Description

PLYMOUTH

SX4853NW THE BARBICAN
740-1/67/872 Royal Citadel: Great Store
08/07/98

GV II*

Storehouse, later barracks, now store and offices. 1667-75,
for the Board of Ordnance, converted to barracks 1844.
MATERIALS: Plymouth limestone rubble with granite drip courses
and parapet coping; single deep slate roof with coped gables
and plain parapets replacing what was originally 2 parallel
roofs with a central valley; rendered stacks over the cross
walls.
PLAN: large double-depth plan, originally with central
entrance; later single-storey carriage house on the left.
EXTERIOR: 3 storeys; 6-window 1st-floor range plus central
blocked former loading hatch fitted with clock. Wide central
C16 granite 4-centred arched doorway with carved spandrels and
square hoodmould now blocked as are the 1st and 2nd-floor
openings above, the top opening the parapet. Doorways at far
left and right have flat arches, both probably inserted c1844;
the other openings are spanned by rendered probable brick
arches and fitted with late C19 or C20 horned sashes. There is
much evidence of old alteration to the front wall, the other
walls are rendered.
INTERIOR: stair halls at left and right have c1844
cantilevered granite staircases with wrought-iron balustrades;
spine wall with C17 timber framing surviving behind late C20
linings.
HISTORY: a major Ordnance Board warehouse for one of the
country's key edefensive points, larger and predating
comparable stores in the Morice Ordnance Wharf, Plymouth. As a
converted barracks, it represents the most common permanent
military accommodation provided in England before the
construction of barracks at the end of the C18. A very rare
survival in a national context of an early military building,
in this case associated with the most outstanding example of a
C17 fort in Britain, designed by Sir Bernard de Gomme.
(Woodward FW: Plymouth's Defences: Devon: 1990-: 9; Woodward
FW: Citadel: Devon: 1987-; Saunders A: Fortress Britain:
Portsmouth: 1989-).

Listing NGR: SX4811453763

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Royal Citadel at Wikipedia
• Royal Citadel official website
• Wikidata Q7373944

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Devon (Pevsner Buildings of England)
• 
  The Listed Buildings and Other Principal Structures at the Royal Gunpowder Mills Waltham Abbey
• 
  A Buying and Owning a Listed Building: A Brief Guide
• 
  Period property manual, victorian house manual 2 books collection set by ian rock
• 
  Hertfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  For the Record