It occupies a range of historic buildings at the Royal Arsenal, and includes a 1200-seat auditorium for concerts and events, a performance courtyard that seats up to 600, as well as offices, television studios and rehearsal spaces for resident companies.

In October 2018, planning permission was granted by Greenwich Council for the first phase of a restoration of five listed buildings in the historic Royal Arsenal, estimated at a cost of £31.6 million.

In June 2022 Woolwich Works reported being in financial difficulties and sought a two million pound loan from Greenwich Council.

Until 1807 the wing beyond the entrance saloon, to the west, housed the Ordnance Storekeeper (he had previously lived in Tower Place).

After a period of delay, what became the Royal Military Academy was formally opened in 1741; it remained in the building until 1806, after which it moved to new premises on Woolwich Common.

The western elevation is the oldest part, designed by James Wyatt as a storehouse for naval ordnance supplies in 1783.

In the years leading up to the closure of the Arsenal in 1994, much of the building was in use as Customs and Excise stores; from 2001-2016 it housed the Cold War exhibits of Firepower: The Royal Artillery Museum.

[18] From 2019–21 the entire complex was renovated and appropriated for use as a performing arts and exhibition venue, and renamed The Fireworks Factory.

Building 18, originally the Royal Laboratory Offices, stands to the north of the Cartridge Factory and dates from the same period (though designed in a more classical style with a pilastered stone porch and a pediment).

A modern infill of 1999–2000 connects the two buildings (it was built to provide an entrance and exhibition space for Firepower: The Royal Artillery Museum).

Future plans will see the construction of a 450-seat black box theatre in the modern structure and the return of the Greenwich Heritage Centre to Building 18.

In the early 1860s the site was covered with an iron-framed and corrugated-sheet clad structure, which was replaced with the present larger and more durable building in 1887.

In the early twenty-first century the building was used as a works depot for Berkeley Homes's projects on adjacent sites.