Public transit access Woolwich Arsenal Phone +44 20 8855 7755 | Website Official website Founded 4 May 1820 | |
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Established 27 May 2001 (2001-05-27) Dissolved 8 July 2016 (2016-07-08) Location Royal Arsenal, Woolwich, South East London Address Royal Arsenal, Woolwich, London SE18 6ST, UK Similar Greenwich Heritage Centre, Ranger's House, Benjamin Franklin House, Fan Museum, Jewel Tower | ||
Firepower: The Royal Artillery Museum was a military museum in Woolwich in south-east London, England, which told the story of the Royal Artillery and of the Royal Arsenal. It closed in 2016. It had been launched as a renewal of the Royal Artillery Museum, with roots in Woolwich stretching back to the eighteenth century.
Contents
- History
- Gallery of buildings
- Closure and future of the collection
- Artillery Collections
- Other Artillery museums
- References
The museum was located in some of the former buildings of the Royal Arsenal, Woolwich, which was Britain's principal ordnance manufacturing facility from the late 17th century until the mid-20th century. The Royal Regiment of Artillery was formed in the Arsenal in 1716 and the regiment had its home in Woolwich for over 290 years. More than two million men and women have served in the RA since its formation and human stories of bravery and sacrifice were told throughout the museum.
History
The Royal Artillery Museum was originally established within the Royal Arsenal, as a training collection and to preserve Royal Artillery (RA) history.
The forerunner of the Royal Artillery Museum was the Royal Military Repository, which was established on the Royal Arsenal site in May 1778. After a fire in 1802, the surviving artefacts were rehoused in the Old Royal Military Academy. In 1820 the main collection was moved to the Rotunda on Woolwich Common where it was opened to the public for the first time; the museum remained in the Rotunda for the next 180 years.
The collection then moved back into the Arsenal, where Firepower opened to the public in April 2001. All of Firepower's buildings were once part of the Royal Laboratory Department, which controlled the manufacture of ammunition; they are for the most part grade II listed. The adjacent Greenwich Heritage Centre tells the story of the local people of Greenwich who worked in the Arsenal and made the guns.
Gallery of buildings
The following buildings were leased to Firepower by Greenwich London Borough Council, or were previously used by the museum's predecessor:
Closure and future of the collection
Firepower closed in July 2016 and its buildings were acquired by Greenwich Council, which has hopes of establishing a "significant new cultural and heritage quarter" on the site. The closure of the museum was perceived as a great loss for Woolwich. Greenwich Heritage Centre tried to fill the gap by creating a new permanent exhibition Making Woolwich: The Royal Regiment of Artillery in Woolwich. The project was supported amongst others by the Royal Regiment of Artillery, Royal Artillery Museums Ltd, Friends of the Royal Artillery Collections and the Royal Artillery Historical Trust.
It is planned that the Royal Artillery Museum collection will be displayed as part of a Salisbury Plain Heritage Centre in Wiltshire in 2020 (the Royal Artillery's regimental headquarters having itself moved in 2008 from Woolwich to Larkhill Camp, on the Plain). Until then, the exhibits are being stored and conserved in a museum store in Wiltshire, but there is no public access.
Artillery Collections
The Royal Artillery Museum collections are designated as being of national and international significance by Arts Council England.
In Firepower they were displayed as follows:
An interactive exhibit with sound, smoke and screens to give visitors an idea of what it is like to be a modern gunner in war time.
The museum's main display of 20th-century weapons.
The history of artillery from its earliest beginnings, with examples of artillery from around the world.
Some of the museum's collection of thousands of medals won by members of the Royal Regiment of Artillery, telling the stories behind them.
Bringing the story of the Gunners right up to the present day.