Line Wall Road to King’s Bastion

Ref: HLFP3/019

This is part of the curtain wall that faces out to sea and runs all the way south from the North Bastion to South Bastion. The bird’s eye view elevations and plans prepared in 1627 by Don Luis Bravo de Acuña, present a formidable series of highly sophisticated walls and bastions protecting this very long stretch of Gibraltar’s western seashore showing a total of five towers, referred to as platforms, which suggests that the Spanish cut down these rectangular towers to form gun platforms at the level of the parapets of the curtain wall. This would have been the normal practice at the time when insufficient funding was available for building new pentagonal bastions, two of which appeared to have been proposed but never built. The shortcoming of these platforms was that, although they provided good emplacements for guns firing out to sea, their outer faces could not be flanked from the adjoining curtain wall. These platforms projected in front of the coastal wall and were known, as follows: Plataforma de Santa Ana [later the site of the Orange Bastion], Plataforma de San Lorenzo [later enlarged to form the King’s Bastion], La Plataforma de San Diego [site of the present day Wellington Front, North Demi-Bastion] and Plataforma de San Francisco [site of the present day Wellington Front, South Demi-Bastion]. The Line Wall continued all the way to the Baluarte de Nuestra Señora del Rosario [site of the present day South Bastion] The sections between these large platforms were punctuated in between fourteen smaller square towers, together with the fortified Puerta de Mudarra, situated just south of the present day Zoca Flank Battery.

Plan of the town of Gibraltar (1627 - Luis Bravo de Acuña- annotated by Fa and Finlayson - 2006).

Remains of old Spanish tower under Capurro's garage Line Wall Road.

Following the capture of the Rock in August 1704 by Anglo-Dutch forces, the sea wall curtain was hastily repaired, but remained intrinsically the same as the Spanish had left it. In 1720 Dalton refers to four 4-pdrs. and four 32-pdrs. dismounted ‘upon ye line wall’ but after the 13th Siege the batteries along the line were referred to by their individual names. According to Rollo, in the early 18th Century Line Wall was considered to be in two parts, North Front and West Front, which included the following batteries:

North Front: Prince of Hesse’s Battery, Grand Battery, North Bastion, Old Mole.

West Front: Montagu Battery, Navy Yard Battery, Prince of Orange Battery, Saluting Battery, White Cloister Battery, Zoca or Fountain Battery, Main Guard Battery, The 8th Battery, Bombhouse Battery, Columbine’s or Norman’s Battery, Church or Cockayne’s Battery, Convent or Governor’s Battery, South Bastion.

After the 1727 siege, [13th Siege] the wall from Waterport to South Bastion was again repaired over a period stretching from1730 to 1738. The repairs followed the old Moorish/Spanish sea-wall with certain sections covered by new work.

In his report submitted to the Board of Ordnance in London in 1770, the Chief Engineer of Gibraltar, Colonel William Green had emphasised the weaknesses in Gibraltar’s defences and referred to the fact that the Line Wall had no advanced works such as ravelins or a tenaille to protect it from bombardment and assault. A ravelin was an outwork placed beyond a ditch, resembling a detached bastion, having two faces and a gorge and could be provided with flanks. A tenaille was an advanced outwork, placed to cover a curtain wall between two bastions, taking its name from the Latin – ‘tenaculum’, meaning tongs or pincers. One of Colonel Green’s aims was also to strengthen the sea front by increasing the artillery and ordering the use of grape shot from 9-pdrs. and 8-inch howitzers which could fire from the flanks in the batteries of the Line Wall. The new works included the Prince of Orange’s and Duke of Montagu’s Batteries, both old works which were improved and enlarged between 1770 and 1779.

1732 - Town Wall Captain Jonas Moore.

1750s - James Gabriel Montressor Main Guard Battery.

The Line Wall Road to King’s Bastion

The curtain walls to King’s Bastion included the section of walls between North Bastion and Prince of Orange Demi-Bastion and the line leading to King’s Bastion which was later to become known as Prince Albert’s Front.

During the course of the 19th century, the curtain wall was further strengthened and straightened with the building of Prince Albert’s and Wellington Fronts between 1842 and 1845. In 1921, the then Governor, General Sir Horace Lockwood Smith-Dorrien, ordered that the height of the walls in the area between Zoca Flank Battery and the King’s Bastion should be lowered in order to create an open recreational area, to be known as the Esplanade [later known as the Line Wall Boulevard]. A double set of steps was then constructed to give access to the lower area, i.e. Reclamation Road; two years later, on 27th September 1923, the Gibraltar War Memorial was inaugurated just above the main stairway. Some years later, yet another opening was made into the Line Wall, when the American War Memorial was erected close to the Orange Bastion in 1932/33. This consisted of an archway and monument of local limestone, having two flights of granite steps, one up to Prince Albert’s Front and the other to Reclamation Road.

