Description

TQ 4379
786-/9/47
08/06/73

PLUMSTEAD ROAD SE18
(North side)
Royal Arsenal Dial Square entrance range

GV
II*

Archway and front range to foundry , gun boring works and smithery, later ordnance works. 1717- 20, attributed both to Sir J Vanbrugh and to Nicholas Hawksmoor; 1896 cartridge factory. Red brick with rubbed brick headers hipped slate roof Single-depth plan front range to former quadrangle. Single storey with attics to end blocks; 9-bay range. Symmetrical with central gateway and gabled ends set forward, articulated by shallow buttresses which rise through the eaves with plain caps. Gateway has large square battered piers with moulded caps and pyramids of cannon balls on top, a gabled round-arched gauged brick gateway with blocked voussoirs and a sundial dated 1764. At the back of the archway a 3-centre arched cast-iron beam, dated 1780 at one end and inscribed with the names of former Inspectors of Artillery and of the Royal Brass Foundry between 1797 and 1855. Linking 3-bay sections have 2 segmental-arched sashes with thin glazing bars, the inner bays have an inner doorway and overlight, the outer ones with a central round-arched window and flanking flat-headed 6/6-pane sashes. End gabled bays have 2 sashes and a round-arched frieze beneath the gable and a smaller segmental-arched attic window. Rubbed brick heads to 6/6-pane C19 sashes. Rear altered, the 3 E bays open with late C19 cast-iron columns. INTERIOR: altered with the removal of most original features. HISTORY: With the Royal Brass Foundry and the Board Room (qqv), part of the expansion of the Arsenal when the Board of Ordnance moved gun founding to Woolwich, and known as the Great Pile. Originally fronted a double courtyard range of buildings, the inner Grand Square was for turning, washing, engraving and smitheries, the rear Basin Square having armourers' shops and accommodation. It contained horse-powered cannon-boring equipment, to which cannon cast at the nearby Royal Foundry (qv) were sent. Graded for its significance in marking an important phase in the development of the C 18 and C19 factory.
(RCHME, Historic Buildings Report, Royal Arsenal Woolwich, Vol. I, 1994; Wesley H, The Royal Arsenal: a brief history , London, 1987, pp.3, 11; Hogg O F G, The Royal Arsenal, Oxford, 1963, pp. 252-273; Pevsner N and Cherry B, The Buildings of England: London South, 1983, p.287)

Listing NGR: TQ4379579098

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17551018

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Recommended Books

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