CHATHAM TQ7568SE DOCK ROAD 762-1/2/7 (North East side) 01/06/90 Former Town Hall and Medway Arts Centre (Formerly Listed as: DOCK ROAD Town Hall and Medway Arts Centre) II Town hall, now arts centre. 1899, by GE Bond, converted 1988. Bath limestone ashlar with ragstone rock-faced plinth and slate roof with copper cupola. STYLE: Free Renaissance. PLAN: irregular quadrangular plan with central well. EXTERIOR: 3 storeys and basement; SW front is 3:5 bays. Symmetrical 5-bay section has projecting 3-window centre, rusticated ground-floor and cornices between floors, with a raised, pedimented centre dated 1899; 4 round-arched ground-floor windows, tripartite first-floor windows with the Chatham City arms, and round-arched second-floor windows with foliate aprons. 3-bay left-hand section divided by giant attached columns to upper floors with figures on top and blocked pilasters beneath, blocked round arches to ground floor are entrances and to first floor open with balustrades. To the left, a 3-stage square tower with a curved balcony and clock to each side, with an open bell turret with projecting corners with paired columns, and an octagonal, domed cupola. NW elevation is 4 bays with a central first- and second-storey canted bay, and round-arched ground-floor windows. SE elevation to former Council chamber has 8 bays divided by pilasters, paired round-arched ground-floor windows and large depressed 3-centre arched upper windows with mullions and transoms and carved aprons, the right-hand gable return in 3 sections with a large 3-centre arched upper window in a raised central section, with pedimented parapet. N corner a 2-storey range including a chamfered corner with a large 5-light oriel on a moulded corbelled base. Balustrade extends all round. INTERIOR: richly detailed, includes a large entrance hall with curved stair with decorative rail and newel, first-floor enriched former Council Chamber to rear has a cast-iron balcony, wainscotting and panelling, large former meeting hall with proscenium arch and 6 roof trusses, Mayor's Parlour with original sanitary fittings and ceramic tiles, and half-glazed doors with enriched surrounds. (The Building of England: Newman J: West Kent and the Weald: London: 1976-: 201). Listing NGR: TQ7585568148