Details
DOVER
685/7/10041 LORD WARDEN SQUARE
22-JUN-89 Cruise Terminal 1, including attached
pedestrian walkway, war memorial, four
K6 telephone kiosks and ship's figure
head believed to be of the barque 'Ros
eau'
(Formerly listed as:
LORD WARDEN SQUARE
DOVER WESTERN DOCKS STATION)
GV II
Railway Station, later cruise terminal. Opened in 1914 for the South Eastern and Chatham Railway. It was designed by Mr P Tempest, Engineer to the railway company in Beaux Arts Style. Some restoration followed war damage.
MATERIALS: Stone front with red brick sides and steel and glass cathedral style roof.
PLAN: A large rectangular terminus station with the particular character of a port station designed for a very large volume of traffic. The building comprises a large formal frontage with a steel and glass-roofed trainshed containing the usual offices together with a war memorial, and a linked small pedestrian entrance block on Lord Warden Square with a long elevated walkway to the main station building.
EXTERIOR:
STATION BUILDING: The north western end is of ashlar with rusticated dressings. The roof is not visible behind the parapet. The central section has a large central round-headed opening, originally accomodating two tracks with rusticated surround and enriched keystone with the inscription above "S E and C R". There are flanking full-height narrow rusticated arches within which are circular windows and Gibbs surround pedestrian entrances. The rusticated surrounds rise to an interrupted cornice with blank cartouches in the parapet. The flanking lower bays have rusticated round headed arches and end quoins which originally contained single tracks. The other elevations are mainly of red brick with some ashlar dressings. The south-east elevation has pilasters at regular intervals and some black brick dressings. The elevation has five sash windows with cambered heads and a glazed canopy. Two K6s are situated at the south-western corner.
PEDESTRIAN WALKWAY: The entrance block is a three-bay single-storey block with doors flanking central window. The north-west side has channeled vermiculated stonework with quarry faced quoins and voussoirs to semi-circular headed openings. There is an elaborate cornice with slate French pavilion roof and nine-pane circular window. The central window has 30 panes. The return bays have round-headed windows flanked by rusticated engaged Tuscan columns and the remainder is of brick with stone dressings. The sides of the walkway are constructed of steel with elliptical roof trusses, continuous windows with flights of steps internally having cast iron railings with circular designs.
INTERIOR: The station has a steel and glass cathedral roof with steelwork by the Butterley Company of Derby and red brick platform buildings with black brick dressings. It consists of a central nave and double aisles either side supported on square section columns with elliptical trusses to the nave, semi-circular to the aisles, all in riveted steelwork. There are steel footbridges with cast iron railings with circular motifs. The platform buildings are single-storey in Flemish bond brickwork with bands of black brick and have twelve-pane sash windows with elliptical heads and horns and doorcases with elliptical fanlights. Two K6s are situated adjoining the northern platform buildings. The northern range of platform buildings terminates on the north-eastern side in a stone-faced war memorial bearing the names of the 356 men of the South Eastern and Chatham Railway who died in the First World War and the 626 men of the Southern Railway who died in the Second World War. This takes the form of a round-headed arch with a weeping figure at each corner and a central inscribed tablet with names under a stylised wreath flanked by the dates of the First World War. Further south-east on a carved granite plinth on two steps is a bronze sculpture by W C H King, cast by Mario Manenti of Fulham Road. This takes the form of the winged figure of Victory, battered by conflict but still holding aloft the Torch of Truth. She is flanked by a solder and a sailor, determined despite weariness. Behind her strides a bugler who has just sounded the Last Post over the Fallen. Attached at the south-eastern end is a painted wooden ship's figurehead in the form of a lady in mid-C19 dress bearing a rose in a gloved hand. This is thought to be the figurehead of the barque Roseau, built at Jersey in 1857. This ship was principally engaged in trade with the West Indies (Roseau is the capital of Dominica) and was broken up in 1897.
HISTORY: The South Eastern Railway Company opened its terminus at Dover Town in 1844. In 1861 the line was extended onto Admiralty Pier, at this date still under costruction, and from 1864 the London, Chatham and Dover Railway also started running trains onto the Admiralty Pier to connect with their cross-Channel steamers. The disadvantages were that there were only two narrow platforms, and these were open to the elements. In 1899 the two railway companies combined to form the South Eastern and Chatham Railway Company. In 1909 work started on reclaiming land adjoining the landward end of Admiralty Pier, using chalk quarried from the cliffs, concrete piles and concrete blocks, on which to build a larger covered station. Contractors for the foundation were Messrs Pearson and Son. The Railway Station was designed by Mr P Tempest, Engineer to the South Eastern and Chatham Railway Company. It was not quite completed by 1914 but was immediately used for ferrying troops outwards to Flanders and the sick and wounded returning from the Western Front. The overall roof structure and internal structures were added later. In recognition of the part this station played in war transport the war memorial of the South Eastern and Chatham Railway was erected here rather than in a London terminus.
The bronze sculpture was designed by William C H King who exhibited at the Royal Academy between 1910 and 1957. The bronze exhibited in 1922 was one sixth life size.
The railway station was renamed Dover Marine in 1918 and opened to civilian Continental traffic on 18 January 1919 with passenger services by February 1922. As well as the ordinary boat trains the luxury Pullman train The Golden Arrow ran from 1926. The Night Ferry was launched on 14 October 1936 and was Britain's first international passenger sleeper service, first between London and Paris and from 1956 also to Brussels.
The station also played its part in the Second World War, handling hundreds of special trains for the Dunkirk evacuation; it suffered bomb and shell damage at this time.
After the war passenger services returned but as the car ferry services increased the number of rail passengers crossing the Channel fell. The Golden Arrow was withdrawn on 30 September 1972 and the "Night Ferry" followed on 31 October 1980. Renamed Dover Western Docks Station by the 1980s the station was closed to rail traffic in 1994 following the completion of the Channel Tunnel and the concentration of the remaining non-rail ferry services in Dover's Eastern Docks. In 1996, following a major refurbishment, the building was re-opened as a cruise liner terminal.
SOURCES:
Alex Hasenson, The History of Dover Harbour (1987)
Royal Academy Exhibitors 1905-1970. Volume 3 (1987) pp187-188 for W C H King.
www.dover-kent.co.uk accessed on 15/07/09.
REASONS FOR DESIGNATION:
Cruise Terminal 1, including the attached pedestrian walkway, war memorial, four K6 telephone kiosks and ship's figurehead believed to be of the barque 'Roseau', Dover Harbour, are designated at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
* A handsome Beaux Arts style virtually unaltered example of a major station of circa 1914 by the South Eastern and Chatham Railway Company.
* It is a good example of the most developed form of ferry port railway station.
* It contains the war memorial for the South Eastern and Chatham Railway Company, including a fine bronze sculpture.
* It has additional significance for its military role as a point of departure for the Western Front during the First World War and for the Dunkirk evacuation during the Second World War.
This List entry has been amended to add sources for War Memorials Online and the War Memorials Register. These sources were not used in the compilation of this List entry but are added here as a guide for further reading, 30 November 2016.
