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John Shirley buys a piece of Dover history

[ May 28, 2013   //   Chris ]

Dover freight forwarder John Shirley has acquired the former Dover Harbour station building at Western Docks from P&O. The shipping operator, which uses it as a training centre, will remain as a tenant in the main building but JS plans to return one of the outbuildings to its original use as offices. It is also planning to “green” the existing building, which is opposite the Motis customs terminal.

It was built in 1861 by the London Chatham & Dover Railway. P&O inherited it when they bought the Sealink ferry company, then part of British Rail who in turn bought it from the pre-nationalisation Southern Railway. It became a bonded warehouse in 1927 hence the number of bricked up windows, and did duty as a morgue during the Dunkerque evacuation.

Tags: John Shirley