Gunwharf Quays is a shopping centre located in the Portsea area of the city of Portsmouth in England. Opened in the early 21st century, it was constructed on the site of what had once been HM Gunwharf, Portsmouth. The Gun Wharf, dating from the early 18th century, was a storage facility (one of several established by the Board of Ordnance close to the Royal Dockyards) where cannons, ammunition and other armaments were kept, repaired and made ready for use on land or at sea. It later served as HMS Vernon, the Royal Navy's torpedo and anti-submarine school (latterly its mine warfare and diving training establishment).

The military site closed in 1995. After six years of reconstruction (which included the restoration of some of the surviving 18th and 19th-century Gun Wharf buildings), the area was opened to the public as Gunwharf Quays on 28 February 2001. The site contains the landmark Spinnaker Tower, built on pilings on the edge of Portsmouth Harbour, which was opened on 18 October 2005.

History

With the establishment of Portsmouth Royal Dockyard in the 15th century, the Ordnance Office (responsible for equipping the Army and Navy alike with cannons and munitions) had to create the means of conveying weapons to and from warships in harbour, and maintaining them when not in use (a ship when not on active service would have its guns removed and placed in storage, until they were next required.)

At first, Portchester Castle was used and in 1521 a sizeable storehouse was built there within the outer bailey. From the 1580s the Town Quay in Old Portsmouth was used; this was not far from the Square Tower, newly-converted at that time to serve as a gunpowder store. Later, in 1676, a wharf and storehouses on Portsmouth Point were leased to the Ordnance Office to serve as an ordnance yard. By the late 17th century, however, as Portsmouth Dockyard was further expanded, there were calls for construction of a new, purpose-built gun wharf to meet Portsmouth's increasingly-complex requirements.

Old Gun Wharf

280px|thumb|left|The 'Gun Wharfe' (Old Gun Wharf) in 1750, from a map drawn by [[John Peter Desmaretz|J. P. Desmaretz. The site includes officers' housing (top right), two large storehouses, carriage houses (for gun carriages), forges for repairs and the wharf itself (bottom left) where the cannons and shot were stacked.]]

Between 1706 and 1714 a Gun Wharf was constructed on land newly-reclaimed from the sea. It was built to the north of the Mill Pond, which powered a tide mill (known as the King's Mill), which produced flour for the Royal Navy. Later known as the Old Gun Wharf, it jutted into the harbour and was protected by a tall wall at its landward end; the entrance was at the eastern corner, close to the mill and its protective redoubt. Inside the gate was a row of houses for the Storekeeper (the senior Ordnance officer on the site) and his clerks, fronted by a green space lined with trees.

The Gun Wharf was dominated by a very long () Grand Storehouse, the longest such building in any ordnance yard. Completed in 1710, it was used for all kinds of ordnance stores including oil, tallow, cartridges and powder horns. In front of the storehouse, carriage stores were built on either side and a pair of forges for basic repairs. Gunpowder was not stored on the site (it was kept in the Square Tower until the 1770s, and subsequently in a purpose-built facility across the harbour at Priddy's Hard).

New buildings continued to be added to the gunwharf during the 18th century, as the Navy and the Dockyard grew in size and prestige. A large, pedimented Artillery Store was built, directly in front of the Grand Storehouse, in the 1780s; and in 1797 an Armoury was erected alongside the officers' houses, to store pistols, muskets, cutlasses, boarding pikes and numerous other items. (Most of the buildings of the Old Gun Wharf were demolished after the First World War, when the site was reconfigured for HMS Vernon, but the Artillery Store was converted into an accommodation block (known as the 'Warrior' building); it was later damaged in the Blitz, heavily reconstructed in the 1950s and eventually demolished in 1998. The 18th-century carriage houses also survived, albeit very much altered, until they too were demolished in 1998.)

New Gun Wharf

thumb|right|Mid-18th-century plan of Portsmouth, showing the Old Gun Wharf (upper centre-right) and the Point (upper centre-left). Between the two is the 'ouze' (mudbank) on which the New Gun Wharf would be built (and below it is the 'Victualling Wharf').

Beginning in 1797, the ordnance yard was significantly extended by reclaiming further land from the sea to the south of the old Mill Pond, an area which became known as the New Gun Wharf (to differentiate it from the Old Gun Wharf to the north, which continued in service).</blockquote>

Gunwharf barracks

thumb|right|The former Royal Marine Infirmary (a surviving part of the old Gunwharf Barracks).

In 1824 the Victualling Commissioners (who were moving their operations across to what would become the Royal Clarence Victualling Yard on the other side of the harbour) vacated their set of storehouses on the southern edge of the Gun Wharf. These were then converted to form barracks for the Royal Marine Artillery (the first time that this section of the Corps had been provided with its own separate barracks). In 1858 the Royal Marine Artillery moved out (first to Fort Cumberland, then to the new purpose-built Eastney Barracks); Gunwharf Barracks were then given over to the Royal Artillery for a time, after which they were occupied by the Army Ordnance Corps until 1891.

Victorian expansion

As the century progressed, more buildings were added to the area: a plan dated 1859 indicates more than a dozen other large storehouses all around the site. In 1868 the King's Mill burned down and was not rebuilt. Soon afterwards, the Mill Pond was filled in and at around the same time the old fortifications of Portsmouth (which hemmed in the landward end of the Gun Wharf) were demolished, allowing the site to expand eastwards on to new ground. In the 1870s a railway line to Portsmouth Harbour was built across the north-west corner of the Old Gun Wharf; as compensation for the loss of land the railway company provided new housing for officers in the area of the new extension.

