Former Gunwharf Gateway And Walls Of Approximately 3 Metres To North 38 Metres To South

The former Gunwharf Gateway and attached walls, located on Gunwharf Road in Portsmouth, date from the late 18th century to early 19th century, with some alterations made to the walls in the later 19th century. Constructed of red brick in Flemish garden wall bond, the structure features rubbed brick and ashlar dressings. The entrance, which has been bricked up, includes square gate piers with coped side piers. Both the front and rear sides of the piers have a rubbed brick round-arched recess with an ashlar sill and a circular recess above. An ashlar cornice with a blocking course serves as the base for inward-pointing carved stone mortar finials.

On either side of the entrance, there are lower sections of wall, each approximately 3 metres long, featuring a blind round arch and flat coping. The wall continues southward for about 35 metres, standing approximately 2 metres high, with a brick string below a triangular-sectioned brick coping. It ends in a square brick pier with a chamfered plinth and a cogged, stepped band below the capstone.

Historically, this gateway provided access to the Board of Ordnance's original Gun Wharf Yard, which was incorporated into the New Gun Wharf extension in the 1770s. The site was used for storing armaments and ordnance while ships were in Ordinary at Portsmouth dockyard. The entrance is significant as part of the development of the Yard and is particularly noted for its mortar finials, which are also found at other Ordnance entrances, such as the Royal Arsenal in Woolwich, although stone examples are rare.