| Square Tower | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Type | Fortification |
| Location | Broad Street Portsmouth |
| Coordinates | 50°47′22″N1°06′24″W / 50.78935°N 1.106545°W |
| OS grid reference | SZ 63076 99247 |
| Area | Hampshire |
| Built | 1494 |
| Owner | Portsmouth City Council |
Listed Building – Grade I | |
| Official name | The Square Tower |
| Designated | 30 Oct 1969 |
| Reference no. | 1386904 |
  Location of Square Tower in Hampshire | |
The Square Tower is one of the oldest parts of the fortifications of Portsmouth, England. It is a Grade I listed building. [1]
A tower was built in 1494 as part of the fortifications and served as a home to the Governor of Portsmouth.
In 1584, it was converted to a gunpowder store, the governor having moved to a residence next to the Garrison Church. At the time of the royalist surrender of Portsmouth at the end of the Siege of Portsmouth during the English Civil War 1200 barrels of gunpowder were stored in the tower; [2] the royalists were able to use the threat of detonating the store as a bargaining chip during the negotiations leading up to the surrender. [2]
From 1676 Pierson's Wharf, at the northern tip of The Point, was leased to the Board of Ordnance to serve as a gun wharf (where naval cannons and other items were stored for easy loading on to ships, which could moor nearby). This led to gunpowder barrels routinely being rolled the length of the cobbled roads of The Point, between the tower and the wharf, inevitably leading to a certain amount of spillage. A wharf, known as the powder bridge, was built with access directly from the tower, allowing the barrels to be loaded onto ships moored alongside the wharf. [3] In the 1690s an additional magazine (the 'New Magazine') was built on a triangular promontory on the east side of The Camber. All these locations were alongside built-up areas, and concerns about the hazards of an explosion led to calls for Portsmouth's gunpowder stores to be relocated. [4]
In 1779, the gunpowder having been relocated to Priddy's Hard, the Square Tower was given to the Victualling Board to serve as a Royal Navy meat store, remaining as such until 1850, when this function was moved to the new Victualling Yard complex at Gosport.
In 1823, the Board of Admiralty installed a semaphore tower on the roof, the first link in a signalling chain running between the Royal Dockyard and The Admiralty in London. Following the introduction of the electrical telegraph, the semaphore tower was demolished in 1848. [3]
The tower was manned during both World Wars. It was purchased by Portsmouth City Council in 1958–1960.
In a niche on the east wall is a bust of Charles I by Hubrecht le Sueur. The original was presented to the city by the King to commemorate his safe arrival from his trip to France and Spain in 1623. There is the following inscription below the Royal coat of arms: "After his travels through all France into Spain and having passed very many dangers both by sea and land he arrived here the 5th day of October 1623". The bust now on display is a 20th-century copy, the original is in the city museum. [1]
The Square Tower is now used for hosting functions such as weddings, christenings and funerals. It also hosts regular tea rooms and markets. During the Australian bi-centenary celebrations in 1987 it hosted an exhibition on the First Fleet.
Scott Doonican from the comedy folk band The Bar-Steward Sons of Val Doonican performed at the Square Tower on 14 May 2023. [5]
The Board of Ordnance was a British government body. Established in the Tudor period, it had its headquarters in the Tower of London. Its primary responsibilities were 'to act as custodian of the lands, depots and forts required for the defence of the realm and its overseas possessions, and as the supplier of munitions and equipment to both the Army and the Navy'. The Board also maintained and directed the Artillery and Engineer corps, which it founded in the 18th century. By the 19th century, the Board of Ordnance was second in size only to HM Treasury among government departments. The Board lasted until 1855, at which point it was disbanded.
Southsea Castle, historically also known as Chaderton Castle, South Castle and Portsea Castle, is an artillery fort originally constructed by Henry VIII on Portsea Island, Hampshire, in 1544. It formed part of the King's Device programme to protect against invasion from France and the Holy Roman Empire, and defended the Solent and the eastern approach to Portsmouth. The castle had a square central keep, two rectangular gun platforms to the east and west, and two angled bastions to the front and rear, and was an early English example of the trace italienne-style of fortification popular on the Continent. The Cowdray engraving of the Battle of the Solent in 1545 depicted Henry VIII visiting the castle. Despite several serious fires, it remained in service and saw brief action at the start of the English Civil War in 1642 when it was stormed by Parliamentary forces.
