For more than two centuries the guns of the Royal Navy were loaded with powder and shells stored at Priddy’s Hard, a walled depot on the Gosport shore. Today those same brick magazines hold Explosion, the Museum of Naval Firepower, which tells the story of how the navy armed itself from the age of gunpowder to the age of the guided missile.
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It is one of the quieter attractions around Portsmouth Harbour, and all the better for it. There are big guns to stand under, torpedoes and sea mines to peer at, and a very human story about the people, many of them women, who made the munitions. This is a guide to what is there and how to reach it.
From gunpowder to guided missiles
The heart of the museum is the sweep of naval firepower across the centuries. You move from the barrels and powder of the sailing navy, through the enormous shells of the dreadnought era, to the torpedoes, mines and missiles of modern warships. Seeing them lined up together makes the leap in scale and destructive power startlingly clear.
It is not all hardware. The displays set the weapons in their human context, explaining how they were made, moved and used, and what it meant to work surrounded by high explosive. For anyone who has toured the warships across the water, it fills in the question those ships leave hanging, which is what all those guns actually fired.
A gunpowder store with a story
Part of the appeal is the setting. Priddy’s Hard was built in the 1770s to arm the fleet, and the thick-walled magazines were designed so that an accidental blast would blow upward and outward rather than take the whole site with it. Walking through them, you are inside the very buildings where the navy’s firepower was once stacked floor to ceiling.
The site worked right through both world wars, when much of the dangerous labour of filling shells fell to women. That part of the story, often overlooked, is one of the things the museum does best.
A hands-on day for families
Explosion is pitched squarely at families as well as naval buffs. Interactive displays let children get hands on, there is space to roam, and the scale of the exhibits does a lot of the work in holding young attention. A cafe by the water makes a natural stop when energy flags.
One small tip for getting the most from a visit.
Come on a quieter weekday and you can take your time among the big guns without a crowd between you and the exhibits.
Because it sees fewer crowds than the big dockyard attractions, you rarely feel rushed. It pairs naturally with a trip to the Royal Navy Submarine Museum nearby, and together the two make a full and very different day out on the Gosport side.
Getting there and planning your visit
The nicest way to arrive is from the water. Take the little Gosport Ferry across from Portsmouth Harbour, then hop on the seasonal waterbus that runs up to Priddy’s Hard, or walk the waterfront. Drivers will find parking on site at Gosport. A few things worth knowing:
| Where | Priddy’s Hard, Gosport, PO12 4LE |
| Getting there | Gosport Ferry from Portsmouth, then waterbus or a walk |
| Tickets | Covered by a Portsmouth Historic Dockyard ticket |
| Good to know | Check opening days, which vary by season |
| Allow | Around two hours, longer with the submarine museum |
Opening days and prices shift through the year, so confirm before you travel, and a combined Historic Dockyard ticket usually works out cheaper if you plan to see more than one site.
Few museums put you quite so literally inside their subject. Stand in a 250-year-old magazine, surrounded by the firepower it once held, and the long story of the navy across the harbour suddenly makes a lot more sense.
