No 3 Slip – The BIG Store, Chatham Historic Dockyard

When built in 1838 this imposing Grade I listed building was Europe’s largest wide-span timber structure. It has an awe-inspiring wooden roof structure. We achieved listed building consent for carefully targeted interventions to allow public access. This included providing a lift and secondary stair to the large mezzanine where public events are held and from where visitors can experience fully the grandeur of the roof. It also enabled the building to be used as a combined display and storage facility to house large artefacts from the collections of The Historic Dockyard and the Royal Engineers Museum, Gillingham. These include a WW2 midget submarine, the Victorian railway carriage used by General Kitchener in Sudan and ‘Overlord’, a railway locomotive used in the D Day landings. It is now one of the world’s most dramatic museum open stores.