The preserved section of the wall along Prince Albert’s Front contrasts sharply with the remaining section of the Line Wall stretching from below Zoca Flank to King’s Bastion which was all but dismantled in 1921 by order of the Governor, General Sir Horace Lockwood Smith-Dorrien. To provide pedestrian access from the new Queensway to the centre of town, Smith-Dorrien ordered that the height of the walls in the area between Zoca Flank Battery and the King’s Bastion should be lowered in order to create an open recreational area, to be known as the Esplanade [later known as the Line Wall Boulevard]. A double set of steps was then constructed to give access to the lower area, i.e. Reclamation Road; two years later, on 27th September 1923, the Gibraltar War Memorial was inaugurated just above the main stairway. Some years later, yet another opening was made into the Line Wall, when the American War Memorial was erected close to the Orange Bastion in 1932/33. This consisted of an archway and monument of local limestone, having two flights of granite steps, one up to Prince Albert’s Front and the other to Reclamation Road.

Another interesting feature of the esplanade is the old Spanish Fountain which once stood close to the North side of the City Hall (Fountain Ramp). This fountain was originally located at Fountain Ramp, and was moved to Castle Street in 1887 where it remained until 1967 when it was moved to its current position.

On the opposite side of the boulevard is a plaque dedicated to Sir Robert Boyd who oversaw the construction of King’s Bastion and whose remains were buried within one of its vaults.

1782 - The Line wall.

Before the remodelling of the new Line Wall in the 1840’s and subsequent alterations in the early 20th Century, the original line wall was comprised of the following batteries:

Montagu Battery

Link to Montagu Bastion

Navy Yard Battery

This battery stood between Montagu Bastion and Orange Bastion along the Line Wall through right in front of the old Navy Yard, hence the name. The battery appears in both the 1771 and 1773 Armaments List with four 18-pdrs. and two 4-pdrs. However, Spilsbury records how the men of HMS Panther were employed in making a battery here from the lower deck guns of the 60-gun ship during the Great Siege. Spilsbury further reported on the 16th October 1779 that the battery had to be watched to prevent people from walking on the platforms for they were made on clay and when wet tended to sink into the ground. A strange observation considering the battery had to take the weight of both the guns and carriages. Drinkwater also referred to this battery saying that in August 1779 a battery for 22 guns was being erected in the Navy Yard as a resource in case it became necessary to lay up the ships. The 1779 Armament was two iron 4-pdrs. and four iron 18-pdrs. In 1781 the battery was reported as three 18-pdrs. two brass and one iron. No further mention of this battery is found in any subsequent Armament List.

188-s - G. Washington Wilson Line Wall.

Prince of Orange Battery

Link to Orange Bastion

Saluting Battery

As a fortress Gibraltar had a number of designated saluting batteries which changed over the years. Before the 14th Siege, the designated Saluting Battery stood on what is now Prince Albert’s Front. Due to the fact that in those days’ muzzle loaders were used, firing would take much longer, so it was common practice for saluting batteries to have available a number of guns equal to the maximum number of guns to be fired. Consequently, this battery had twenty-one guns consisting of 17 brass 12-pdrs., one iron 12-pdr. and three brass 9-pdrs. Taking the figures of guns given by Dalton and Kane it is clear this number of guns did not exist in either 1720 or 1725 but in any case gun salutes were not considered so formal in those days.

1840's - construction of Prince Albert's Front and Zoca Flank.

White Cloister Battery

This battery is often referred to in the records of the period between the 13th and 14th Sieges. It consisted of two embrasures and in 1771, two 12-pdrs. were mounted. By 1781 however, both guns had been removed and no armament is recorded again until the 1834 List when two 24-pdrs. are mentioned. The battery was demolished in 1842 when works on Prince Albert’s Flank began. The battery got its name from the old Spanish Convent of La Merced or the White Friars founded in 1581 (now Cloister Building). In 1704 this building became the residence of the British Admiral in Gibraltar but suffered extensive damage during the Great Siege.

White Cloister Battery appears to be shown in the 1826 Plan as a battery of three embrasures just to the North of Fountain Battery it therefore stood just opposite where Cloister Ramp opens on the Line Wall Road.

Fountain Battery

This battery consisted of four embrasures; three facing west and one covering the Line Wall facing north. It took its name from the Spanish Fountain which was then to the rear where the north extension of the City Hall now stands. The battery was situated just in front of Fountain Ramp where the Capurro sales garage now stands. In 1771 there were two 18-pdrs. and two 4-pdrs. here but by 1781 only the 4-pdrs. remained. The 1826 Plan shows Fountain Battery with a proposed new line and bastion consisting of thirteen embrasures directly in front it. These works were never built as planned. In 1842, however, Zoca Flank Battery was built over this site as part of the works for Prince Albert’s Front.

View from the Linewall towards the Bay between Zoca Flank and King's bastion, circa 1870's.

The esplanade and War Memorial after the parapet had been removed and replaced with the present balustrades instead.

The Line Wall steps today.

Zoca Flank Battery

Link to Zoca Flank Battery

Town or Main Guard Battery

The earliest mention of this battery is found in 1744 as the Town or Parade Battery mounting six iron 24-pdrs. In 1755, James refers to it as ‘the Town Battery, formerly the Main Guards.’ This battery was situated from the road entrance to John Mackintosh Square to King’s Bastion.

In both 1727 and 1771 it was recorded as a nine-gun battery with six 18-pdrs. and three 4-pdrs. being recorded in the latter. By 1781 the 18-pdrs. had been reduced to four. In 1834 only one 24-pdr. carronade is recorded. The battery was demolished in the 1840’s as part of the extension works for Prince Albert’s Front and Zoca Flank.