Royal Arsenal Dial Square Entrance Range
ROYAL ARSENAL DIAL SQUARE ENTRANCE RANGE, PLUMSTEAD ROAD SE18
Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places
Overview
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II*
- List Entry Number:
- 1211005
- Date first listed:
- 08-Jun-1973
- List Entry Name:
- Royal Arsenal Dial Square Entrance Range
- Statutory Address:
- ROYAL ARSENAL DIAL SQUARE ENTRANCE RANGE, PLUMSTEAD ROAD SE18
Location
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Images of England Project
- Date:
- 2002-10-02
- Reference:
- IOE01/07718/24
- Rights:
- © Mr John Hussey. Source: Historic England Archive
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Discover moreOfficial list entry
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II*
- List Entry Number:
- 1211005
- Date first listed:
- 08-Jun-1973
- Date of most recent amendment:
- 09-Jul-1997
- List Entry Name:
- Royal Arsenal Dial Square Entrance Range
- Statutory Address 1:
- ROYAL ARSENAL DIAL SQUARE ENTRANCE RANGE, PLUMSTEAD ROAD SE18
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.
Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.
For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.
Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.
For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.
Location
- Statutory Address:
- ROYAL ARSENAL DIAL SQUARE ENTRANCE RANGE, PLUMSTEAD ROAD SE18
The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.
- County:
- Greater London Authority
- District:
- Greenwich (London Borough)
- Parish:
- Non Civil Parish
- National Grid Reference:
- TQ4379579098
Details
TQ 4379
786-/9/47
08/06/73
PLUMSTEAD ROAD SE18
(North side)
Royal Arsenal Dial Square entrance range
GV
II*
Archway and front range to foundry , gun boring works and smithery, later ordnance works. 1717- 20, attributed both to Sir J Vanbrugh and to Nicholas Hawksmoor; 1896 cartridge factory. Red brick with rubbed brick headers hipped slate roof Single-depth plan front range to former quadrangle. Single storey with attics to end blocks; 9-bay range. Symmetrical with central gateway and gabled ends set forward, articulated by shallow buttresses which rise through the eaves with plain caps. Gateway has large square battered piers with moulded caps and pyramids of cannon balls on top, a gabled round-arched gauged brick gateway with blocked voussoirs and a sundial dated 1764. At the back of the archway a 3-centre arched cast-iron beam, dated 1780 at one end and inscribed with the names of former Inspectors of Artillery and of the Royal Brass Foundry between 1797 and 1855. Linking 3-bay sections have 2 segmental-arched sashes with thin glazing bars, the inner bays have an inner doorway and overlight, the outer ones with a central round-arched window and flanking flat-headed 6/6-pane sashes. End gabled bays have 2 sashes and a round-arched frieze beneath the gable and a smaller segmental-arched attic window. Rubbed brick heads to 6/6-pane C19 sashes. Rear altered, the 3 E bays open with late C19 cast-iron columns. INTERIOR: altered with the removal of most original features. HISTORY: With the Royal Brass Foundry and the Board Room (qqv), part of the expansion of the Arsenal when the Board of Ordnance moved gun founding to Woolwich, and known as the Great Pile. Originally fronted a double courtyard range of buildings, the inner Grand Square was for turning, washing, engraving and smitheries, the rear Basin Square having armourers' shops and accommodation. It contained horse-powered cannon-boring equipment, to which cannon cast at the nearby Royal Foundry (qv) were sent. Graded for its significance in marking an important phase in the development of the C 18 and C19 factory.
(RCHME, Historic Buildings Report, Royal Arsenal Woolwich, Vol. I, 1994; Wesley H, The Royal Arsenal: a brief history , London, 1987, pp.3, 11; Hogg O F G, The Royal Arsenal, Oxford, 1963, pp. 252-273; Pevsner N and Cherry B, The Buildings of England: London South, 1983, p.287)
Listing NGR: TQ4379579098
Legacy
The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.
- Legacy System number:
- 200486
- Legacy System:
- LBS
Sources
Books and journals
Hogg, O F G, The Royal Arsenal, (1963), 252-273
Wesley, H, The Royal Arsenal: A Brief History, (1987), 3, 11
Cherry, B, Pevsner, N, The Buildings of England: London 2: South, (1983), 287
Historic Buildings Report in The Royal Arsenal Woolwich, (1994)
Legal
This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.
Map
This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale. This copy shows the entry on 14-Jun-2026 at 21:37:43.
Download a full scale map (PDF)End of official list entry
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