Building MPM1100 - BUILDING IMMEDIATELY NORTH OF FORMER POWDER MAGAZINES AT TIPNER MAGAZINE

Cooperage built 1798-1800 to designs of Colonel Mulcaster, CRE Portsmouth. The site was lated used general ordnance storage by the Army. Now derelict.

GV II Cooperage, now derelict. 1798-1800, to designs of Colonel Mulcaster, CRE Portsmouth. Red brick in Flemish bond with grey brick headers. Flat roof concealed.EXTERIOR: 2 storeys, 7 bays. Main south facing facade has at centre a 2-leaf thick round-headed door, each leaf with 6 flush panels set under gauged brick round arch. To left of entrance are 3 and to right 1 blinded window openings each with segmental gauged brick arch. The 2 outer left have flush brick infills coursed into jambs and the remainder have recessed brick panels. Brick band at first floor. On far right is a later brick external staircase with concrete steps at first floor level set under segmental gauged brick arch. At left of hatch are 4 and at right 1 blinded window openings with recessed brick panels each set under segmental brick arch. Over entrance is a boarded hatch, brick band and stone coped parapet. Rear elevation 7 bays wide has 2 blinded window openings each with recessed brick infill, and first floor three 16-pane sashes set alternately between 4 blinded window openings with recessed brick infills, each set under gauged brick segmental arch. INTERIOR not inspected.

HISTORY: The recent war with France, and the invasion scare of 1779 led to concerns about the vulnerability of the arsenals and had exposed an alarming situation concerning the state of the nation's gunpowder. The former was foremost in the mind of the new (appointed 1782) Master-General of the Board of Ordnance, George Lennox the Third Duke of Richmond. Although his plan to enhance the landward fortifications of Portsmouth and Plymouth was defeated in the House of Commons in 1786, his other strategy - to divide and separate the magazines - was implemented at Portsmouth with the acquisition of land at Tipner Point between 1789 and 1791. The original design for a pair of circular vaulted magazines was superceded by the present one for a magazine with groined arches and a copper-clad wooden roof. From 1805 until the mid 1820s Tipner acted as deposit magazine for the restoving of old gunpowder at Stamshaw nearby (demolished). The magazine accommodation at Tipner, Marchwood and Upnor was increased following appraisal by Lord Panmure, the Secretary of State for War, of the Committeee on Magazines report of March 1856. The southern extension to the magazine was built with parabolic arches, as used at Weedon Bec and Upnor. On the division of the ordnance depots between the two services in 1890, the site passed to the Army, and on conversion of the magazines into general ordnance storage the present iron doors were inserted.

(David Evans, Ordnance Yards. Research for English Heritage)

Historic England, The National Heritage List for England (Index). SPM35.