Naze Tower

Naze Tower is a Grade II* listed octagonal tower on the Naze headland at Walton-on-the-Naze, built in 1720-21 by Trinity House as a navigation marker to help guide ships through the Goldmer Gap, originally working alongside a second tower at Walton Hall that has since been lost to coastal erosion. The current owners bought the tower in 1996 and, after an extensive restoration, opened it to the public in 2005. Its eight floors house an art gallery staging three exhibitions a year, a museum covering the history of the tower and the surrounding Naze, a café, and a roof platform with views along the coast and inland over the nature reserve. The tower stands close to an eroding cliff edge and has been underpinned as part of coastal defence work carried out to protect it from the sea. It opens daily from late March to early November, and is closed over winter.