Royal Arsenal Royal Laboratory East Pavilion

TQ 4479 PLUMSTEAD ROAD SE18 (North side) 786/9/10067 Royal Arsenal Royal Laboratory E Pavilion 08/06/73

GV II

Gunpowder factory, disused. Part of the Royal Laboratory of 1694-96, extended and altered 1855, partly demolished 1950s. Brick with stone dressings, roof not visible. Single-depth plan. 2 storeys; 5-window range. A symmetrical front has projecting centre with rusticated voussoirs, plinth plat band and coping. Doorway with eared architrave and console cornice, with window above has an architrave with foliate brackets and lion-head key. Rubbed brick keyed flat arches to altered windows. INTERIOR not inspected: it may contain features of interest but is noted as having been remodelled internally in C20, with a central concrete dogleg stair. HISTORY: The oldest part of the Arsenal, and possibly the oldest Ordnance buildings in the country: one of a pair of pavilions with that to the W (qv), which are the only surviving part of a larger building to which the Royal Laboratory for the manufacture of fireworks and gunpowder transferred when it moved from Greenwich in 1695. Originally with cross windows and a steep hipped roof, lower buildings each side, the courtyard between the two pavilions was closed to the N and S by walls with gateways, the lion and unicorn finials from which are now on the Board Room (qv). The yard was roofed over in 1855, and contained the largest milling machinery space in the world when it was completed.

Listing NGR: TQ4295478475