Former Coleraine Union workhouse 'front building'

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Two storey former workhouse ‘front building’ of 1841 in the typical Tudor almshouse style with basalt rubble façade, gables and painted stone dressings. The building, which was latterly part of Coleraine Hospital, is set to the east side of Mountsandel Road roughly ½ a mile to the south of Coleraine town centre.

The front elevation faces roughly W and is symmetrical, but for a small single storey section to the right hand (S) side. To the centre of the ground floor is a Tudor arch doorway with bevelled painted stone [probably sandstone] architrave. The doorway is filled with a recent timber sheeted door with the fanlight and sidelights now boarded up. To either side of the doorway is a square window with reveal as architrave. There is a continuous label moulding over the doorway and windows, and, just above sill level, is a thick stone band which links the window reveals to the architrave. The band carries on slightly beyond the outer edge of each window.

Just above the doorway is a small painted stone shield with the date ‘1841’ inscribed thereon. Just above this shield is a painted moulded stone stringcourse, which rises above the shield in label moulding fashion. To the first floor are five identical windows, each with in-out painted stone dressings and recent two pane frames. The two outer windows are partly set within large gables, whilst the inner three are partly set within much smaller (half-dormer like) gables.

To far right of the front elevation is a small single storey gabled projection [presumably the gatekeeper’s annex- see historical information below]. To the front gable of this there is a doorway similar to that described above but slightly smaller and with timber sheeted door only. To the S gable is a small centre left window with simple painted stone surround. The opening has been boarded over. To the E face is a plain low flat arch doorway with plain timber sheeted door.

To each floor of the N elevation consists of a two storey section to right and a single storey section to left. To the two storey section there are three windows all of similar size and all with brick dressings and concrete lintels. The first floor windows are arranged symmetrically within the façade with those to the ground floor set further to the right. All of these openings appear to have been inserted in recent years. The single storey section to left is blank.

The S elevation is largely two storey but with a small single storey portion to right. To the left on the ground floor of the two storey section is the small single storey gabled projection described above. To immediate left of this a large window (without dressings) which has been boarded over. To the right of this is a much smaller window with plain painted stone dressings and an original-looking lattice-pane frame with (equally original-looking) wrought iron security bars over. To the right of centre on the first floor is a broad window with recent frame (this window looks like another relatively recent insertion). The single storey section to left is blank (behind this is a small lean-to section- see below). The very right hand (E) edge of the single storey wall has been patched in breeze block.

The rear elevation consists of two outer gabled projecting bays and a larger central recessed portion. Each of the bays has a single storey section projecting from the gable. The bay to left has a full width lean-to to the ground floor with a plain square window it its E face (boarded over) and a similar sized window to the N face (also boarded over) which appears to have been originally a doorway (under the sill is a rendered section stretching to the ground). To the first floor of the gable is a plain sash window. To the N face of the bay there is a boarded over window to the ground floor, which appears to have started out as a (arched) doorway. The outline of the doorway can still be seen above and below the window.

To the ground floor of the central recessed section there are four symmetrically arranged windows to the ground floor, all of which are boarded over. All of these windows, apart from that to far right, appear to be relatively recent insertions (they have concrete lintels and the walling around them is patched in concrete brick). Between the second and third window a doorway has been blocked up (it was undoubtedly blocked up before the windows to either side were inserted). To the first floor there are two windows, a plain sash window to the centre and a boarded over one to the right. The right hand window was latterly used as a fire escape; a small ‘balcony’ extends from it with a ladder to the left side.

A large single storey section extends from the gable of the right hand projecting bay. This section has a mono-pitched roof and is finished in plain render to its S and E faces. To the S face there is a large boarded over window and a plain timber sheeted door. To the E face there are three narrow windows with a small projection to the right of these. This small projection has a partly louvered door to its S face. To the first floor of the gabled bay is a plain sash window. To the S face of the bay there is a boarded up window to the ground floor. This window was probably once a doorway, for above and beneath are areas patched in concrete brick. To the first floor are two narrow, recently inserted, windows with brick dressings.

