Royal Arsenal
The Royal Arsenal, Woolwich is an establishment on the south bank of the River Thames in Woolwich in south-east London, England, that was used for the manufacture of armaments and ammunition, proofing, and explosives research for the British armed forces. It was originally known as the Woolwich Warren, having begun on land previously used as a domestic warren in the grounds of a mid-16th century Tudor house, Tower Place. Much of the initial history of the site is linked with that of the Office of Ordnance, which purchased the Warren in the late 17th century in order to expand an earlier base at Gun Wharf in Woolwich Dockyard.
Over the next two centuries, as operations grew and innovations were pursued, the site expanded massively. At the time of the First World War the Arsenal covered and employed close to 80,000 people. Thereafter its operations were scaled down. It finally closed as a factory in 1967 and the Ministry of Defence moved out in 1994. Today the area, so long a secret enclave, is open to the public and is being redeveloped for housing and community use.
17th-century origins: the Gun Wharf and Tower Place
The Royal Arsenal had its origins in a domestic warren at Tower Place in Old Woolwich. Tower Place was a Tudor mansion built in the 1540s for Martin Bowes, a wealthy goldsmith and merchant, later Lord Mayor of London. The house with its octagonal tower stood nearby Gun Wharf. After the Dockyard moved west in the 1540s, Gun Wharf was acquired by the Office of Ordnance and mainly used for gun storage.In 1651, the owners of Tower Place gave the board permission to prove its guns on the warren that formed part of their land. That same year the first proof butts were built on the site, under the board's direction.
Purchase of the site
In 1667, in response to the raid on the Medway, a gun battery was built in the grounds of the house, designed to defend London in the event of a similar raid on the Thames. The following year, Tower Place was acquired by Sir William Pritchard who promptly entered into negotiations to sell it to the Board of Ordnance; and in 1671, the estate was given to the board in exchange for the Gun Wharf and a substantial amount of cash. The board at the time declared the site to be "a convenient place for building a storehouse for powder and other stores of war, and for room for the proof of guns". The first Storekeeper, Captain Francis Cheeseman, was appointed in 1670 by Warrant of the Master-General of the Ordnance.Proof and experiment
In 1681, King Charles II visited the Warren and observed Richard Leake, Master Gunner of England, conduct an experiment with fire-shot in the proof butts. In 1682 what had till then been the board's main proving ground was closed and its staff and activities were promptly moved to Tower Place. That year a thousand cannon and ten thousand cannonballs were sent to Woolwich from the Tower, and the proof butts were further expanded.When the constitution of the Board of Ordnance was formalised by Charles II in 1683, two Proof Masters were appointed, under the Surveyor-General of the Ordnance, to ensure that proofs and trials were conducted correctly and the results duly certified. In 1684 the King paid another visit, when Leake conducted a trial of his newly-developed mortar design.
Centralisation of ordnance stores
In 1688 it was ordered that 'all guns, carriages and stores now at Deptford, be removed to Woolwich, and from henceforth new ordnance and carriages be laid there'. No manufacturing took place at this stage, however, except for the periodical production of fireworks for state celebrations;.In due course, the site as a whole became known as The Warren.
18th century: The Warren
The Board of Ordnance was both a civil and a military office of State, independent of the Army, overseen by a high-ranking official, the Master-General of the Ordnance. Both branches, civil and military, were represented at the Warren; indeed there was a great deal of overlap: military officers for the most part headed up the civil departments, and civilians often worked alongside the military personnel.The civil establishment
For most of its history, the civil establishment of the Warren/Arsenal consisted of the following four departments:- The Storekeeper's Department
- The Royal Laboratory
- The Royal Brass Foundry
- The Royal Carriage Department
The storekeeper's department
First and foremost, the Warren was established as an Ordnance storage depot. As at the board's other depots, the site was overseen by an official called the storekeeper, who was provided with an official residence in Tower Place itself. The Storekeeper not only controlled the receipt, safekeeping and issue of all the items that were stored on the site; he was also responsible for issuing payments on the board's behalf to all personnel across the different departments. He was assisted by a clerk of the cheque, clerk of the survey and other administrative staff.To begin with much of the Warren was preserved as open space with cannons stored in the open air and guns proved on ranges to the east. Gunpowder was stored in a converted dovecote initially; but before long specialist buildings began to appear.
