Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
cannonballs. A football on a plinth commemorates the fact that it was here in 1886 that a
group of machinists formed Dial Square Football Club, later Woolwich Arsenal FC, and
then just
Arsenal FC
, eventually moving to Highbury in north London. The team used to
get changed in the toilets of the
Royal Oak
(now the Woolwich Arsenal DLR station).
21
Greenwich Heritage Centre
Artillery Square • Tues-Sat 9am-5pm • Free •
T
020 8854 2452,
W
greenwichheritage.org • Woolwich Arsenal DLR
If you head down Number One Street, towards the river, you'll come to
the
Greenwich
Heritage Centre
, on the left, which houses a small informative permanent exhibition on
the history of the Arsenal.
Next door is the distinctive eighteenth-century, brown-brick
building that served as the Royal Military Academy, from 1741 until 1806, when new
barracks were built.
Firepower: Royal Artillery Museum
Tues-Sun 10am-5pm • £5.30 •
T
020 8855 7755,
W
firepower.org.uk • Woolwich Arsenal DLR
Firepower
, the Royal Artillery Museum, is housed, appropriately enough, in a former
bomb factory. To enjoy the museum, you do have to be seriously into
guns
- lots of
them. Inevitably, there's a propaganda video on today's Royal Artillery, along with a
twenty-minute multimedia show,
Field of Fire
, concentrating on the chief conflicts of
the twentieth century. The main
Gunnery Hall
features ancient World War I field guns,
old and new howitzers, anti-tank guns, Thunderbird guided-missile launchers and
Rapier surface-to-air missiles used in the Gulf War, and allows you to play various war
games, fire simulator guns and watch lots of wartime film clips. Upstairs, the
History
Gallery
takes you through the history of artillery and rocket science, features the gun
carriage used in the funeral cortège for Georges V and VI, and includes the Medals
Gallery. Finally, at the
Camo Zone
, you can have a go at the bungee run, test your
marksmanship on the firing range and take part in a virtual tank battle (£1.50 each).
Royal Artillery Barracks
he
Royal Artillery Barracks,
half a mile to the south of the Royal Arsenal, are still seen
as the spiritual home of the Royal Artillery, even though the last artillery regiment
moved out in 2007. Completed in 1802 by James Wyatt, the barracks' three-storey
Georgian facade, interrupted by stucco pavilions and a central triumphal arch, runs for
an amazing 1080ft, making it one of the longest in Europe. Appropriately enough, the
barracks hosted the shooting competition during the 2012 Olympics.
The barracks face south onto the grassy parade ground, to the east of which lies the
abandoned
Garrison Church of St George
, built in neo-Romanesque style in 1863.
Gutted in the last war, it's now an attractive husk, with fragments of its colourful
interior decor still surviving. To the west of the Royal Artillery Barracks, off Repository
Road, stands John Nash's bizarre Chinese-style
Rotunda
(closed to the public).
Originally used as a marquee in the gardens of Carlton House during the celebrations
MILITARY WOOLWICH
Woolwich, like Deptford, owes its existence to its
Royal Dockyards
, founded here in 1513 by
Henry VIII. The men-of-war that established England as a world naval power were built in these
dockyards: the
Great Harry
, the largest ship in the world, was launched from here in 1514;
Walter Raleigh and Captain Cook set out from Woolwich on their voyages of discovery. The
docks closed in 1869, and the area is better known for the
Royal Arsenal
, which
reached its
heyday during World War I, when it stretched for three miles along the Thames, employed
nearly one hundred thousand workers (half of whom were women) and had its own internal
railway system. The ordnance factories were closed altogether in 1967, and council housing
built over much of the site. However, a fine collection of mostly eighteenth-century buildings
survives and has been converted into flats, plus a couple of museums.
