Description

742/0/10012 THE SHORE
01-NOV-06 NORTHFLEET LOWER LIGHTHOUSE

GV II
Lighthouse. 1883. Riveted wrought-iron frame, painted red.

Northfleet Lower Lighthouse is a slender, tapering round tower in six stages: the top four are divided by metal platforms, the bottom two by a horizontal band running inside the uprights. The structure stands about 16 metres high. It is supported on four uprights with diagonal cross struts between uprights and horizontals. Stages two and three have a half screen of closely placed uprights on the down river side. Access is by internal ladder rising through the platforms of each stage. The top platform is wider, surrounded by a balcony, and carries a centrally placed octagonal hut made of metal sheets, with windows facing seaward. The hut is capped by a pitched roof topped by a ball finial and arrow weather vane. It housed a white occulting light of ten seconds visible for six miles, later red and white occulting, but is no longer in use.

HISTORY: Northfleet Lower Lighthouse was erected by Trinity House in 1883 to replace an earlier light. Originally placed on India Arms Wharf, close to the India Arms Tavern, the purpose of a light in this location was to guide vessels around the bend from Gravesend Reach to Northfleet Hope on their way to the Port of London. Northfleet Lower Lighthouse was moved 282 metres downstream to its present site in 1968 as a result of development of the waterfront. The lighthouse was unmanned, inspected three times fortnightly by a Trinity House attendant. Originally lit by acetylene, it was converted first to town gas in 1975, and subsequently to electricity.

In the mid C19 there was some enthusiasm for building cast-iron lighthouses, which were cheaper than masonry towers. Maplin Sands, on the Essex coast, was the first sited offshore in 1838-41; but the instability of Fastnet Lighthouse, a cast-iron tower erected in 1854, confirmed the view that this kind of structure was better suited to less exposed situations: the relative shelter of the River Thames was ideal. Northfleet Lower Lighthouse is one of only five surviving wrought-iron framed lighthouses on the Thames, fourteen of which were constructed between 1849 and 1926 to guide shipping up the river from the open sea to London Bridge. The two earliest and furthest from London Bridge, Mucking Bight and Chapman lighthouses, were removed in the 1950s: the others all date to the later C19 and early C20, and of these Northfleet Lower is the earliest.

SUMMARY OF IMPORTANCE: Northfleet Lower Lighthouse is early amongst comparable wrought-iron framed lighthouses, and is a fine example of this kind of innovative design and construction, few C19 examples of which survive. It is the most structurally complex and visually striking of the remaining River Thames lighthouses, and has an important place in the history of navigation of the river.

SOURCES: website. www.michaelmillichamp.ukgateway.net/page7.html
Jackson, D. 1975. Lighthouses of England and Wales.

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26671484

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair
• 
  Wiltshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Old House Care and Repair
• 
  Oxfordshire: North and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  A Buying and Owning a Listed Building: A Brief Guide
• 
  Historic Environment Law: Planning, Listed Buildings, Monuments, Conservation Areas and Objects, Supplement 2014