The Royal Laboratory
An ammunition laboratory was set up at the Warren in 1695, overseen by the Comptroller of Fireworks. Manufacture of ammunition had previously taken place within a Great Barn on the tilt-yard at Greenwich Palace ; but in 1695 construction of Greenwich Hospital began on the palace site, so the laboratory was relocated downstream at Woolwich. In 1696 Laboratory Square was built to house its operations, which included manufacture of gunpowder, shell cases, fuses and paper gun cartridges; it consisted of a quadrangle with a gateway at the north end, buildings along either side and a clock tower at the south end, beyond which further buildings were ranged. The manufacturing process was conducted by hand, overseen by a Chief Firemaster; early paintings show artisans at work in the courtyards among pyramid stacks of shells. A pair of pavilions, which once faced each other across the centre of the courtyard, are now the oldest surviving buildings on the Arsenal site; they were being restored for residential use in 2013.The Comptroller, Royal Laboratory, had oversight of the Royal Gunpowder Mills in addition to the Woolwich manufactory. From time to time there were public demonstrations of the work of the Laboratory, often in Hyde Park, and by the mid-18th century it was customary for the Royal Laboratory to provide an official 'fireworks display' on occasions such as coronations, peace treaties, royal jubilees etc.
The Royal Brass Foundry
A gun foundry, overseen by a Master Founder, was established in 1717. In Woolwich, the original Royal Brass Foundry building survives. Its handsome exterior encloses a space designed for pure industrial functionality, with height to accommodate a vertical boring machine, and tall doors permitting easy removal of newly made cannons.Completed guns could then be taken through what is now Dial Arch into a complex known as the 'Great Pile of buildings' to be finished and stored. Behind the surviving frontage and archway was a small courtyard in which the newly forged guns were turned, washed and engraved; beyond which two large gun-carriage storehouses stood at either end of a larger quadrangle, with workshops alongside.
The first Master Founder, Andrew Schalch, served in post for 54 years before retiring in 1769 at the age of 78. In 1770 a revolutionary horse-powered horizontal boring machine was installed in the Foundry by his successor, Jan Verbruggen which inspired Henry Maudslay to his inventions improving the lathe. Remarkably, it remained in use until 1843 when a steam-powered equivalent replaced it.
From 1780 a new official, the Inspector of Artillery, was given oversight of the Royal Brass Foundry and of other aspects of gun manufacture including carriage-making and proof-testing, which continued to take place on ranges to the east;.
The carriage works
From the beginning, gun carriages had been stored at the Warren. The first store had been built as early as 1682, and probably also contained workshops for the repair or scrapping of old carriages. In 1697 a far larger complex of sheds was built on what had been Prince Rupert's gun battery.By the 1750s manufacture of gun carriages was also taking place on site, overseen by the Constructor of Carriages. This took place around New Carriage Square. In 1803 this activity was formalized as the Royal Carriage Department, a recognition of the importance of effective carriage design and manufacture, alongside that of guns and ammunition, as part of ordnance provision.
The military establishment
By 1700 the Board of Ordnance had a team of 20 gunners stationed in the Warren, overseen by the Master Gunner of England, who assisted in the manufacture as well as the proving of cannons. Building, repair and technical work was undertaken by the board's artificers, who were drafted in from the Tower of London as and when required. In many respects 'there was no distinction between the Ordnance soldier and the Ordnance civilian' at this time, and a close working relationship endured between the two constituencies across subsequent decades.The military constitution of the Board of Ordnance was strengthened when, on 26 May 1716, a Royal Warrant directed that two companies of artillery and a separate corps of twenty-six military engineers be formed on a permanent basis: this marked the foundation of the Royal Artillery and the Royal Engineers. Both had their headquarters in the Warren for a time and they were regularly engaged in its work.