Apart from those areas already mentioned, the façade of the building is in random basalt rubble. The roof of the main section of the building is gabled and has a slight overhang with plain barges. The roof is covered in asbestos tiles. The gabled roof of the small projection to the S also has an overhang with plain barges and is also covered in asbestos tiles. The lean-to to the left hand bay of the rear elevation has a corrugated asbestos roof, whilst the single storey section to the right hand bay has a corrugated iron roof. PVC rw goods. Chimneystacks have been removed. To the centre of the rear of the roof of the main building there is a small gabled dormer with overhang, plain barges and a four pane window.

To the N, S and W of the building is a large tarmac covered car parking area. To the E, NE and SE are other hospital buildings, most of which are in modern style with flat roofs, dry dash facades and uniform rows of large windows. Some of these buildings look as though they incorporate some of the fabric of the rest of the old workhouse complex (they certainly appear to follow much of its original plan).

Historical information

[The following is based on Michael H. Gould’s ‘The workhouses of Ulster’ published in 1983, however additional passages have been added.]

The Irish Poor Law and workhouses
In the 18th and early 19th century, though many towns and cities possessed various forms of poor house or ‘houses of industry’ designed to cope with vagrants and the local poor, (the Belfast Charitable Institution -established in the 1752 with poor house built in 1774- being one such example), Ireland had no state-run provision for dealing with those unable to support themselves.

This all changed in 1838 when Poor Law Act introduced a county-wide scheme for poor relief. Under the Act the country was divided into 130 ‘Unions’, each generally centred on a market town. Each Union was controlled by a Board of Guardians composed of elected guardians with resident magistrates as ex-officio guardians. The Board was to be responsible for giving relief to any person needing it in a special building to be known as a workhouse. Anyone able was to pay for such relief by labour (hence the term workhouse). In practice it proved difficult to provide sufficient suitable tasks. To undertake this duty the Board was given powers to raise funds, known as poor rates, from every house (including those rented) based on a valuation, known as the Poor Law Valuation.

It took some years for the system to become fully operational and it was only starting when it was overwhelmed by the Great Famine. When it became clear that in-relief could not cope with the demand, the law was altered in 1847 to permit out-relief to certain classes. In special circumstances, for example, during the Famine, the range of classes allowed out-relief could be extended by order of the Poor Law Board.

In 1852, a system of medical relief paid from the poor rates and based on dispensary districts, each with a dispensary staffed by a doctor, was introduced.

After the Famine, the Boards of Guardians were given many responsibilities in the general field of Local Government, culminating in the Public Health (Ireland) Act 1874, which made the Boards Rural Sanitary Authorities. Thereafter, their involvement in non-Poor Law administration rapidly grew. The whole system of Local Government Administration was revised from April 1899. The Boards of Guardians were to revert to their original role. Each County was to be controlled by a new County Council, which became the rating authority. The sanitary functions passed to new Rural District Councils. Since rating was now on a County basis and since the Union boundaries had not followed the County boundaries, those Unions covering more than one County were split into two or more, usually small, Rural Districts.

The workhouse
The Poor Law Commissioners had originally hoped to use the staff of the Board of Public Works to design and build the workhouses. However this proved to be legally impossible. Accordingly, plans were received from three English architects. Those of Mr George Wilkinson of Oxford were considered most suitable and he was appointed as the Commissioners' architect from 1st February 1839. Previously he had built a number of workhouses for English Unions, including Chipping Norton, Thame and Witney. Originally he was appointed for one year (with a salary of £500), but the workload was such that he was not dismissed until 30th September 1855- and only then because of urgent demands by the Treasury that the Commissioners cut their expenditure. Wilkinson then set up a private practice in Dublin.