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Castle Cornet is a large island castle in Guernsey, and former tidal island, also known as Cornet Rock or Castle Rock. Its importance was as a defence not only of the island, but of the roadstead. In 1859 it became part of one of the breakwaters of the Guernsey's main harbour, St Peter Port's harbour.
Priddy's Hard is a former military installation in Gosport, England named for the original landowner and the firm beach found there. The site originated as a 1750s fort, and then became an armaments depot for Royal Navy and British Army weapons, explosives and other stores. The site was decommissioned in 1988, after over two hundred years of operation, with part now being developed for housing and an area retained as a museum.
The Royal William Victualling Yard in Stonehouse, a suburb of Plymouth, England, was the major victualling depot of the Royal Navy and an important adjunct of Devonport Dockyard. It was designed by the architect Sir John Rennie and was named after King William IV. It was built between 1826 and 1835 and occupies a site of approximately 16 acres (65,000 m2) being half of Western Kings, north of Devil's Point.
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The Commissioners for the Victualling of the Navy, often called the Victualling Commissioners or Victualling Board, was the body responsible under the Navy Board for victualling ships of the British Royal Navy. It oversaw the vast operation of providing naval personnel with enough food, drink and supplies to keep them fighting fit, sometimes for months at a time, in whatever part of the globe they might be stationed. It existed from 1683 until 1832 when its function was first replaced by the Department of the Comptroller of Victualling and Transport Services until 1869 then that office was also abolished and replaced by the Victualling Department.
His Majesty's Naval Base, Devonport is one of three operating bases in the United Kingdom for the Royal Navy and is the sole nuclear repair and refuelling facility for the Royal Navy. The largest naval base in Western Europe, HMNB Devonport is located in Devonport, in the west of the city of Plymouth, England.
A gunpowder magazine is a magazine (building) designed to store the explosive gunpowder in wooden barrels for safety. Gunpowder, until superseded, was a universal explosive used in the military and for civil engineering: both applications required storage magazines. Most magazines were purely functional and tended to be in remote and secure locations. They are the successor to the earlier powder towers and powder houses.
A Royal Naval Armament Depot (RNAD) is an armament depot dedicated to supplying the Royal Navy. They were sister depots of Royal Naval Cordite Factories, Royal Naval Torpedo and Royal Naval Mine Depots. The only current RNAD is RNAD Coulport, which is the UK Strategic Weapon Facility for the nuclear-armed Trident Missile System; with many others being retained as tri-service 'Defence Munitions' sites.
Deptford Dockyard was an important naval dockyard and base at Deptford on the River Thames, operated by the Royal Navy from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries. It built and maintained warships for 350 years, and many significant events and ships have been associated with it.
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The siege of Portsmouth was the siege of a Royalist garrison in Portsmouth by a Parliamentarian force conducted in the early part of the First English Civil War. The siege resulted in Portsmouth falling to Parliament after a little under a month of conflict.
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The Naval Ordnance Stores Department, was a former department of the Admiralty responsible for the management of naval ordnance storage facilities and depots of the Royal Navy the department was managed by a Superintendent of Stores supported by various deputy and assistant superintendents's it existed from 1891 to 1918 when it was replaced by the Armament Supply Department.
HM Victualling Yard, Deptford was a Royal Navy Victualling Yard established alongside Deptford Royal Dockyard on the River Thames. There was victualling activity on the site for the best part of 300 years from the mid-17th century through to the early 1960s.
Royal Clarence Yard in Gosport, Hampshire, England was established in 1828 as one of the Royal Navy's two principal, purpose built, provincial victualling establishments. It was designed by George Ledwell Taylor, Civil Architect to the Navy Board and named after the then Duke of Clarence. The new victualling yard was developed on approximately 20 hectares of land, some of which was already in use as a brewing establishment at Weevil on the west shore of Portsmouth Harbour, to the north of Gosport.
