Number 15 Store (Building Number 1/62) And Bollard At South East Corner

Number 15 Store, also known as the East Sea Store, is a ropery store located at HM Naval Base on Anchor Lane. It was built in 1771 and has undergone significant alterations in the mid to late 20th century. The building is constructed of red brick with some blue headers in English bond and features a flat-topped mansard roof covered with plain tiles, which replaced the original double-pitched roof.

The exterior consists of three storeys and was formerly equipped with a cellar, featuring seven bays. There is an ashlar and concrete plinth on the south side, with buttresses at the ground floor, each having a brick table and stepped offset heads. The windows have segmental brick arches, with replacement soldier-brick arches on the second floor, projecting sills, and 20th-century metal windows. Large loading doors have been inserted, and the eaves are boxed.

Inside, the building has replacement floors, stairs, and roof trusses. A notable feature at the southeast corner is a bollard made from an upended cannon barrel, likely from the early to mid-19th century, which has been reused as a bollard in the mid to late 19th century and has its muzzle blocked.

Historically, this store was constructed as part of the rebuilding of the ropery following a fire in 1770 and was possibly used for storing tarred hemp before it was transferred to the ropery for laying. Although it has been altered more than the roperies at Chatham or Devonport, it remains one of the largest integrated groups of 18th-century industrial buildings in the country and is part of a collection of late 18th-century stores.