Royal Arsenal Rifle Shell Factory Gateway

The Royal Arsenal Rifle Shell Factory Gateway is an entrance gateway, offices, and stores built in 1856 by D Murray. It is constructed of red brick with Portland stone dressings and features a slate roof, designed in the Baroque Revival style. The building is two stories tall and has a three-window range. The entrance is notable for its paired Doric and superimposed Ionic columns in each bay, along with an entablature and a panelled parapet that projects forward from the columns. It includes keyed round archways with architraves, with the middle archway being larger, and features elaborate cast-iron gates designed by Charles Bailey in 1857, which were cast at Grissel's Regent's Canal Iron Works. The first-floor windows are round-arched and keyed, with stone pilasters, impost blocks, and moulded architraves, including a central Venetian window. The returns of the building also have round-arched windows on the first floor. The interior has not been inspected. Historically, this gateway served as the entrance to a large ammunition factory and is recognized as a fine example of Baroque architecture, reflecting the mid-19th century expansion of the iron ordnance production facility at the Arsenal.