitals and arched braces. Rear wing first-floor chamber has clustered roll-moulded ceiling beams. C18 panelling in front right-hand drawing room. HISTORY: an unusual plan in having a very long W service bay, formerly jettied but the floor altered. The roof shows no evidence of smoke blackening, and believed to be a rare example of a hall with an original rear stack. A fine and unusual complex with group value with the rear walled garden walls and cart lodge and outbuildings (qv). (Survey of Kent Buildings: 1991-: 40264). Listing NGR: TQ8130267677