Tipner is a residential district of

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port city status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Hampshire, England. Most of Portsmouth is located on Portsea Island, off the south coast of England in the Solent, making Portsmouth the only city in En ...

, located on the north western corner of

Portsea Island Portsea Island is a flat and low-lying natural island in area, just off the southern coast of Hampshire in England. The island contains the majority of the city of Portsmouth. Portsea Island has the third-largest population of all the i ...

in southern

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. It includes a housing estate, built during the 1930s, that used to function as married quarters for the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...

, a yachting club, allotments, a primary school, The Harbour special school, and indoor and outdoor rifle ranges. There is a nearby sports centre at Alexandra Park. Tipner is bounded to the north and west by the

M275 motorway The M275 is a , dual three-lane motorway in Hampshire, southern England. It is the principal road route for entering and leaving Portsmouth. It continues as the A3 into Portsmouth, and meets the M27 at its northern terminus. From the motorwa ...

and Tipner Lake. To the south is

Stamshaw Stamshaw is a residential district of Portsmouth, located on the north western corner of Portsea Island in southern England. Much of it consists of dense rows of " two up, two down" terraced housing built during the late 19th century and earl ...

Gunpowder magazines

In the 1790s a

gunpowder magazine 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 Gunpowder, until superseded, was a universal explosive used in the military and for civil engineering: both applications re ...

was constructed on Tipner Point (as part of the

Board of Ordnance 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 ...

's policy of distributing gunpowder stored near the

Royal Dockyard Royal Navy Dockyards (more usually termed Royal Dockyards) were state-owned harbour facilities where ships of the Royal Navy were built, based, repaired and refitted. Until the mid-19th century the Royal Dockyards were the largest industrial c ...

s to a few more isolated and scattered locations). By 1804 facilities had been built nearby on Stamshaw Point and

Horsea Island Horsea Island was an island located off the northern shore of Portsmouth Harbour, England; gradually subsumed by reclamation, it is now connected to the mainland. Horsea falls within the city of Portsmouth and was wholly owned by the Minist ...

to enable damp or damaged gunpowder offloaded from ships to be restored and then reused: from Tipner, the powder was taken first to Stamshaw, where it was unpacked from its barrels, assessed and sieved ("redusted"); from there it was taken to Horsea for the dangerous process of "restoving" (drying the damp powder in specialized ovens) after which it would either be returned directly to Tipner magazine ready for re-use, or else would go via the "mixing house" at Stamshaw to be blended with fresh powder. The magazine of 1796 still stands at Tipner, together with a later (1850s) magazine and some ancillary buildings. At one time there was also a barracks which housed the troops tasked with protecting the facility.

Royal Naval Rifle Range

A rifle range was established at Tipner in the 19th century, in connection with the RN Gunnery School (HMS ''Excellent'') on nearby Whale Island. It closed in 2020.

HMS Phoenix

HMS Phoenix, the

's fire-fighting, damage repair, and NBCD (Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Defence) training establishment, was located on the northern edge of Tipner, adjacent to Tipner Lake, between 1946 and 1993. In 1994 its operation was transferred to new units at HMS ''Excellent'' on Whale Island. The former site, which was used for some time as a scrap yard, survives as a large area of derelict

contaminated land Contaminated land contains substances in or under the land that are definitively or potentially hazardous to health or the environment. These areas often have a long history of industrial production and industrial farming. Many sites may be affect ...

and is highly visible from the M275 motorway at the gateway to Portsmouth. Several redevelopment plans have been proposed for visual improvements to the area, but none of them has so far progressed.

References

{{Reflist Areas of Portsmouth