Former RUC Station

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Symmetrical detached two-storey brick former RUC Barracks, built c.1950 to the designs of Thomas Rippingham. L-shaped on plan facing west onto Coleraine Road within its own enclosed site. Currently vacant.

Hipped terracotta tiled roof with half-round ridge tiles, layered tiles to hip ridges and three red brick chimneystacks with cement coping and terracotta pots. Ogee-moulded cast-iron guttering to overhanging timber eaves, cast-iron box hoppers and downpipes. Machine-made red brick walling laid in stretcher bond with cement coping and cement plinth course. To the first floor the windows have a continuous flush concrete lintel course. Square-headed window openings with concrete sills.

Symmetrical front elevation is six windows wide with a central breakfront having a parapet rising above the eaves. Boarded up windows to the first floor with brick soldier flat arches to the ground floor window openings having concrete sills. Three round-headed recesses to the ground floor of the breakfront having a continuous cement impost course and a cement keystone to the central door opening. Square-headed door opening with double-leaf hardwood panelled doors set within a ruled-and-lined cement rendered surround and opening onto a concrete universal access ramp.

North side elevation has a single window opening to both floots having original timber sash windows (6/6 to the first floor, 6/9 to the ground floor).

Rear elevation not visible. Central attic dormer to the rear pitch of roof. Yard to rear enclosed with 3m high brick wall.

Symmetrical south side elevation is three windows wide with a single-storey bay to the east. Original 8/8 timber sash windows and a central square-headed door opening set in a round-headed recess having stop-chamfered cast concrete surround and a hardwood flush panelled door.

Setting
Located on the east side of Coleraine Road within its own site enclosed by a tall wire fence and low brick walls with concrete coping.

Roof Terracotta tiles
RWG Cast-iron
Walling Machine-made red brick
Windows UPVC / timber sash

Historical information

No. 59 Coleraine Road, a two-storey former R.U.C. Police Barracks, was constructed in c. 1950. The Portstewart barracks is a late example of a design that was constructed throughout Ulster following the partition Ireland. With the creation of Northern Ireland in 1922 the newly-established Ministry of Finance appointed Thomas Francis O Rippingham (c. 1896-1964) as architect to create a standard design for the barracks of the (also newly-formed) Royal Ulster Constabulary. A number of police barracks were constructed between the 1920s and 1950s to Rippingham’s Neo-Georgian design; the example in Portstewart is one of the last to have been constructed having been erected in c. 1950 before Rippingham’s retirement in 1956. At Portstewart, Rippingham’s standard design has been slightly altered to include a central breakfront, a feature that is not seen in earlier examples such as the barracks at Gilford (HB17/01/060) and Dromara (HB17/07/035) (Dictionary of Irish Architects).

The Second General revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland originally valued the police barracks at No. 59 Coleraine Road at £104 and noted that the building was administered by the Ministry of Home Affairs. The current edition of the Ordnance Survey map records that the layout of the ‘RUC Station’ has not been majorly altered since, at least, the 1970s.

In the aftermath of partition Ulster architects rejected modern trends and embraced a Neo-Georgian revival. Dixon states that Rippingham’s standard barrack design is the ‘most outstanding’ application of the Neo-Georgian style; the ‘basic design ... while having its own distinct identity derived some of its elements from earlier types of building in the province. The combination of hipped roof with chimneys rising from the end walls looks back to the early-18th century, while the arched recesses of the front door and its flanking windows borrowed from the Regency of Late-Georgian styles give the facade a simple yet positive dignity. The design was adaptable in size varying from three windows in width to eight or nine; it also proved an environmental success, blending with the older buildings along the streets of Ulster’s towns, or taking its place quietly in more isolated country situations’ (Dixon, p. 189).

Portstewart’s police barracks operated as a station for the R. U. C. until 2001 when the current national police force, the Police Service of Northern Ireland (P.S.N.I.) was established. However, under a government ‘estate strategy’ implemented in 2005 (which aimed to streamline the operation costs of the police service) the station was closed. Portstewart’s police barracks is one of 22 stations that have been closed down since the implementation of this scheme in 2005 (Ulster Star).

The former R.U.C. Barracks at Portstewart continues to lie vacant since its closure but retains its original Neo-Georgian character and its historic significant as a late example of Rippingham’s standard barrack design.

References

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/5/3/5 – Fourth Edition Ordnance Survey Map 1939-50
2. PRONI VAL/4/B/5/35 – Second General Revaluation of Northern Ireland 1956-1972
3. Ordnance Survey Map – 5-16SW (1979)
4. Ulster Star (30th Jan 2009)

Secondary Sources

1. Brett, C. E. B., ‘Buildings of County Antrim’ Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1996.
2. Dixon, H., ‘An introduction to Ulster Architecture’ Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 2008.

Online Resources

1. Dictionary of Irish Architects - http://www.dia.ie

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
H-. Alterations detracting from building

Criteria for listing: historic interest

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

Evaluation

Symmetrical detached two-storey brick former RUC Barracks, built c.1950 to the designs of the Ministry of Finance architect Thomas Rippingham. L-shaped on plan facing west and set slightly back within its own enclosed site on the east side of Coleraine Road. This former police station whilst conforming to a standard mid twentieth-century design, is unsual in that it was constructed in clay brick instead of being rendered and has a central breakfront. It's domestic appearance enables it to blend into this residential street. The building retains most of its neo-Georgian external detailing and has social and historical interest to the local community.

General comments

Listing Criteria R - Age; S - Authenticity and T - Historic Importance also apply.