The Royal Arsenal Gatehouse or Beresford Gate is the main

gatehouse A gatehouse is a type of fortified gateway, an entry control point building, enclosing or accompanying a gateway for a town, religious house, castle, manor house, or other fortification building of importance. Gatehouses are typically the mo ...

of the

Royal Arsenal The Royal Arsenal, Woolwich is an establishment on the south bank of the River Thames in Woolwich in south-east London, England, that was used for the manufacture of armaments and ammunition, proofing, and explosives research for the Britis ...

Woolwich Woolwich () is a district in southeast London, England, within the Royal Borough of Greenwich. The district's location on the River Thames led to its status as an important naval, military and industrial area; a role that was maintained thr ...

in the

Royal Borough of Greenwich The Royal Borough of Greenwich (, , or ) is a London borough in southeast Greater London. The London Borough of Greenwich was formed in 1965 by the London Government Act 1963. The new borough covered the former area of the Metropolitan Borough ...

, South East

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

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 ...

. It was built in 1828, enlarged several times and is now a

Grade II-listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

building. The gate was named after the Anglo-Irish general William Beresford, Master-General of the Ordnance and Governor of the Royal Military Academy in Woolwich.

Location

The Royal Arsenal Gatehouse is situated in central Woolwich, between the town's main square,

Beresford Square Beresford Square is a pedestrianised town and market square in Woolwich in the Royal Borough of Greenwich in London, England. It was formed in the early 19th century and was named after the Anglo-Irish general William Beresford, Master-General ...

, and the

, from which it is separated by a busy dual carriageway, Plumstead Road (

A206 List of A roads in zone 2 in Great Britain starting south of the River Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the The Isis, River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the ...

). It is also situated close to the Woolwich Arsenal railway and DLR stations and the future Crossrail station.

History

19th century

The construction of a new gate for the

was ordered in 1828 by the newly appointed Master-General of the Ordnance,

William Carr Beresford, 1st Viscount Beresford William is a male given name of Germanic origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conquest of Engl ...

(1768–1854). Its construction was supervised by Colonel

John Thomas Jones Major General Sir John Thomas Jones, 1st Baronet (25 March 1783 – 26 February 1843) was a British officer in the Royal Engineers who played a leading engineering role in a number of European campaigns of the early nineteenth century. Jones was ...

Chief Royal Engineer The Chief Royal Engineer (CRE) is the official head of the Corps of Royal Engineers of the British Army. Origin and development Before the English Restoration a Chief Engineer was a pay grade and not defined. In 1660 King Charles II appointed ...

, who also made the design. The new gate replaced an older one of 1720 and was preceded by the clearance of some cottages which stood in the way of the main approach road to the Arsenal. Its appearance in the early 19th century was very different from its current state, as a mid-1830s lithograph shows. In 1859 an office with a bell tower above were added on the west side, and in 1889 the east side was extended too. Two years later, the original gate was built over to create three extra waiting rooms. The wall along Plumstead Road was built around 1778 and then raised to about 6 m height and extended further east in 1804. It was probably built by penal labour, the convicts being housed in

prison hulks A prison ship, often more accurately described as a prison hulk, is a current or former seagoing vessel that has been modified to become a place of substantive detention for convicts, prisoners of war or civilian internees. While many nation ...

moored in the

Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the second-longest in the United Kingdom, after the R ...

. An extra gate, Middle Gate, was added in 1830 and renewed in 1843. A third one, Third Gate, followed in 1856 but has not survived.Saint & Guillery (2012), pp. 162-164

20th and 21st century

In 1969 plans were presented by the

Greater London Council The Greater London Council (GLC) was the top-tier local government administrative body for Greater London from 1965 to 1986. It replaced the earlier London County Council (LCC) which had covered a much smaller area. The GLC was dissolved in 198 ...

