The original site for what became Clarence Barracks was the early 17th-century King's Cooperage in Old Portsmouth, owned and operated by the Victualling Commissioners.

[1] Rebuilt in 1723, it consisted of a long narrow courtyard surrounded by workshops, seasoning sheds, offices and storehouses; a new well was dug and a rainwater cistern erected to provide reliable sources of water.

[2] In 1753 the Cooperage relocated to the Weevil on the Gosport side of the harbour; whereupon the Navy Board began making plans to convert the old buildings into a barracks[3] for the newly constituted Portsmouth Division of the Royal Marines.

In 1848 the Portsmouth Division of the Royal Marines Light Infantry moved into their new accommodation in Forton,[5] and the Army took possession of Clarence Barracks.

Ten years later, however, Clarence was condemned by the Army Sanitary Commission as 'quite unfit for habitation', which cited (among other shortcomings) the close proximity of the privies to the cook-house.