In the mid-19th century the battery was enlarged and Point Barracks were built alongside, to house the artillery troops responsible for manning the defences.

[1] The gun battery was created as part of Bernard de Gomme's rebuilding of the fortifications around Portsmouth in the late seventeenth century.

[1][4] Accommodation for soldiers was provided in a casemated block of four vaulted chambers, built to the east of the Round Tower (and linked to the latter by an L-shaped caponier with rifle slits for landward defence).

[2] Following disbandment of the UK's coastal artillery network after the Second World War, the battery and barracks were decommissioned in the early 1960s and the site was acquired by Portsmouth City Council.

Since the closure of the barracks the casemates had largely lain empty, but in 2014 the City Council secured funding to convert the spaces into 'a vibrant new creative quarter' known as 'Hotwalls Studios', which provides workspaces for artists alongside a 'deli-style café'.