The Board of Ordnance had been disestablished in 1855 and its responsibilities transferred to the War Department. In 1891 the responsibility for Naval ordnance provision was separated from that for the Army (prior to this date the same organisation had been responsible for both): the new Naval Ordnance Stores Department took over responsibility for the New Gun Wharf, while the Army Ordnance Department retained the Old Gun Wharf.

As ships and armaments developed, the requirement to offload guns and ammunition diminished and the Gunwharves focused increasingly on manufacturing ammunition. By the end of the 19th century, what had been the blacksmith's forge in the New Gun Wharf had expanded and developed into a fully-fledged Royal Ordnance Factory.

HMS Vernon

thumb|right|The Vernon Mine Warfare and Diving Monument at Gunwharf Quays (unveiled in 2020).

In 1916 the Mining School, a constituent part of the Navy's torpedo establishment known as HMS Vernon, was moved ashore into what would soon become known as the Vulcan building in the Naval Gunwharf (the southern part of the site). Subsequently a number of other buildings were erected nearby, or taken over, for mine-related instruction and experimental research. One of the most prominent additions, built just behind the Vulcan building in 1917, was the -high Mining Tank, containing a column of water which was used for testing mine designs.

After these rebuilding works had been completed, Vernon in its entirety moved ashore: the Electrical Department joined the Mining Department in the New Gun Wharf, while the Whitehead (or Torpedo) Department took over the Old Gun Wharf. The separate Mine Design Department (which had been established in 1919 as part of the Admiralty Experimental Station) also moved in and occupied the old Ordnance Factory premises, to the east of the Vulcan building. The site then reopened as the Vernon shore establishment (HMS Vernon) in 1923. A small flotilla of destroyers, tenders and trawlers was also based there. During the Second World War Vernon undertook crucial work in mine countermeasures and anti-submarine warfare; but it was also a target for aerial bombardment. During the Portsmouth Blitz it received several direct hits, which prompted several key departments to move to more remote locations for the rest of the duration of the war. Some units remained on the gunwharf site through the war, including the Command Fire-fighting School and a mine disposal unit.

After the war, HMS Vernon was occupied by the newly-merged Torpedo and Anti-Submarine branch (TAS). The 1st (later 2nd) Mine Countermeasures Squadron was based at Vernon, as was the RN Diving School and the Admiralty Experimental Diving Unit (which took over the old Mining Tank in 1959 and converted it into a diving facility). Further new buildings were added in the 1960s, including the four-storey Scott accommodation block (for Petty Officers and junior ratings), opened in 1968. In 1975 parts of the site became a Scheduled Ancient Monument.

As part of a wider reconfiguration, the Torpedo and Anti-Submarine branch moved in 1974 to HMS Dryad; but Minewarfare and Diving Training (MDT) remained at HMS Vernon. In 1982, following a Defence Review the previous year, the government announced its intention to close HMS Vernon in four years' time. Vernon duly ceased to be a separate command in 1986 and it became an offshoot of HMS Nelson (being designated, at first, HMS Nelson (Vernon Site) and then, from 1987, HMS Nelson (Gunwharf)). Nevertheless, for a further decade the base remained open; MDT continued to be based there and some other units moved in for a time (albeit temporarily). Last to leave were the Minewarfare section, which moved to HMS Dryad in March 1995, and the RN Diving School, which in September that year moved to Horsea Island (long used for underwater training) where it combined with the Royal Engineers Diving Establishment to form a new Defence Diving School. The final closure took place on 1 April 1996.

Refurbishment

thumb|right|Aerial view from the north-east

Naval and military use of the site ceased in 1995.

After being redeveloped to a design by HGP Architects, Gunwharf Quays opened to the public on 28 February 2001. After some debate, a 29-storey largely residential tower (No.1 Gunwharf Quay) was built on the site of the 'Ariadne' block between 2008 and 2009.

Retained historic buildings and structures

thumb|right|upright|Preserved quayside crane (manufactured by [[Stothert & Pitt).]]

HMS Vernon suffered extensive damage during the Blitz, but a number of historic structures survived, some of which have been restored as part of the Gunwharf Quays development.

  • The Old Customs House pub and restaurant, built as an administration block in the late 18th century, is the oldest building on the site and the only significant survival on the Old Gun Wharf side.
  • An early 19th-century gateway stands behind the Vulcan building, indicating the line of the original boundary of the New Gun Wharf; Initially hemmed in by the fortifications of Old Portsmouth, the site expanded further when the town fortifications were levelled in the 1870s; much of the later perimeter wall, which dates from this expansion, remains in place around the edge of the site, along with the Main Gate of c.1870.
  • The Grand Storehouse (later called the Vulcan Building) was the principal structure on the New Gun Wharf, built 1811–14. Its north wing and clock tower were both destroyed in the Blitz and only reinstated as part of the Gunwharf Quays reconstruction.
  • The old Royal Marines Infirmary building was originally built as an Ordnance Storehouse at around the same time as the Vulcan block; together with other nearby storehouses it was converted to form Gunwharf Barracks, of which it is the only surviving part.
  • Behind the Vulcan building, and dwarfed by it, is a former shell store (Building No. 25) dating from 1856.