The Grand Shaft - Dover Napoleonic War Attractions

The Grand Shaft - Dover Napoleonic War Attractions

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The Grand Shaft - Dover Napoleonic War Attractions

The Grand Shaft, located in Snargate Street in Dover, is a unique triple staircase built during the Napoleonic Wars as part of the major fortifications built on the Western Heights at Dover while there was a threat of a French Invasion.

The staircase is approached via a tunnel from Snargate Street and at the bottom of the shaft there was at one time, a guard house with cells for soldiers too drunk to climb the stairs after a night in the local pubs. The three staircases wind clockwise one above the other down a central brick shaft, the light coming down the shaft from the open top and through windows in the inside wall of the shaft.

The shaft was built between 1806 and 1809 to allow for the rapid and safe movement of troop, garrisoned in the barracks on the Western Heights, down to the town and harbour to defend it in case of invasion. The staircase could also be used for the withdrawal of troops from the town back to the heavily defended and fortified Western Heights.

After the threat of invasion passed the three staircases became segregated, and the use of a particular staircase was restricted, it is said, to:

"Officers and their Ladies"

"Sergeants and their Wives"

"Soldiers and their Women"

There is some on-road parking in Snargate Street if approaching from the bottom although this is restricted to one hour and will not allow sufficient time for a wider exploration of the Western Heights. There is parking on the western Heights for a visit to the staircase from the top.

Address: 

• Grand Shaft
  Dover Town Hall
  Biggin Street
  Dover
  CT16 1DL
  Kent
  England

Contact details:

• 01304 205108

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