LONDONDERY WORKHOUSE

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Detached stone fifteen-bay two-storey with attic level former Workhouse building with a central projecting bay connected with the main building via a glazed link corridor; main building is flanked by adjoining rendered three-storey gabled circulation towers. Built in 1839-40 to designs by George Wilkinson. Located on a six-acre site to the North East of the former Workhouse Admissions building (HB01/09/008A). The building is occupied by Libraries NI on ground floor level; the entire first floor level is currently vacant. The entrance doorway is surmounted by an 1840 date-stone.

Pitched slate roof has eleven slated dormer windows with pitched slate roofs - five to the NW side of the central tower and six to the south east side; terracotta clay ridge tiles to main roof, dormers and adjoining towers; hipped slate roof to central projecting tower has terracotta clay ridge tiles and carved timber brackets at eaves level; main building has exposed rafter tails at eaves level. Cast-aluminium rainwater goods throughout.

Principal (SW) elevation consists of a rough-cast rendered painted central tower with modern red-brick dressings, SW side of tower has a large square-headed window with glazing bars on second floor level and two smaller timber casement windows on first and second floors to SE and NW sides, these two elevations having a glazed and metal entrance porch on ground floor level, NE side has a glazed three-storey corridor link connecting tower to main building; entrance porches to either side of tower are approached via flight of concrete steps surrounded by a low painted rendered wall with painted metal railings above. Main elevation has seven bays to either side of central projecting tower, walling is of un-coursed rubble local schist with red-brick dressings to window surrounds, window bays are equally spaced, end bays are narrower having (replacement) 1/1 timber sliding sashes, all other windows are (replacement) 2/2 timber sliding sashes, bays on ground floor level are taller than first floor level; dormers have slated cheeks and front with timber casement windows; main elevation is flanked by gabled single-bay three-storey projections, (containing circulation stair); walling is of rough-cast render with a vertical smooth-rendered band between window bays, windows are timber casements on painted masonry sills.

North West elevation is of rough-cast render with painted finish on a painted plinth; gable elevation is abutted by adjoining three-storey projecting end block to the right side and has a small square projecting chimney stack with a single terracotta clay pot to the left side.

North East elevation to the rear is of rough-cast render with painted finish on a painted plinth, smooth rendered painted dressings to window surrounds; to the SE and NW side of rear elevation is a semicircular arch headed door with a rendered band surround having a vertically sheeted timber door with a plain glazed fanlight over; ground floor level contains a large semicircular arch headed multi-pane timber frame window to either side of the centrally located slated pitched roof single-storey porch, which contains a doorway opening out onto rear car park. Ground floor windows are timber casements with open-able panes, first floor windows are 2/2 timber sliding sashes, all on concrete unpainted sills. Exposed rafter tails to eaves level; cast-aluminium rainwater goods to rear elevation.

South East side elevation is of rough-cast render with painted finish on a smooth painted plinth, abutted by adjoining three-storey projecting end block to the left side. NE elevation of projecting tower block has two door openings on ground floor level, square-headed window on first and second floor level and a square-headed opening at attic level having a painted metal ventilation grill.

Materials:
Roof Natural slate
RWG Cast-aluminium
Walling Un-coursed squared local schist, red-brick dressings & rough-cast render (NE)
Windows Replacement timber sliding sashes & timber casements

Setting:
Located on a six-acre site on the North side of Glendermott Road (on the east bank of the River Foyle) to the North East of the former Admissions building (HB01/09/008A) and South East of the former red-brick Ebrington shirt factory, all set behind a rendered and stone wall with stone copings and piers to either side of a pair of painted metal entrance gates, painted metal railings above wall. The walls are terminated by square piers having a pair of painted metal gates; piers are surmounted by pointed capstones.

Historical information

Following the passing of the Poor Law Act in 1838, a network of 130 Poor Law Unions was created across Ireland, each of which was to have a workhouse. The system was designed to provide relief to the destitute and each Poor Law Union was governed by a Board of Guardians. Initially it had been thought that the staff at the Board of Public Works would be able to design and construct the new workhouses. When it was found that this would not be possible, a number of architects were invited to submit plans. The designs provided by George Wilkinson of Oxford were judged to be the most satisfactory and in January 1839 he was appointed Architect to the Poor Law Commissioners on an annual salary of £500. Prior to moving to Ireland, he had been responsible for the design of many workhouses in England and Wales. Wilkinson would remain in post in Ireland until 1855.

The workhouse design created by Wilkinson consisted of three main parts: a front building, main building, and infirmary. The front building contained the board room for the Guardians to meet in, the clerk’s office and porter’s room, probationary and vagrants’ wards, outhouses (such as privies, washing rooms, punishment cells), and a small gatekeeper’s annex. The main building could have been two, three or four storeys high with three-story wings at each end. This building contained the dormitories for inmates, workrooms, schoolrooms, accommodation for the master and matron, etc. The infirmary was built to cater for the ‘normal sick’ of the workhouse.