(GLC) for the widening of Beresford Street and Plumstead Road, necessary because of traffic congestion and made more urgent by the massive construction scheme at

Thamesmead Thamesmead is an area of south-east London, England, straddling the border between the Royal Borough of Greenwich and the London Borough of Bexley. It is located east of Charing Cross, north-east of Woolwich and west of Erith. It mainly consi ...

. In the original plans, Beresford Gate was to be demolished, as were Holy Trinity Church and the Century Cinema in the northwest corner of Beresford Square. The plans were delayed and a possible reconstruction of the gatehouse further north was considered. In 1984–86 the road was led through a section of the Arsenal north of the gatehouse, which by that time had been listed. A new gate for the Arsenal was built further north in 1985–86, re-using twin stone piers with urns from the Paragon on the New Kent Road, built by

Michael Searles Michael Searles (1750–1813) was an English commercial architect of large houses, particularly in London. His most notable achievement is perhaps The Paragon in Blackheath. Searles was the son of a Greenwich surveyor, also named Michael Sea ...

in 1789–90, and rescued from there by the GLC in the 1960s when the road was widened. The old gatehouse in Beresford Square was restored by the new owner, Greenwich Council, in 1991–92, and again in 1995–96. The lodges were adapted for offices. File:Woolwich, Beresford Square, c 1835.jpg, The original gate as it appeared around 1835 File:Royal Arsenal, Woolwich.jpg, The completed gate in the early 20th century File:Royal Arsenal third gates, c 1905.jpg, Arsenal workers at the "Third Gate", c. 1905 File:2016 Woolwich, Royal Arsenal, gate & construction sites (cropped).jpg, New main entrance, c. 1790, re-used in 1985

Description

The construction of the Royal Arsenal Gatehouse, or Beresford Gate as it was originally called, took place in stages. The oldest parts (1828, 1859, 1889) are of plain yellow stock brick with some stone detailing. The last additions of 1891 are of red brick and feature three large windows on each side and a clock at the top of its south-facing gable. The central part has three openings, which are currently closed off by iron fences. The middle opening was always wider and was meant for horses and carriages; the flanking openings were for pedestrians. The latter were widened in 1936. The gate openings on the south side of the building correspond with those in the north side and lead into a covered plaza. The rooms above rest on metal beams with arched floors. The central section of the gate is flanked by two lodges from 1828, both adorned with recessed rectangular panels and surmounted by brass

mortars Mortar may refer to: * Mortar (weapon), an indirect-fire infantry weapon * Mortar (masonry), a material used to fill the gaps between blocks and bind them together * Mortar and pestle, a tool pair used to crush or grind * Mortar, Bihar, a villag ...

. The western annexe of 1859 has a bell tower. The building features several plaques, inserted in the buttresses and below the windows. The inscriptions are "1829 B" and "G.R. IV"; one bears a shield with three guns. Two cattle drinking troughs of the Metropolitan Drinking Fountain and Cattle Trough Association from the 1890s and two modern stone benches have been placed on the south side of the building. File:North Face of the Royal Arsenal Gatehouse, Woolwich (01).jpg, View from the north (Plumstead Road) File:2016 Woolwich, view Beresford Gate 1.jpg, Closed-off passages and covered plaza File:Southwest View of the Royal Arsenal Gatehouse, Woolwich.jpg, Southwest range and bell tower File:Cannon on the Royal Arsenal Gatehouse.jpg, Mortar on top of west pavilion File:Drinking Trough and East Face of the Royal Arsenal Gatehouse in Beresford Square, Woolwich.jpg, Drinking trough located to the south of the building

References

* , ''Woolwich through time'', Amberley Publishing, 2014. * , ''Woolwich – Survey of London, Volume 48'', Yale Books, London, 2012.
Listed building 1079080
on website ''historicengland.org.uk''

External links

{{Commons category, Royal Arsenal Gatehouse
Royal Arsenal Gatehouse
- GEB, company that manages and rents out the building Gatehouses (architecture) Woolwich Grade II listed buildings in the Royal Borough of Greenwich Government buildings completed in 1828