Coastal artillery battery on Gibraltar’s South Mole, built in 1870s.
Alexandra Battery is a coastal artillery battery in Gibraltar, built between 1876 and 1878 at the neck of the South Mole to enfilade the territory’s coastal fortifications. It housed a heavy RML 12.5 inch 38 ton gun in a casemate with an iron shield and later received anti-aircraft weapons.
Alexandra Battery is a coastal artillery battery in the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar, part of the Fortifications of Gibraltar. It was constructed between 1876 and 1878 at the neck of the South Mole, originally known as the New Mole, to enfilade the coastal fortifications of Gibraltar. The battery was built over earlier defensive works, replacing New Mole Battery, which itself had been constructed on the site of an old Spanish fort in front of the Tuerto Tower. Its construction followed an 1868 report by Colonel, later General, William Jervois, who recommended a new battery to house an RML 12.5 inch 38 ton rifled muzzle-loading gun, then the heaviest such gun in the British Army, mounted in a casemate protected by an iron Gibraltar Shield. The battery was named after Alexandra of Denmark, wife of Edward, Prince of Wales, who laid the foundation stone in 1876. Although completed two years later, it was considered out of date by 1902 and converted into accommodation casemates by 1906. During the Second World War, a QF 2-pounder Pom-pom gun and a Bofors 40 mm gun were installed to defend the South Mole and provide anti-aircraft protection. The battery still exists and is described as being in relatively good condition.
