The 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. It was originally known as the Woolwich Warren, having begun on land previously used as a domestic warren in the grounds of a mid-16th century Tudor house, Tower Place. Much of the initial history of the site is linked with that of the Office of Ordnance, which purchased the Warren in the late 17th century in order to expand an earlier base at Gun Wharf in Woolwich Dockyard.
Royal Arsenal Gatehouse (Beresford Gate) in 2007
The octagonal tower of Tower Place alongside the Royal Military Academy
Shot stacked up outside the Royal Laboratory gates and rows of guns arrayed in the background (James Cockburn, 1795).
One of a pair of 17th-century pavilions, the earliest buildings on the site, undergoing restoration (2015)
Woolwich is a town in southeast London, England, within the Royal Borough of Greenwich.
Beresford Square market with Royal Arsenal Gatehouse (left) and Crossrail development in the background
Rectors of Woolwich from 1182
Woolwich Dockyard in 1790
Tower Place and the old Royal Military Academy, 1775