Royal Arsenal Former Paper Cartridge Factory Building 17
ROYAL ARSENAL FORMER PAPER CARTRIDGE FACTORY BUILDING 17, 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:
- 1245203
- Date first listed:
- 09-Jul-1997
- List Entry Name:
- Royal Arsenal Former Paper Cartridge Factory Building 17
- Statutory Address:
- ROYAL ARSENAL FORMER PAPER CARTRIDGE FACTORY BUILDING 17, PLUMSTEAD ROAD SE18
Location
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Images of England Project
- Date:
- 2002-10-02
- Reference:
- IOE01/07718/17
- 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:
- 1245203
- Date first listed:
- 09-Jul-1997
- List Entry Name:
- Royal Arsenal Former Paper Cartridge Factory Building 17
- Statutory Address 1:
- ROYAL ARSENAL FORMER PAPER CARTRIDGE FACTORY BUILDING 17, 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 FORMER PAPER CARTRIDGE FACTORY BUILDING 17, 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:
- TQ 43842 79244
Details
TQ 4479 PLUMSTEAD ROAD, SE18
(North side)
786/9/10063 Royal Arsenal
Former Paper Cartridge
Factory (Building 17)
GV II
Cartridge factory, disused. 1855-6, to the designs of Cpt R Beatson, RE. Yellow stock brick with red brick dressings; C20 corrugated sheet valley roof; internal iron frame. PLAN: Rectangular plan 11 bays long and 2 bays wide, former beam engine houses in NW corner, and W former boiler house and E former rag store projecting to the N. EXTERIOR: 2 storeys; 9:1-bay range. Near-symmetrical front has red brick clasping pilasters, a plinth, cornice and parapet: central entrance bay set forward with an ashlar surround to segmental-arched carriage entrance with double doors, and a similar wide window above with key and imposts. Original window openings with rubbed-brick segmental arches; the window frames are C20 replacements. Similar surrounds to doorways with plate-glass overlights 4 bays from the ends. Right-hand end has a symmetrical 9-window range and a right-hand 5-window range former rag store wing, both with central entrances as the front. INTERIOR: Contains part of a 2-storey iron frame originally of 3 rows of tapering octagonal piers with flared caps and holes for the line shafting, the surviving S aisle has longitudinal and transverse cast-iron beams with joist sockets for the timber first floor. The roof has segmental-arched ties below the valley with open spandrels, and cast-iron rafters with compression pieces curved each side of a central circle, and lateral and longitudinal wrought-iron tension bars connected in the middle by a round plate. A short section of the SE roof replaced C20. Former outside walls have segmental-arched blocked windows. Historical note: Originally with an octagonal chimney inside a courtyard to the N, and N office building, used for making paper cartridges from rags. Part of the post-Crimean War expansion and improvement of cartridge-making facilities for the army. Subsequently used for making metal cartridge cases, including those for the Hodgkiss quick-firing guns in the early C20. The notable frame provides evidence for the variety of large iron-framed buildings of the 1850s in the RN Dockyards and railway manufacturing yards at Swindon and Derby. It combined its structural function with line shafting and pipework necessary for mechanised cartridge manufacture, and while not structurally advanced as Beatson's No 2 Ship Shop at Portsmouth (qv), is a complete example of a specialised type.
(RCHME, Historic Buildings Report, The Royal Arsenal Woolwich, Vol. II, 1994)
Listing NGR: TQ4384279244
Legacy
The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.
- Legacy System number:
- 468763
- Legacy System:
- LBS
Sources
Books and journals
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 27-Jun-2026 at 03:38:52.
Download a full scale map (PDF)End of official list entry
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