C Magazine (Building 435)

This is a magazine building, constructed around 1860. Originally known as Gunpowder Magazine (Building No.435) within the Royal Naval Armaments Depot, it is located at Priddy’s Hard, Gosport. The magazine is constructed of brick in English bond, with a flat roof and an earth traverse defending the south (seaward) side. This traverse continues east, integrated into a sloping brick wall that forms the eastern elevation. A flat-roofed porch, featuring a plat band and a gauged brick flat arch over 20th-century plank doors, is situated in the angle of the traverse and eastern wall. A pierced wrought iron ventilation grille is positioned to the bottom right of the porch. A row of similar grilles is present along the lower half of the north elevation, which has gauged brick flat arches above four shuttered ventilation openings. The interior is vaulted, with the area above the arches filled with earth.

Historically, this magazine was initially intended to receive ammunition from ships undergoing refit or decommissioning. It represents a significant example of its type, distinguished by its careful detailing in gauged brickwork and pierced iron ventilation panels. Built during a period of naval modernization, it facilitated the transition to ironclad, steam-powered ships equipped with shell-firing capabilities, coinciding with a program of fort construction around naval dockyards. The seaward traverse served as a defense against enemy fire and to protect the rest of the site from accidental explosion. The magazine was key to the first, best-preserved, integrated shell filling facility within the Ordnance Yard, forming the northern terminus of the site’s first tramway system and supplying the Laboratory magazine and associated shell-filling rooms (now demolished). By the 1890s, it had become an Expense Magazine for gunpowder and cordite.

Priddy’s Hard’s expansion from the mid-19th century mirrored advancements in land and sea artillery and the Royal Navy's shift away from sail and solid shot to the early 20th-century Dreadnought class. The site holds a substantial collection of structures that document this continuous enlargement and adaptation, reflecting Britain’s period of global sea power. Further historical information can be found in the description for ‘A’ Magazine.