Building 45 (Qf Ammunition Store), Rnad Bull Point

This is an ammunition store, built between 1896 and 1897 within the Royal Navy Armaments Depot (RNAD) at Bull Point. Constructed of English bond brickwork, it features a pitched roof covered in corrugated sheet. The building has a rectangular plan, with a width of three gables and a length of eight bays.

The exterior is single-storey, with gables forming pediments defined by brick dentil courses, similar eaves, and square recessed panels on the sides. Segmental brick arches frame boarded double doors at each gabled end. Above the doors are semi-circular arched windows with glazing bars that break through the cornice. The sides have pairs of small segmental-arched windows with glazing bars in the middle two bays.

Inside, there are timber trusses with wooden plank lining. The floor is laid with two 1ft 6in tram roads, and the windows have sliding metal shutters.

The store was built to hold Quick-Firing Ammunition, a new type of ordnance, and is prominently situated close to a magazine enclosure on this key site. It represents the most complete surviving example of its type within any of the ordnance yards. Situated near the Royal Navy’s Steam Yard at Keyham, Bull Point was the final major project of the Board of Ordnance. The complex included a floating magazine for unloading powder and the 1805 St Budeaux laboratory for checking and processing it, before it was moved to the magazines at Bull Point. As opposed to other yards, Bull Point was designed from the outset with a set of buildings dedicated to the processing and storage of new ordnance, which significantly impacted the design of naval ships and fortifications. All the buildings, facing a south avenue towards the magazines, share a consistent style and represent a remarkable example of integrated factory planning from this period. A more detailed history can be found for Building 13.