Dover lifeboat station is situated on the Crosswall Quay in Dover's Western Docks. The boathouse is just along the quay from the Marina Office.

 

The boathouse was funded by a generous bequest from local resident, Mr William Montague and construction was completed in 2000. Inside the building is everything needed to run the station. On the ground floor there is a well equipped workshop, crew changing room, shower and toilets. The Fundraisers also have a shop. On the first floor there is a office, store room and a large crew room for meetings and training sessions.

 

The lifeboat lies moored alongside the quay on a floating pontoon. This pontoon enables the crew to have excellent access to the boat for calls, routine maintenance and cleaning. This is a luxury many stations operating Severn class lifeboats don't have as often the larger afloat boats have to be moored some distance from shore and a smaller boarding boat must be used to gain access. The pontoon also makes it easy to transfer any casualties from the boat to ambulances.

 

Dover's lifeboat has had several different homes over the years. The first lifeboat station at Dover was the building under the clock tower at the landward end of the Prince of Wales Pier. When the Station reopened in 1930 it was in the Camber at the Eastern Docks. After the Second World War, the lifeboat moved into one of the Motor torpedo boat (submarine) pens.

 

 

In 1984, development works in the Eastern Docks meant that the MTB Pens were earmarked for destruction and so the lifeboat moved to the Tug Haven. 2000 saw the completion of the current boathouse and an official handover took place in August 2001.