[4] In 1716 two permanent field companies of Artillery (each of a hundred men) were formed by Royal Warrant and placed under the command of the Master-General of the Ordnance.

To begin with, in 1801, the Horse Artillery barracks was expanded to form a quadrangle by the addition of a parallel range to the north, linked to it by officers' quarters at either end.

[5] For the south front, which faced on to the parade ground, James Wyatt designed a centrepiece triumphal arch to marry the two halves of the frontage together.

Numbers fluctuated somewhat in the first half of the century: the size of the garrison was reduced during the years of relative peace after Waterloo (until in 1833 the barracks contained just 1,875 men and 419 horses); but it then began growing again.

In the census of 1841, a total of 2,862 people were recorded as living in the barracks, of whom 759 were women or children (there being no officially-provided housing for married soldiers at that time).

[11] In 1851 work began (to a design by Thomas Henry Wyatt) on a new building for the Royal Artillery Institution; it was opened three years later, standing immediately to the north of the easternmost block of the south range of the barracks.

[5] The RA Institution was a scientific association, offering officers the opportunity to hear lectures on physics, chemistry, geology, artillery, military tactics and history.

[12] The building included a horseshoe-shaped lecture theatre, a library, a laboratory, a museum, and facilities for drawing, sketching, printing, modelmaking and photography.

Guest lecturers included John Percy in metallurgy, Thomas Minchin Goodeve in physics and practical mechanics, and Charles Loudon Bloxam in chemistry.

[5] The theatre (the former chapel) burned down in 1903 and was rebuilt to a design by W. G. R. Sprague;[5] and in 1926 a new Regimental Institute was built to replace the canteen (it provided among other facilities a restaurant, a ballroom, a library and a billiards room).

In 1939 troops were moved out of the barracks, which (along with other facilities in the Woolwich area) was vulnerable to air attack; but the following year it was filled again with evacuees from Dunkirk.

Parts of the barracks were damaged during the Blitz, the easternmost block of the south front being destroyed along with the Royal Artillery Institution (which had been inserted behind it in 1851–54).

Finally, in 1956, the decision was taken that the Royal Artillery would retain it as their depot, but with everything behind the south front demolished and rebuilt (with the exception of Wyatt's Officers' Mess, which would remain in situ).

[17] On 23 November 1981, the Provisional Irish Republican Army targeted Government House of the Royal Artillery on Woolwich New Road in a bomb attack which injured two people.

[23] On 24 May 2013 Drummer Lee Rigby, of the 2nd Battalion, Royal Regiment of Fusiliers,[24] was murdered by Islamists just outside the Barracks in a terrorist attack.

[25] In November 2016 the Ministry of Defence announced that the site would close in 2028, with all army units currently stationed in Woolwich scheduled to be relocated.

The battery was orientated to fire in a south-southeast direction, the target being a flagstaff positioned three-quarters of a mile away at the southern end of the common.

[35] Later the guns were removed and placed in front of the Royal Military Academy; but their footings remain, along with several surviving carriage sheds and other buildings, around the edge of the former drill ground (now used as a car park).