After being decommissioned, Coalhouse Fort was leased and used as a storage facility by Bata Shoes, which operated the nearby Bata shoe factory in East Tilbury.
It was also used for a while for emergency housing for demobilised servicemen and their families.
In 1959, the parade ground was used as a coal store during a miners' strike.
Thurrock Urban District Council (now Thurrock Council) purchased the fort in 1962 and still own it.
The council turned the area around the fort into a riverside park but the building itself decayed badly through neglect and vandalism.

Coalhouse Fort and the adjacent artillery defences to the south of the fort were collectively designated as a scheduled monument in 1962, in recognition of their status as "a remarkable group of defensive sites".
The fort has been leased to the Coalhouse Fort Project, a heritage charity operated by volunteers, since 1985.
The project has been undertaking the gradual restoration of the fort ever since and hold regular open days.
Various items of 20th century military equipment are on display in the interior of the fort, while the casemates house reconstructions and small military-related museums.
The magazines and fort roof can be visited on volunteer-led guided tours.

The project has been highly commended in the British Archaeological Awards and the fort has featured both in the BBC series Restoration and in the 2005 film Batman Begins, in which it stood in for a Bhutanese prison in the first five minutes of the film.
The British director Christopher Nolan had seen the TV series and decided that he wanted to set the film's opening scenes in the fort.

The poor condition of parts of the structure and its state of slow decay led to it be listed in 2008 on the Heritage at Risk Register.
English Heritage provided an emergency grant in 2009, supplemented by Thurrock Council and the filming fee from Warner Bros. for Batman Begins, to help make £200,000 worth of repairs to the gatehouse.
These were completed in 2011.
Grants from Veolia Thames and Thurrock Council, via the Heritage Lottery Fund, have funded the construction of a new block outside the fort entrance to house a cafe, toilets and information centre.
A four-mile (6.4 km) riverside walk known as the Two Forts Way links Coalhouse Fort with its older counterpart Tilbury Fort; it is described as "a challenging route suitable for able bodied walkers and experienced cyclists."
Funded by the newly restructured Historic England (formerly English Heritage), a survey of the heritage site was completed in early 2017 and repairs to make the fort watertight were expected to begin in late 2017.
After being decommissioned, Coalhouse Fort was leased and used as a storage facility by Bata Shoes, which operated the nearby Bata shoe factory in East Tilbury. It was also used for a while for emergency housing for demobilised servicemen and their families. In 1959, the parade ground was used as a coal store during a miners' strike. Thurrock Urban District Council (now Thurrock Council) purchased the fort in 1962 and still own it. The council turned the area around the fort into a riverside park but the building itself decayed badly through neglect and vandalism.
Coalhouse Fort and the adjacent artillery defences to the south of the fort were collectively designated as a scheduled monument in 1962, in recognition of their status as "a remarkable group of defensive sites". The fort has been leased to the Coalhouse Fort Project, a heritage charity operated by volunteers, since 1985. The project has been undertaking the gradual restoration of the fort ever since and hold regular open days. Various items of 20th century military equipment are on display in the interior of the fort, while the casemates house reconstructions and small military-related museums. The magazines and fort roof can be visited on volunteer-led guided tours.
The project has been highly commended in the British Archaeological Awards and the fort has featured both in the BBC series Restoration and in the 2005 film Batman Begins, in which it stood in for a Bhutanese prison in the first five minutes of the film. The British director Christopher Nolan had seen the TV series and decided that he wanted to set the film's opening scenes in the fort.
The poor condition of parts of the structure and its state of slow decay led to it be listed in 2008 on the Heritage at Risk Register. English Heritage provided an emergency grant in 2009, supplemented by Thurrock Council and the filming fee from Warner Bros. for Batman Begins, to help make £200,000 worth of repairs to the gatehouse. These were completed in 2011. Grants from Veolia Thames and Thurrock Council, via the Heritage Lottery Fund, have funded the construction of a new block outside the fort entrance to house a cafe, toilets and information centre. A four-mile (6.4 km) riverside walk known as the Two Forts Way links Coalhouse Fort with its older counterpart Tilbury Fort; it is described as "a challenging route suitable for able bodied walkers and experienced cyclists." Funded by the newly restructured Historic England (formerly English Heritage), a survey of the heritage site was completed in early 2017 and repairs to make the fort watertight were expected to begin in late 2017.
Coalhouse Fort