Wilkinson’s brief from the Poor Law Commissioners stated that: 'The style of building is intended to be of the cheapest description compatible with durability; and effect is aimed at by harmony of proportion and simplicity of arrangement, all mere decoration being studiously excluded.' Wilkinson, however, in favouring the then fashionable Tudor style (intended to evoke notions 15th and 16th century almshouses), ensured that the buildings were not as purely functional as one might have expected.

Within two months of taking up his post, Wilkinson had devised model plans upon which almost all Irish workhouse buildings would be based. The workhouse building designed by Wilkinson consisted of three main parts. In front was a separate building referred to as ‘the front building’. Some distance behind this was the main building of the workhouse, with a spine extension at the back at right angles, which contained the utility rooms. Together these formed ‘the body of the house’. The infirmary building completed the basic H plan of the main part of the workhouse, although it was not possible to pass from the body of the house to the infirmary without going outside. Around the buildings was a complex of exercise yards each surrounded by a high wall.

It is proposed to consider each part of the workhouse in detail. It has been possible to prepare detailed plans for each part of the workhouse and to determine the original function of most of the rooms: the functions of the various rooms often changed in later years.

Front Building
The entrance building was placed some 150 feet in front of the main workhouse and contained
a. the board room on the first floor,
b. the clerk's office and porter's room,
c. probationary and vagrants' wards (on first and ground floors respectively ),
d. outhouses including privies, washing rooms and refractory (punishment) cells. Sometimes there was a fumigation room for clothing, and
e. a small gatekeeper's annex.

Although not detailed in Wilkinson's reports, in several Unions the front building was split into two smaller units.

In 1899 many of the front buildings were taken over by the Rural District Councils as offices, the board room doing duty for both the Council and the Guardians. The use of one of the downstairs rooms for vagrants sometimes continued, the female side-room at Armagh still being known as the ‘tramps' ward’. In other Unions all of the wards in the front building were converted to offices and both new arrivals and vagrants had to be accommodated in the body of the house. At Belfast an extension to the front building was put up for this purpose. At several other places, especially where there were three or four storeys, the vagrants used the rooms in the roof with the dormer windows, previously occupied by the children. It appears that by 1899 the numbers had dropped sufficiently for the lower wards to accommodate the children without subjecting them to the extremes of temperature encountered in the upper wards. This was not usually possible in two-storey buildings.

The ‘Body of the House’
The main body of the house consisted of a central portion of two storeys (small size), three storeys (medium size) or four storeys (large size) and was completed by end wings three storeys high, set at right angles to the central portion to facilitate extension. Running back from the centre was a utility block of single-storey construction. Since the buildings were symmetrical about the centre line it is only necessary to describe one side, the other being identical. The left side was for females and the right for males.

Dealing first with the smallest size of building, the room beside the central entrance door was the matron's or master's sitting room which also served as an office. Their respective stores were behind. The rest of the central portion was one large room - the children's school room - with a small room and a stair well. The small room was a work-shop on the boys' side, while on the female side it was apparently intended as a nursery. The wings on the ground floor contained a day room and dormitory for the old infirm. On the first floor the matron's or master's bedroom was above the corresponding sitting room. The children's dormitory was above the school room and was open to the slates. In the wings were adult dormitories -two each side on both first and second floors. The stair wells on the first floor were used by the school master and mistress. Built without fireplaces, Wilkinson later accepted that any proposal to install fires in these officers' rooms would be accommodated.

Turning to the largest size of building, the layout is very similar. However, the central portion now has corridors. On the ground floor these were stone-built, but on the upper floors they were formed of wooden planks set horizontally and painted white. The ground floor had dayrooms, including work rooms, and a nursery, this last being the room nearest the infirm females' dayroom. Apparently Wilkinson's intention was that the infirm women would look after the babies while their mothers undertook their daily work quota. The first floor was here the children's school room and the upper floors the children's sleeping rooms. In the three-storey buildings the sleeping room was in the roof with dormer windows, and was open plan. In the four-storey buildings one floor was likewise in the roof.

