 The Admiralty requisitioned the magazines in 1941 to utilise them and the connecting tunnels as air raid shelters for HMS Gordon, a naval shore establishment based in the nearby Sea School.Following the war, the fort was reopened to the public as a garden.Fort House, the Commanding Royal Engineer's residence, was so badly damaged by a nearby V-2 rocket strike in 1944 that it had to be demolished; part of the Milton Chantry complex was also demolished in 1948.