A gunpowder magazine is a building designed to store the explosive gunpowder in wooden barrels for safety. Gunpowder, until largely superseded, was a universal explosive used in the military and for civil engineering: both applications required storage magazines. Most magazines were purely functional and tended to be in remote and secure locations. They are the successor to the earlier powder towers and powder houses.

In Australia Historic magazines were at the following locations, among others: Jack's Magazine, Saltwater River, Victoria Goat Island, Sydney Spectacle Island (Port Jackson) North Arm Powder Magazine Dry Creek explosives depot

In Canada

There are magazines at: Citadel Hill (Fort George) Citadel of Quebec, Quebec City, Quebec Parc de l'Esplanade, Quebec City, Quebec Cole Island, Esquimalt, British Columbia Fort Lennox, Île-aux-Noix, Quebec Fort William Historical Park, Thunder Bay, Ontario Fort York, Toronto

In Ireland Ballincollig, County Cork

The Ballincollig gunpowder mills were first opened in the late 18th century and were bought, in 1804, by the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland's Board of Ordnance to help defend the Kingdom against attack. They were one of three royal gunpowder factories, but the Ballincollig mills were not used after the end of the Napoleonic Wars. They were sold off by the government in 1832, in a semi-derelict condition, were bought by a Liverpool merchant and reopened to manufacture gunpowder, and finally closed in 1903. Many buildings survive and, together with the associated canals, were incorporated into Ballincollig Regional Park. The site contains a number of powder magazines, as well as expense magazines.Webb, Jenny and Donaldson, Ann (2006). Ballincollig Royal Gunpowder Mills: a hidden history. Dublin: Nonsuch Publishing. .

The No. 2 magazine was built by the Board of Ordnance and is the oldest magazine. It is 29-foot (8.9 m) long by 28-foot (8.6 m) wide. It has a groin-vaulted roof. The magazine is protected by earthen banks on two sides; with doors at both ends. The No. 1 magazine is newer; and was built sometime after 1828. It is 80-foot (24.5 m) long by 25-foot (7.6 m) wide and has solid walls, but is now roofless.

Cork Harbour

There is a surviving magazine at Camden Fort Meagher, part of the defences of Cork Harbour.

Rocky Island, midway between the mainland and Haulbowline Island (which at the time was an ordnance depot), is dominated by a magazine complex dating from 1808; it held up to 25,000 barrels, and was the principal store for the whole of Ireland. In 2007 it was restored and converted into Ireland's first crematorium outside Dublin.

In Malta

The Order of Saint John built a number of gunpowder magazines in Malta during their rule of the islands. Until the end of the sixteenth century, echauguettes were used to store gunpowder. The Order built a magazine in Valletta, but it exploded in 1634, killing 22 people. After the explosion, a new magazine was built, in sparsely populated Floriana to avoid another disaster. Various other magazines were built over the years whose designs were influenced by French military architecture, particularly the style of Vauban. The British, who took over Malta in 1800, also built a number of magazines on the islands.

Gunpowder magazines in Malta include: Cittadella: A gunpowder magazine was built on St. John Demi-Bastion sometime between the 1620s and 1693. Two other magazines were built on St. Martin Cavalier and St. John Cavalier in 1701. The magazines at St. John Demi-Bastion and St. John Cavalier are still intact, while the one on St. Martin Cavalier collapsed in the nineteenth century. Fort St. Angelo: A magazine was built within the fort sometime after 1690, possibly on the site of an older gunpowder factory. It still exists with some modifications made by the British. Mdina: A magazine on De Redin Bastion was proposed in the 1720s, but it was never built. Fort Manoel: Two magazines were built in 1727–29 on St Helen's Bastion and St Anthony's Bastion. The latter was demolished in 1872 to make way for gun emplacements, but the one on St Helen's Bastion still survives and was restored in 2004. The British built smaller magazines in the fort as well. Fort St. Elmo: A magazine was built in Vendôme Bastion in 1745, and it was converted into an armoury in the 19th century. Until 2014 it housed the National War Museum. Ras Ħanżir: A magazine was built in 1756 outside the fortified settlements for safety. It still exists, although it was altered by the British when it was incorporated into the Corradino Lines. Fort Chambray: A magazine was built in around 1760 on Guardian Angel Bastion. It has an oval shape and a conical roof, and it is still standing. Cottonera Lines: Magazines were built on some of the bastions. Fort Ricasoli: The fort's magazine was blown up during the Froberg mutiny in 1807. The British built a new magazine to replace it in 1829. Other smaller magazines were also built by the British within the fort.

Some of the coastal fortifications also had their own magazines or storage areas.

In the Netherlands Three gunpowder magazines remain in the Netherlands: the Kruithuis in Delft, the Kruithuis in Den Bosch (the oldest, built in 1618–1620), and one in Wierickerschans.

In Persia

Gunpowder magazines were called Bārūt-Khāneh (, or ) in Persia (Iran).

Gunpowder Manufacturing of Yusef Abad (), and later the Gunpowder Magazine of Tehran ( Bārūt-Khāneh-ye Tehrān), was a gunpowder magazine near Tehran which was built during the Qajar dynasty. Nothing remains of this building today, and its exact location is unknown.