The wings of the larger buildings were used in the same way as those on the smaller ones, but with additional dormitories for adult paupers. In most of the larger buildings, one of the wings' rooms was also divided, with the staircase being actually in the centre of the wing: there was, as before, a second staircase between the offices and the dayrooms. At Armagh, one of the largest workhouses built in Ulster, there is yet another staircase connecting the master's office with his bedroom and apparently for the matron's and his personal use.

In all buildings the utility block consisted of a dining hall -which was also used as a dayroom -serving area, kitchen and laundry.

The laundry had a separate drying room and a room marked on the standard plan as ‘wash room’. Apparently this was intended as a wash-house workroom. At Londonderry, and possibly elsewhere, by putting a floor in this room separate upstairs accommodation was provided for use as an ironing room. The kitchen had a separate room for vegetable preparation and a corn grinding (or mill) room - apparently referred to together by Wilkinson as the kitchen offices. The dining room was often segregated by a divider: this was a wooden or stone partition, or, in some larger buildings, a passageway. At the end of the dining room, preventing direct access to the infirmary was a room each for the nurse and doctor.

The infirmary was built against the dining room but without access from it. The food was apparently brought to the infirmary from the main kitchen and had to be carried outside. The infirmary was only intended to cater for the normal sick of the house and contained two wards, one each for males and females. Beyond these wards were cells for lunatic inmates with a keeper's room and dayroom, all with an entrance onto the yards. There was also a straw store and an open shed for the paupers to shelter under from the rain while on exercise. These usually disappeared when the infirmary was extended.

The infirmaries were soon found to be too small and nearly all have been extended, making it difficult to construct an accurate original plan.

Fever Wards
The fever wards (usually called fever hospitals) show more variability than the basic workhouses. Three standard designs were prepared by Wilkinson but only a few were built to conform exactly to any of these. The usual modification was to construct a utility extension, for kitchen and so on to the back. The original staircase was difficult and steep. Many of these wards had separate out-houses and mortuary.

It appears that the wards could be used with males to the right and females to the left as in the workhouse, or they could be segregated by floor. However, with the smaller wards segregation was clearly by floor, as there was only one large room per floor.
Another design, possibly used when space was restricted, was of H plan. The fever block at Lurgan (now demolished) had an H plan (later used for smallpox cases). The H plan here is apparently two standard wards built back to back. Belfast had a similar arrangement. Downpatrick had a further variant with the main entrance on a lower ground floor at one end, the site being steeply sloped, rather than in the centre. Gortin fever ward consisted of several small rooms and has since been used for domestic accommodation.

The 'Second Generation' workhouse
The workhouses built in the early 1850s were of a different layout, being, in many respects, an 'inside out' version of the earlier plan. It seems probable that Wilkinson decided that his earlier design provid-ed insufficient space for children. Bawnboy workhouse has been derelict for some years. From the stenciled names still visible on many doors, assisted by a County Council plan, the following description has been prepared.
The front building has been replaced by two blocks, one on each side of the entrance. The left-hand block contained the female probationary ward, the school girls' dormitory, nursery quarters and school room, the board room, and clerk's office. The right-hand block had the male probationary ward and school boys' quarters and, apparently, a house for the master. There is, however, no room for the school master. The dormitory above the male probationary ward may have been an itinerants' ward.
The body of the house now has the dining hall located to the front. At Bawnboy the dining hall was used for many years after closure as a Roman Catholic chapel by the local community and consequently it is now difficult to be sure of the original layout. This usage may stem from the holding of religious services in the dining hall in poor law days; since there are
references to similar continued usage elsewhere, after the main building had been closed. There were some small rooms on the first floor, and on the ground floor between the entrance and the dining hall, and it is possible that these were stores and the matron's quarters. The kitchens were also to the front.
To each side of and abutting onto the back of the dining hall were the adult paupers' quarters. It is not clear why the two sides were of different layout. Part of the male side at Bawnboy was used for technical instruction after the workhouse closed, and it is again possible that this was a continuation of a tradition established under the poor law.
There are no obvious quarters in this style of workhouse for the infirm adult inmates.
The infirmary was now physically separated from the body of the workhouse but was of similar layout to the older design. It is probable that the outer wards, with a separate entrance at the back, were used for fever cases.

