It was the last in a chain of batteries, redoubts and entrenchments encircling the French positions in Marsamxett and the Grand Harbour.

[1] The battery was built on a low hillock and had two gun platforms, which were connected together with rubble walls.

Around December 1799, a magazine was built by the architect Michele Cachia at the rear of the battery, with timber beams taken from ruined houses in Paola.

At one point, men from the 30th (Cambridgeshire) Regiment of Foot were stationed at San Rocco Battery.

In 1799, the British devised an evacuation plan in case a French relief force arrived.