Building record TQ 67 SE 1224 - Milton Barracks Cold War reserve Thames navigation control Gravesend

Cold War reserve Thames navigation service control centre for the Port of London Authority, in the 19th century old armoury building behind the southern perimeter wall of Milton Barracks, in Armoury Drive, Gravesend. This is a single-storey yellow brick building, with a pitched slate roof. It was used as a reserve control centre, in association with the Royal Navy Auxiliary Service, from about 1975-1985 and involved the adaptation of one of its larger rooms to contain desks, telephones, charts and other furnishings and fixtures. It is now a teaching facility for special needs children and young adults. The main control is recorded in PUID 1068.
Owner : Unknown
Publicly accessible : No
How accessed for survey : No access because this is a secure school facility but it is visible from the pavement outside.
Tourism Potential : None
Condition : unknown
Date of visit : 01/02/06 (1-2)

This is one of the two surviving buildings of Milton Barracks which was built in 1860-62 and closed down in 1970. It is recorded as being Building 18 of Milton Barracks but may have been the barracks armoury. The building is now used by the St Johns Ambulance as a meeting hall. It is a large brick built building, mainly one storey high but with a central two storey part. The long elevation, facing towards Armoury Drive and where the rest of the site of the barracks was, has a number of ground floor wooden sash windows with brick segmental heads and stone or concrete sills and they are protected with metal bars or grilles. Some of these have been bricked up or are blind windows. The central part of this elevation has two storeys and there are three similar in style sash windows, a flag stand and a round clock on the upper storey. The ground floor of this central part has five semicircular headed windows, three of which are blind, with brick piers between them which form a type of arcade. The north-west end of the building has a raised roof and there are two wooden dormer windows inserted into the side part. The roofs are pitched and covered with slate. On the front elevation of this end part of the building are a circular window and a plaque with "THE OLD BARRACKS". (3)

Historic England archive material: BF097293 BUILDING 18, MILTON BARRACKS, GRAVESEND

<1> Captain G. Dickins, Harbour Master, Port of London Authority, Gravesend, 01/12/03, Verbal Communication (Verbal communication). Ske13944.

<2> Captain G. Dickins, Harbour Master, Port of London Authority, Gravesend, 01/12/03, Verbal Communication (Verbal communication). SKE13944.

<3> Peter Higginbotham, Higginbotham, Peter. 2000. The Workhouse. (Website). SKE53741.