The Londonderry Poor Law Union was created in January 1839 with its Board of Guardians meeting for the first time on 6 March following. Most workhouses were built on the outskirts of the principal town or city in each Poor Law Union. The site chosen for the workhouse of the Londonderry Poor Law Union was in the Waterside and the 1830 Ordnance Survey map shows that this was a greenfield site. The Londonderry workhouse was built to accommodate 800 inmates. The building costs amounted to £6,780 with a further £1,157 for fittings. It opened on 10 November 1840. In the period 1899-1908 Matthew Alexander Robinson was responsible for a number of additions and alterations to the infirmary, and external iron fire escape stairs.

The fever hospital was demolished and rebuilt in 1933 but other buildings survived. The existing building is rectangular on plan form, remnant of what was once an important and much larger structure which formed part of a former 'courtyard' purpose-built establishment, typical of a workhouse model where the buildings were arranged around three sides of a large quadrangle of great scale (formerly accommodated 800 inmates). Consisting of an entrance and administrative block to the west which contained a porter's room and waiting room at the centre, with the Guardians' board room on the first floor above. The main accommodation block had the Master's quarters at the centre; the large inner courtyard was divided by a high wall separating the male and female wings to each side. At the top of the main block, children's dormitories were located in the attic space. At the rear (now demolished), a range of single-storey utility rooms such as a bake-house and washhouse connected through to the infirmary and 'idiots' wards via a central spine containing the chapel and dining-hall. During the famine in the mid-1840s, a permanent building was erected in the women's yard to accommodate an additional 40 inmates, and temporary sheds erected for 60 fever patients. A fever hospital was subsequently erected at the south of the workhouse. The fever hospital was demolished and rebuilt in 1933 but other buildings survived. For a period, the workhouse had its own burying ground at the north-east of the site.

In 1948 the workhouse became Waterside General Hospital. This is reflected in the Annual Revision Lists of the First General Revaluation (1936-57) where the word workhouse is changed to hospital and the term Board of Guardians is changed to Northern Ireland Hospitals Authority. Ordnance Survey maps also show the name of the complex changed from Union Workhouse to Waterside Hospital. The former workhouse continued as a hospital until 1991. At that time local campaigning led to the preservation of the original front building (Admissions Building) and main building which were given listed status. Subsequently the main building was renovated as a museum and library, while the front building was refurbished as the Waterside Centre and used for offices.

The Workhouse Museum was opened in 1997 and occupies two floors of the original main building with library to the ground floor. It includes information, artefacts and records on the history of the workhouse as well as an exhibition on the Battle of the Atlantic during World War II and Derry’s role in this. In 2014 Derry City Council announced that the Workhouse Museum would cease operation on 5 April. The library remains on the ground floor.

References

Primary sources
1. PRONI, Ordnance Survey map, 1830, OS/6/5/20/1
2. PRONI, Ordnance Survey map, 1853, OS/6/5/20/2
3. PRONI, Ordnance Survey map, 1933, OS/6/5/14/4
4. PRONI, Ordnance Survey map, 1954, OS/6/5/14/5
5. PRONI, Ordnance Survey map, 1964, OS/6/5/14/6
6. PRONI, Valuation map, c. 1908–c.1918, VAL/12/D/5/14D (based on Ordnance Survey map published in 1907)
7. PRONI, Griffith’s Valuation, 1858
8 PRONI, Annual Revisions List of the First General Revaluation, 1936-57, VAL/3/C/6/13
9. NIEA, HB Records

Secondary sources
1. Alistair J. Rowan, The Buildings of Ireland: North West Ulster (Harmondsworth, 1979)
2. Michael H. Gould, The Workhouses of Ulster (UAHS, 1983)
3. Avril Thomas (ed.), Irish Historic Towns Atlas, no. 15, Derry~Londonderry (Dublin, 2005)
4. Daniel Calley, City of Derry: An Historical Gazetteer to the Buildings of Londonderry (Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 2013)
5. ‘Sketch History of the Workhouse’, leaflet by the Waterside Community History Group (c. 1989)

Online sources
www.workhouses.org.uk/Ireland

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
H-. Alterations detracting from building
I. Quality and survival of Interior
J. Setting
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

V. Authorship
S. Authenticity
T. Historic Importance
R. Age
X. Local Interest
Y. Social, Cultural or Economic Importance
Z. Rarity

Evaluation

Detached stone fifteen-bay two-storey with attic level former Londonderry Union Workhouse, built in 1839-40 to designs by George Wilkinson of Oxford, Architect to the Poor Law Commissioners. Located in the Waterside area of the city of Londonderry on an elevated side on the north east side of Glendermott Road, the former Workhouse building is located within the same grounds and to the rear of the former Admissions building (HB01/09/008A). Despite the addition of modern stairwells and dormers to the front elevation, the front facade retains historic detailing such as red brick window surrounds. Internally much has been modernised however some historic detailing has been retained. The Workhouse building and Admissions building have value as a group and they complement each other in architectural style and materials. Only a small number of former Admission and Workhouse buildings remain in N Ireland and therefore this building is considered special for its rarity and for its associated history with the Poor Law Union.