The Avenue Hotel, Public House, Tipner - Portsmouth - geograph

Tipner is a residential district of

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port and city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. The city of Portsmouth has been a unitary authority since 1 April 1997 and is administered by Portsmouth City Council. Portsmouth is the most dens ...

, located on the north western corner of

Portsea Island Portsea Island is a flat and low-lying natural island in area, just off the southern coast of Hampshire in England. Portsea Island contains the majority of the city of Portsmouth. Portsea Island has the third-largest population of all th ...

in southern

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. It includes a housing estate, built during the 1930s, that used to function as married quarters for the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...

, a yachting club, allotments, a primary school, The Harbour special school, and indoor and outdoor rifle ranges. There is a nearby sports centre at Alexandra Park. Tipner is bounded to the north and west by the

M275 motorway The M275 is a long, dual three-lane motorway in Hampshire, southern England. It is the principal road route for entering and leaving Portsmouth. It continues as the A3 into Portsmouth, and meets the M27 at its northern terminus. From the mo ...

and

Tipner Lake Tipner Lake forms the north eastern section of Portsmouth Harbour. It is not an actual lake, but the reclamation of land north of Horsea Island and the building of the M275 motorway in the early 1970s, which passes over a bridge to the west of t ...

. To the south is

Stamshaw Stamshaw is a residential district of Portsmouth, located on the north western corner of Portsea Island Portsea Island is a flat and low-lying natural island in area, just off the southern coast of Hampshire in England. Portsea Island ...

Gunpowder magazines

In the 1790s a

gunpowder magazine A gunpowder magazine is a magazine (building) designed to store the explosive gunpowder in wooden barrels for safety. Gunpowder, until superseded, was a universal explosive used in the military and for civil engineering: both applications requ ...

was constructed on Tipner Point (as part of the

Board of Ordnance The Board of Ordnance was a British government body. Established in the Tudor period, it had its headquarters in the Tower of London. Its primary responsibilities were 'to act as custodian of the lands, depots and forts required for the defence ...

's policy of distributing gunpowder stored near the

Royal Dockyard 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 ...

s to a few more isolated and scattered locations). By 1804 facilities had been built nearby on Stamshaw Point and

Horsea Island Horsea Island was an island located off the northern shore of Portsmouth Harbour, England; gradually subsumed by reclamation, it is now connected to the mainland. Horsea falls within the city of Portsmouth and was wholly owned by the Ministr ...

to enable damp or damaged gunpowder offloaded from ships to be restored and then reused: from Tipner, the powder was taken first to Stamshaw, where it was unpacked from its barrels, assessed and sieved ("redusted"); from there it was taken to Horsea for the dangerous process of "restoving" (drying the damp powder in specialized ovens) after which it would either be returned directly to Tipner magazine ready for re-use, or else would go via the "mixing house" at Stamshaw to be blended with fresh powder. The magazine of 1796 still stands at Tipner, together with a later (1850s) magazine and some ancillary buildings. At one time there was also a barracks which housed the troops tasked with protecting the facility.

HMS Phoenix

HMS Phoenix, the

's fire-fighting, damage repair, and NBCD (Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Defence) training establishment, was located on the northern edge of Tipner, adjacent to Tipner Lake, between 1946 and 1993. In 1994 its operation was transferred to new units at

HMS Excellent A ship and a shore establishment of the Royal Navy have borne the name HMS ''Excellent'': * was a 74-gun third rate launched in 1787. She was converted into a 58-gun fourth rate in 1820 and became a gunnery training ship in 1830. She was broke ...

on Whale Island. The former site, which was used for some time as a scrap yard, survives as a large area of derelict contaminated land and is highly visible from the M275 motorway at the gateway to Portsmouth. Several redevelopment plans have been proposed for visual improvements to the area, but none of them has so far progressed.

References

Areas of Portsmouth {{Hampshire-geo-stub