Gunwharf Quays history: 5 things you didn't know
Long before the shops, this waterfront was a naval ordnance yard, a torpedo school and, briefly, a wartime exile from the bombs.
Gunwharf Quays was the Royal Navy's Gun Wharf, an ordnance yard built between 1706 and 1714 where cannon and shot were stored. It later became HMS Vernon, the Navy's torpedo and mining school, which moved ashore onto the site on 1 October 1923.
Gunwharf Quays stands on the old Gun Wharf, the Royal Navy's ordnance yard on Portsmouth Harbour, where cannon and shot were stacked and stored. Later it became HMS Vernon, the Navy's torpedo and mining school. Here are five things that most visitors walk straight past.
Where the name comes from
According to Wikipedia's Gunwharf Quays article, a map of 1750 labels the site "Gun Wharfe", and that is exactly what it was: a wharf for cannon and shot. The article is our only source for the map, so treat the date as the story as it is usually told. The Old Gun Wharf itself was built between 1706 and 1714 on reclaimed land.
A storehouse longer than the rest
The Grand Storehouse was completed in 1710 and ran to 490 feet, which Wikipedia and HGP Architects' project page describe as the longest storehouse in any ordnance yard. One small warning: a later storehouse, the Vulcan Building, dates from 1811 to 1814, so don't assume every old brick wall is from 1710.
The torpedo school moves in
On 26 April 1876 a group of old hulks was commissioned as HMS Vernon, home of the Navy's Torpedo Branch. The establishment moved ashore onto the Gun Wharf site on 1 October 1923, according to Wikipedia's HMS Vernon entry) and the HMS Vernon history.
The warship that became a workshop
One of those Vernon hulks was HMS Warrior, the 1860 ironclad. She became Vernon III, a floating workshop, power plant and wireless school, sitting in the middle of three hulks joined by walkways and supplying steam and electricity to the others. The hulks lay in Portchester Creek rather than at Gunwharf, so this is the school's story rather than the site's. Sources also disagree on when it began: Wikipedia and the Vernon history give 1904, while the National Historic Ships register lists 1916 to 1924. We couldn't settle it, so we haven't picked a year.
The mine that went off
On 6 August 1940 a German mine fitted with a booby trap exploded while it was being stripped in the mining shed. Five men died: an officer and four ratings. Afterwards, mine examination was moved to a disused chalk quarry near Buriton, nicknamed HMS Mirtle, according to the HMS Vernon history and the Royal Navy Research Archive.
Bombed out to Brighton
From August 1940 the bombing of Portsmouth Harbour forced Vernon to disperse. The Navy requisitioned Roedean School for Girls in Brighton, and HMS Vernon (R) was commissioned there on 3 May 1941, as told by My Brighton and Hove. It stayed until June 1945. The "(P)" in the records refers to the part of Vernon that stayed on at Gun Wharf. One claim we left out: a figure of around 100 deaths in a bombing of the Dido Building, because the source that mentions it says it is uncorroborated.
Next time you are on the waterfront, a short drive from Waterlooville, remember that the quayside you are strolling along spent centuries preparing ships for war.
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