24 Facts About Royal Arsenal

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 British armed forces.

Royal Arsenal had its origins in a domestic warren at Tower Place in Old Woolwich.

Royal Arsenal was assisted by a clerk of the cheque, clerk of the survey and other administrative staff.

Comptroller, Royal Arsenal Laboratory, had oversight of the Royal Arsenal Gunpowder Mills in addition to the Woolwich manufactory.

The Royal Engineers retained responsibility for design and construction of the Arsenal's buildings and other structures, latterly as part of the Building Works Department, which remained active until the 1950s.

Related searches

Royal Arsenal was a renowned centre of excellence in mechanical engineering, with notable engineers including Samuel Bentham, Marc Isambard Brunel and Henry Maudslay employed there.

The Royal Arsenal became a noted research facility, developing several key advances in armament design and manufacture.

Royal Arsenal was duly rewarded with a knighthood and the part-time position of Superintendent of the Royal Gun Factory at Woolwich; after further expansion of the factory complex he resigned in 1863 following the demonstration of an even more powerful rifled gun by his rival Sir Joseph Whitworth.

Royal Arsenal was mostly responsible for bringing Guncotton into safe use and for winning a patent dispute brought by Alfred Nobel against the British Government over the patent rights to Cordite which Abel had jointly developed with Professor James Dewar.

Twenty years later, though, the Royal Arsenal began to grow again as investment in weaponry research and manufacture resumed.

The narrow-gauge Royal Arsenal Railway was opened in 1873, complemented later by a standard-gauge network connected to the main line.

Royal Arsenal had oversight of one of the world's largest depots for military equipment ; he had a degree of seniority across the Arsenal as a whole, being responsible for receiving orders from the Director of Artillery and Stores and disseminating them across the departments.

In 1886 workers at the Royal Arsenal formed a football club initially known as Dial Square after the workshops in the heart of the complex, playing their first game on 11 December in the Isle of Dogs.

The eastern portion of the Royal Arsenal site had long been used for the more dangerous manufacturing processes, as well as for proof testing.

All the National Factories closed at the end of the War, with only the Royal Arsenal Factories remaining open through to the Second World War.

The Royal Arsenal cast the Memorial Plaques given to the next-of-kin of deceased servicemen and servicewomen.

Staff from the Royal Arsenal helped design, and in some cases managed the construction of, many of the new Royal Ordnance Factories and the ROF Filling Factories.

The original plan was to replace the Royal Arsenal's Filling Factory with one at ROF Chorley and another at ROF Bridgend, but it was realised that many more ROFs would be needed.

ARDE, which had its origin in the Research and Design Departments of the Royal Arsenal, retained its Woolwich outstation there until the 1980s.

In 1953, a body called Royal Arsenal Estate was set up to dispose of areas of land deemed surplus to requirements.

Part of it near Plumstead Bus station was replaced by iron railings and chain link fencing; later the public roadway was changed at the Woolwich market area and the Royal Arsenal's boundary was moved inwards so that the Beresford Gate became separated from the site by the A206.

Royal Arsenal site retained its links to ordnance production for almost another thirty years as a number of the Ministry of Defence Procurement Executive's Quality Assurance Directorates had their headquarters offices located there.

Parts of the Royal Arsenal have been used to build residential and commercial buildings.

Western part of the Royal Arsenal has now been transformed into a mixed-use development by Berkeley Homes.