About the Museum

The Royal Artillery Museum, which was one of the world's oldest military museums, was first opened to the public in Woolwich in southeast London on 4 May 1820. It told the story of the development of artillery through the ages by way of a collection of artillery pieces from across the centuries. The museum had its roots in an earlier institution, the Royal Military Repository (established in Woolwich in the 1770s as a training collection for cadets of the Royal Military Academy); items which were once displayed in the Repository form the nucleus of the Royal Artillery Museum collection. Following the closure in 2016 of the museum, branded since 2001 as 'Firepower – The Royal Artillery Museum', its collection has been placed in storage pending the establishment of a new Royal Artillery Museum. The Royal Artillery Museum collections are designated as being of national and international significance by Arts Council England.