Spitbank Fort, a Royal Commission fort built between 1867 and 1878, the smallest of the 3 main forts in the Solent off Portsmouth, 162' across, with 1 floor and a basement, with armour plating only on the seaward side. It was originally planned to have armed with 9 10" eighteen ton RML guns on the seaward side, and 6 7" seven ton RML guns on the landward side. In fact 12.5" thirty eight ton RML guns were placed on the seaward side, but the extreme difficulty of reloading the guns in such a confined area gave such a low rate of fire that all but 2 were removed in 1898, when 2 4.7" quick firing guns were fitted on the roof aided by searchlights. The fort is currently in private hands, open as a museum and for private functions.
The fort is circular with an external diameter of 162 feet at the bottom level with the shoal, narrowing to 146 feet at the top surface of the sill course.
On the gun floor level Spitbank is constructed in two halves, the outer iron portion designed to hold nine 10-inch guns whilst the inner brick-vaulted, granite-faced portion facing the harbour entrance was to hold six 7-inch RML guns.
Cylinder was sunk in the centre of the fort to a depth of 58ft.
SpitbankFort is a sea fort built as a result of the 1859 Royal Commission.
Spitbank is smaller than the two main Solentforts, Horse Sand Fort and No Mans Land Fort, and its main purpose was as a further line of defence for ships that made it past the two main forts.
The fort was finally declared surplus to requirements in 1962 and disposed of by the Ministry of Defence in 1982.
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