Duttons Cafe (Former Artillery Store/Magazine)

SX 4830 5368 PLYMOUTH MADEIRA ROAD

Dutton's Cafe (Former Artillery Store/Magazine)

24.4.01

GV II

Magazine and armoury with guard house, now cafe. 1847, by Colonel J. Oldfield, the Western District's Commanding Royal Engineer. Coursed and dressed stone with flat bombproof roof. Rectangular plan. Single-storey S elevation has ashlar lintels over paired entrance to centre, with two late C20 doors, and former entrance, now window, on right. Rifle slit to left. Plat band beneath parapet, extending around whole building. Rifle slits to first floor of two-storey N elevation, which has two late C19 inserted window openings and doorway to ground floor magazine. Interior not inspected. HISTORY: Built in 1847 as a magazine and armoury to the designs of Colonel J. Oldfield, the Western District's Commanding Royal Engineer, this building forms an integral part of the scheduled outer defences around the late C17 Citadel, which were subject to a continuous programme of modernisation in order to keep abreast of the major developments in ordnance. The defences of the Plymouth area form the most remarkable grouping in Britain where the development of coastal defence from the C16 can be appreciated. The building's function changed after the construction of Madeira Road in the late C19, when minor alterations - which comprised the insertion of windows - left the mid C19 building substantially intact and standing in clear relationship to both the Citadel and the listed harbour walls below.

(Public Record Office, WO 44/314)

Listing NGR: SX4830653685