Pilot's Office

The building with the inscription “Pilot's Office” in King's Lynn is the historic Pilots' Office and the tower of the King's Lynn Conservancy Board, the city's port and pilot service.

The Pilots' Office was built in 1864 on Common Staithe Quay, close to the Great Ouse, in red brick with a small loggia on the ground floor and a striking tower: square at the bottom, octagonal at the top.

That tower served as an observation tower; from there, the harbour pilots and harbour masters monitored shipping and tides and could coordinate safe entry and departure.

Located in the same complex are workshops and storage areas, including those for signaling equipment and explosives for light signals, plus remnants of King's Lynn's first public baths from 1856, which were later converted into office space for the Conservancy Board.

Today, it is still the office of the King's Lynn Conservancy Board, which, as the official port authority, provides pilots, maintains buoys, and safely guides shipping on the Great Ouse and in The Wash.

Nice detail: on the tower stands a weather vane whose axis is connected to a compass inside the building, so that people inside can read the wind direction without having to go outside.

Pascal Brackman