Building immediately south of former powder magazines at Tipner Magazine

This building at Tipner Magazine, originally a shifting house used for changing into specialist magazine clothing, was converted into a magazine by 1827. It was constructed between 1798 and 1800 to designs by Colonel Mulcaster, the Royal Engineer at Portsmouth. The building is of red brick, laid in a Flemish bond, with a flat roof concealed behind a parapet.

The two-storey, seven-bay north-facing facade features a central entrance with a nine-panelled door and an eight-pane overlight, set under a gauged brick segmental arch. Flanking the entrance are three sixteen-pane sash windows on each side, also set under gauged brick segmental arches with stone sills. A brick band runs along the first floor, above which sit seven twelve-pane unequal sash windows with gauged brick segmental arches, brick band, and a stone-coped parapet. The rear elevation is five bays wide, with the centre bay projecting. This bay contains a sixteen-pane sash window under a gauged brick segmental arch, and two similar sashes on either side. The first floor of the rear elevation has five blinded window openings.

The interior remains uninspected.

The construction of the magazine was prompted by concerns regarding the vulnerability of arsenals during the recent war with France and the invasion scare of 1779. Tipner was acquired between 1789 and 1791 as part of a strategy to divide and separate gunpowder stores. Originally designed with groined arches and a copper-clad wooden roof, the building served as a deposit magazine for the restoration of old gunpowder at Stamshaw until the mid-1820s. Later, the magazine accommodation at Tipner, along with other sites, was increased following a review in 1856. A southern extension, constructed with parabolic arches similar to those at Weedon Bec and Upnor, was added. After the ordnance depots were divided between the Army and Navy in 1890, the site passed to the Army, and the magazines were converted for general ordnance storage, with the insertion of iron doors.