The Poor Law after 1899
The reform of Local Government in 1898 contained provision whereby the Union Infirmary could be converted to a rate-aided District Hospital which would then be available to rich and poor alike. In practice there were difficulties until the first World War, when powers were given to the Boards allowing them to send their poor to another Union. These powers were intended to provide barrack space in the vacated workhouses, but a direct result was a growth in the number of District Hospitals.
In Northern Ireland the workhouse system continued until 1948, when it was replaced by the present health and welfare provisions. Most of the smaller workhouses had been converted to District Hospitals by 1948.
In Eire, a revised system, originally proposed by a Commission which sat in 1906, was soon introduced. Only one workhouse, to be known as a County Home, was retained for the old, chronic sick and unmarried mothers. Certain of the other workhouses, or parts of them, were retained as hospitals. The remainder ceased to be used.

Coleraine workhouse
Coleraine workhouse was built in 1841 and opened in April of the following year. It was designed to cater for 700 inmates and followed the widely adopted Tudor style and general workhouse plan described above, with the front building (to west side fronting on to the road), the ‘body of the house’ some distance behind, the infirmary beyond this and the free standing fever hospital to the south.

In common with most other workhouses, Coleraine assumed the functions of a district hospital in the early 1900s, later becoming ‘Coleraine Hospital’. In the process, and, again, like many other former workhouses, most of the component buildings were adapted and extended (or demolished), especially in the latter half of the 20th century. The old fever hospital, for instance, became a nurses home, whilst the rest of the buildings were either modernised beyond recognition or cleared away completely. The ‘front building’ is the only part of the complex which has survived in largely original form.

Coleraine Hospital was gradually wound down in the 1990s and finally closed in 2001. It was replaced by the Causeway Trust Hospital complex (on the southern side of the town).

A better preserved example of the type can be seen in Limavady see HB02/15/006.

References- Primary sources
1 PRONI OS/6/5/3/2 OS map, 6in County series, Co Londonderry sh 3, 1849-50
2 PRONI VAL/2D/5/15 Valuation plan of Coleraine, 1859
3 PRONI OS/8/6/1/1-20 OS map of Coleraine, 1882
4 PRONI VAL/12E/156/1/1-16 Valuation plan of Coleraine, 1882-1901
5 PRONI OS/8/6/2/1-6 OS map of Coleraine, 1904
6 PRONI VAL/12E/156/2/1-6 Valuation plan of Coleraine, 1907-35
7 PRONI VAL/12E/156/3/1-16 Valuation plan of Coleraine, 1919
8 PRONI VAL/12E/156/4/1-4 Valuation plan of Coleraine, 1919
9 PRONI OS/6/5/3/4 OS map, 6in County series, Co Londonderry sh 3, 1923
10 PRONI OS/6/5/3/5 OS map, 6in County series, Co Londonderry sh 3, 1949

Secondary sources
1 Michael H. Gould, ‘The workhouses of Ulster’ (Belfast, 1983)
2 John O'Connor, ‘The Workhouses of Ireland’ (Anvil Books, 1995)

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

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

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Y. Social, Cultural or Economic Importance
X. Local Interest
Y. Social, Cultural or Economic Importance
V. Authorship

Evaluation

Two storey former workhouse ‘front building’ of 1841 in the typical Tudor almshouse style with basalt rubble façade, gables and painted stone dressings. Though some new windows have been inserted and others -to the rear- blocked up, and the chimneystacks removed, this is the only component of the former Coleraine Union workhouse to have survived largely intact.