In Singapore The Battle Box at Fort Canning Fort Sentosa Fort Siloso Fort Tanjong Katong

In South Africa

A magazine was erected in Bathurst, East Cape, by the British military in 1821; it is still standing. It usually carried about 273 kg gunpowder, 7,000 ball cartridges and 60 rifles as stock. In 1870 the British military built a powder magazine in the Northern Cape town of Fraserburg (also still standing) in case of war with the neighbouring Griqua people; it was used in the Anglo-Boer War.

In Turkey Gunpowder magazines were called Baruthâne in Turkish. In the Ottoman Empire some magazines were built in Istanbul, Gallipoli and Saloniki. Bakırköy gunpowder magazine, built in 1700, is the only one remaining.

In the United Kingdom

Production of gunpowder in England appears to have started in the mid-14th century with the aim of supplying The Crown.Cocroft (2000). Chapter 1: "Success to the Black Art!". Records show that gunpowder was being made in 1346 at the Tower of London; there was a powder house at the Tower in 1461. Gunpowder was also being made or stored at other royal residences such as Greenwich Palace, where the royal armouries were based. It was also stored in Scotland, in royal castles such as Edinburgh Castle. Gunpowder manufacture at Faversham began as a private enterprise in the 16th century.

From the 18th century, efforts began to be made to site magazines away from inhabited areas. Nevertheless, storage at the older established sites persisted well into the 19th century.

The use of gunpowder for both military and civil engineering purposes began to be superseded by newer nitrogen-based explosives from the later 19th century. Gunpowder production in the United Kingdom was gradually phased out during the mid-20th century. The last remaining gunpowder mill at the Royal Gunpowder Factory, Waltham Abbey was damaged by a German parachute mine in 1941; it never reopened.Cocroft (2000). Chapter 4: "The demise of gunpowder". This was followed by the closure of the gunpowder section at the Royal Ordnance Factory ROF Chorley; the section was closed and demolished at the end of World War II. ICI Nobel's Roslin gunpowder factory closed in 1954. The sole United Kingdom gunpowder factory left was ICI Nobel's Ardeer site in North Ayrshire, Scotland, which closed in October 1976. Since then gunpowder needed in the United Kingdom has been imported.

Gunpowder magazines survive at several locations in the UK. In many cases the gunpowder was stored in locations which were both remote from habitations and could be made secure. They were also often sited in dense woodland, or had trees planted around them, as a way of lessening the effect of any explosion.

England

The Gunpowder Magazine in Berwick-upon-Tweed was built in 1745 to service Berwick Barracks and sited at a safe distance from them to the south. It is a solid stone building, heavily buttressed, windowless, stone roofed and enclosed by a stone wall. Along with Purfleet and Tilbury it is one of the few surviving eighteenth-century gunpowder magazines in the country.

Brean Down Fort was one of a number of Palmerston Forts built to defend the British, Irish and Channel Island coastlines. It was originally built in stages between 1862 and 1870; to protect the Bristol Channel. It had a large, underground, main gunpowder magazine, 15-foot (4.5 m) by 18-foot (5.5 m) by 20-foot (6.1 m) high, built to the recommendations of the 1863 Royal Commission. The magazine still exists. A further two, smaller, underground magazines, No. 2 magazine and No. 3 magazine, were also built. No. 3 magazine exploded on 3 July 1900 destroying most of the barracks. Gunner Hains was killed. It was concluded that he had killed himself by firing a ball cartridge down a ventilator shaft into the magazine, which held 3 tons (3 tonnes) of gunpowder, causing the magazine to explode.van der Bijl, Nicholas BEM (2000). Brean Down Fort: Its History and the Defence of the Bristol Channel. Cossington: Hawk Editions. . The fort was reused in both the First and Second World Wars; and additional expense magazines constructed. The fort is now owned by the National Trust.

As early as 1461, the Tower of London included a 'powderhous' within its walls. With the establishment of the Board of Ordnance there, its use as a gunpowder store increased. In the Tudor period the White Tower was refitted for this purpose, and by 1657 the entire building, apart from the chapel, was being used to store gunpowder.Parnell, Geoffrey (1993), The Tower of London, Batsford, Gunpowder was still being stored there when the Ordnance Board was disbanded in the mid-nineteenth century.

was moored in the Thames at Beckton as a powder magazine in the late 19th century.

The Board of Ordnance maintained magazines at both Tilbury Fort and New Tavern Fort, which face each other across the River Thames. Two sizeable magazines of 1716 remain in place at Tilbury.

Purfleet Royal Gunpowder Magazine was established by Act of Parliament in 1760, built to the design of James Gabriel Montresor and opened in 1765, with a garrison in place to protect it.listed building report Previously, gunpowder had been stored on Greenwich Peninsula, but fears of an explosion there prompted the building of this new establishment further afield. The purpose of the Purfleet magazine was to store newly manufactured gunpowder.

The Purfleet site was centred on five large magazines, each capable of holding up to 10,400 barrels of gunpowder. These substantial brick-built sheds were windowless, with copper-lined doors and sand-filled roof voids – all designed to prevent (or mitigate the effects of) an explosion.Thurrock Local History Society By the end of the eighteenth century, Purfleet was receiving regular consignments of powder from Waltham Abbey, to provide both the Navy and the Army with supplies.