Royal Arsenal Building 19

Royal Arsenal Building 19 is a disused carriage mounting shop built in 1887. Drawings are signed by Col H Crozier, Inspector of Works, and G Munday, contractor, and the cast-iron internal frame was provided by John Lysaghts of Bristol, also dated 1887. The building is constructed of yellow stock brick with a corrugated sheet valley roof, and possesses an internal iron frame. It has a rectangular plan consisting of three parallel gabled ranges, the northern range being shorter. The building is single-storey and 12 bays wide. The exterior features moulded brick eaves and sunken, flat-headed bays containing paired round-arched windows with 6/6-pane sashes. There is a blind right-hand end, and a wide round-arched doorway four bays from the right, above boarded doors with a fanlight. The coped end gables have three sunken panels with round-arched windows and matching recesses, and an oculus. The northern range, six bays wide, has a segmental-arched carriage entrance and a ridge lantern behind the raised west gable. Inside, there is a central arcade of cast-iron posts with flanged caps and connections to an I-section rivetted beam, along with rolled iron roof trusses featuring diagonal braces and wrought-iron ties bolted to a round central connecting plate. A gantry crane is supported by heavy cast-iron openwork piers, extending to wrought-iron riveted gantry rails and a later traveller. The shorter northern range was possibly built for storage. Narrow and standard gauge rails cross the hall. Historically known as the Mounting Ground, the building was part of the Royal Carriage Department and used for mounting gun barrels onto carriages. It is of historical interest as a near-complete part of the department and is comparable with erecting shops found in railway engineering works, such as those at Swindon and Derby, representing one of the best-preserved examples of its type.