Royal Citadel Great Store

PLYMOUTH

SX4853NW THE BARBICAN 740-1/67/872 Royal Citadel: Great Store 08/07/98

GV II*

Storehouse, later barracks, now store and offices. 1667-75, for the Board of Ordnance, converted to barracks 1844. MATERIALS: Plymouth limestone rubble with granite drip courses and parapet coping; single deep slate roof with coped gables and plain parapets replacing what was originally 2 parallel roofs with a central valley; rendered stacks over the cross walls. PLAN: large double-depth plan, originally with central entrance; later single-storey carriage house on the left. EXTERIOR: 3 storeys; 6-window 1st-floor range plus central blocked former loading hatch fitted with clock. Wide central C16 granite 4-centred arched doorway with carved spandrels and square hoodmould now blocked as are the 1st and 2nd-floor openings above, the top opening the parapet. Doorways at far left and right have flat arches, both probably inserted c1844; the other openings are spanned by rendered probable brick arches and fitted with late C19 or C20 horned sashes. There is much evidence of old alteration to the front wall, the other walls are rendered. INTERIOR: stair halls at left and right have c1844 cantilevered granite staircases with wrought-iron balustrades; spine wall with C17 timber framing surviving behind late C20 linings. HISTORY: a major Ordnance Board warehouse for one of the country's key edefensive points, larger and predating comparable stores in the Morice Ordnance Wharf, Plymouth. As a converted barracks, it represents the most common permanent military accommodation provided in England before the construction of barracks at the end of the C18. A very rare survival in a national context of an early military building, in this case associated with the most outstanding example of a C17 fort in Britain, designed by Sir Bernard de Gomme. (Woodward FW: Plymouth's Defences: Devon: 1990-: 9; Woodward FW: Citadel: Devon: 1987-; Saunders A: Fortress Britain: Portsmouth: 1989-).

Listing NGR: SX4811453763