Building MPM780 - FORMER GUNWHARF GATEWAY AND WALLS OF APPROXIMATELY 3 METRES TO NORTH 38 METRES TO SOUTH

Former late-18th to early 19th century entrance into naval ordnance yard, with attached walls. The gateway provided access into the Board of Ordnance's original Gun Wharf Yard, swallowed by the 1770s New Gun Wharf extension. Armaments and ordnance stores were kept here while ships were in Ordinary at Portsmouth dockyard. The entrance forms part of the development of the Yard, and is notable for the mortar finials. These are found at other Ordnance entrances such as the Royal Arsenal, Woolwich, but stone examples are rare. [1]

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Gateway built in 1803 as a new entrance to New Gunwharf. The gate piers are constructed of red brick. Either side of the piers are secondary smaller gateways with a basic semi-circular brick arch. The gates do not survive but the upper copper hinge brackets do. Small sections of stone paving were revealed in-situ 0.3m below the ground surface when the base of the gateway was excavated during the redevelopment of Gunwharf Quays 1999-2000. [2]

<1> Historic England, The National Heritage List for England (Index). SPM35.

<2> Gifford and Partners, 2000, Gunwharf Quays Portsmouth Results of the Archaeological Watching Brief (Unpublished document). SPM550.