Fort Monckton: The Former Central Magazine

Former magazine, built in about 1789-1790 with early and mid-C20 additions.

MATERIALS: Red brick laid in Flemish bond with flared headers and stone dressings.

PLAN: A square barrel-vaulted single-storey building with two small extensions to the side elevations.

EXTERIOR: the magazine is a single-storey building with a barrel and hipped felt-covered roof. It is three bays wide and three bays long, orientated north-west to south-east. The main façade faces south-east and comprises two projecting pedimented doorways either side of a Diocletian window. Each doorway is formed of a round-headed arch with projecting imposts and keystones, under a broken-pediment. The east doorway contains a studded copper-covered door with bronze hinges, originally provided in accordance with magazine regulations to prevent sparks; the west doorway contains a C20 flush timber door. The south-west elevation has two six-over-six horned sash windows to either side of a one bay early C20 extension. This extension is constructed in red brick laid in stretcher bond and has a three-over-six sash window, flat roof and rendered chimney. The north-east elevation has six-over-six horned sash windows and a mid-C20 extension which is two bays long by one bay wide. It is built of red brick laid in stretcher bond with a flat concrete felt-covered roof. There is a timber-boarded doorway and fixed window to the south-east wall and one fixed window in the north-east wall.

INTERIOR: barrel-vaulted ventilation passages on three sides (the south-west, north-west and north-east) accessed via doorways from a central magazine chamber covered by a pointed barrel-vault. The inner walls contain blocked windows, which are offset from those in the outer walls, originally to allow indirect light to enter the magazine chamber. The brickwork in the back wall of the magazine is scarred by bullet holes from its use as a pistol range in the early C20. There is a blocked ventilation cavity in the barrel-vaulted ceiling.