Admiralty House is a substantial building at Mount Wise,

Devonport, Plymouth Devonport ( ), formerly named Plymouth Dock or just Dock, is a district of Plymouth in the English county of Devon, although it was, at one time, the more important settlement. It became a county borough in 1889. Devonport was originally one o ...

. It is a Grade II listed building.

History

Military use in the 18th & 19th centuries

The house was designed by

James Wyatt James Wyatt (3 August 1746 – 4 September 1813) was an English architect, a rival of Robert Adam in the Neoclassicism, neoclassical and neo-Gothic styles. He was elected to the Royal Academy of Arts in 1785 and was its president from 1805 to ...

and built between 1789 and 1793 in Plymouth

limestone Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...

. It was originally known as Government House and served as the home of the military

Governor of Plymouth The Governor of Plymouth was the military Captain or Governor of the Royal Citadel, Plymouth, Fortress of Plymouth. The Governorship was abolished in 1842. The Lieutenant Governorship was vested in the General Officer Commanding Western Distric ...

; it later housed the General Officer Commanding Western District until that army command moved out in 1905. The house was then used as the home of the General Officer Commanding Wessex Area until 1934.

Naval use in the 20th & 21st centuries

The naval

Commander-in-Chief, Plymouth The Commander-in-Chief, Plymouth, was a senior commander of the Royal Navy for hundreds of years. Plymouth Command was a name given to the units, establishments, and staff operating under the admiral's command. Between 1845 and 1896, this offi ...

, who had previously been based next door at Hamoaze House, moved into the property in 1934 and it was renamed Admiralty House. At the same time Hamoaze House, was handed over to the Major-General commanding the Royal Marines.

Area Command Headquarters and Plymouth Underground Extension

In 1939-41 a partly subterranean complex of buildings was constructed in the grounds of the house, within the

ditch A ditch is a small to moderate trench created to channel water. A ditch can be used for drainage, to drain water from low-lying areas, alongside roadways or fields, or to channel water from a more distant source for plant irrigation. Ditches ...

of the old fortifications, to serve as a combined RN/RAF headquarters for maritime operations; similar Area Command Headquarters were constructed at the same time close to the

Royal Naval Dockyards Royal Navy Dockyards (more usually termed Royal Dockyards) were state-owned harbour facilities where ships of the Royal Navy were built, based, repaired and refitted. Until the mid-19th century the Royal Dockyards were the largest industrial c ...

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port city status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Hampshire, England. Most of Portsmouth is located on Portsea Island, off the south coast of England in the Solent, making Portsmouth the only city in En ...

, Chatham) and

Rosyth Rosyth () is a town and Garden City in Fife, Scotland, on the coast of the Firth of Forth. Scotland's first Garden city movement, Garden City, Rosyth is part of the Greater Dunfermline Area and is located 3 miles south of Dunfermline city cen ...

. The Prime Minister,

Winston Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 1874 – 24 January 1965) was a British statesman, military officer, and writer who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945 (Winston Churchill in the Second World War, ...

, visited the house and the combined headquarters in 1941. The headquarters were expanded during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

by a series of tunnels, known as Plymouth Underground Extension (PUE), which formed a sizeable bomb-proof bunker complex under the garden of Admiralty House; it could be accessed from Richmond Walk, Blagdon's boatyard and Hamoaze House as well as from the headquarters building itself. PUE was closed in the 1950s but the headquarters block continued in use.

Post-war

After the war the combined headquarters (renamed Maritime Headquarters) remained in use as headquarters of the Commander-in-Chief, and as such provided command facilities for NATO operations in the Eastern Atlantic, together with local co-ordination of RN, RAF and

Civil Defence Civil defense or civil protection is an effort to protect the citizens of a state (generally non-combatants) from human-made and natural disasters. It uses the principles of emergency management: prevention, mitigation, preparation, response, ...

capabilities, and assorted intelligence and maritime surveillance facilities. In the mid-1980s and early 1990s the facility was comprehensively upgraded. After 1969, Admiralty House became the home of the Flag Officer, Plymouth until that post was also disbanded in 1996. The complex was then used to house a number of different operations on a temporary basis until 2004 when it was earmarked for disposal.

Closure and sale of the site

The house was marketed for sale as a potential hotel in 2014 and much of the surrounding site was adapted for residential use in 2015.

References

{{coord, 50.36681, N, 4.17022, W, region:GB-BKM_type:landmark, display=title Houses in Devon Grade II listed buildings in Devon Houses completed in 1793 1793 establishments in England Buildings and structures in Plymouth, Devon