Warden's House

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Two-storey hipped roof Neo-Georgian house of 1936, built as the Commandant’s residence for Enniskillen R.U.C. Depot, probably to designs by Thomas Francis O Rippingham.

Setting
The building is located adjacent to the western boundary of the Strand Road PSNI complex, close to Enniskillen town centre. It is set close to the lough shore, within a small garden with an open lawn to the front eastern side and a more private garden area to the western side. The site is surrounded by mature trees.

The building rests on a level site, is two-storey and has a rectangular plan form. Set to the north eastern corner is a detached flat-roofed garage; a screen yard wall attaches the front (south) garage wall to the northeastern corner of the house. The enclosed ‘back yard’ is set to the north side. The driveway widens in front of the house creating a fore court / parking area.

To the eastern side of the site are a number of, well preserved, late 18th and 19th century buildings originally belonging to the infantry barracks, established in 1790.

East
The front eastern façade is symmetrical. To the centre is a shallow breakfront with an elliptical-headed door opening. Paired storm doors are surmounted by a decorative fanlight with ‘petal’ tracery and these are flanked by engaged Doric pilasters; in turn these support ‘entablature’ capitals which are surmounted by the broken-bed pediment. Either side of the door opening are small oculi. Either side of the breakfront are two ground floor window openings. At first floor there are five evenly spaced window openings. The three middle windows rest on the breakfront; the central opening is somewhat narrower than the others.

South
The southern façade is symmetrical with two window openings to each floor.

West
The western façade is symmetrical with paired French windows to the centre; surmounting these is a projecting ‘Pagoda’-style, copper-clad canopy. At either side is a window opening. At first floor there are three evenly spaced window openings; that to the centre is wider. Attached to the left side is a timber fence.

North
The north façade is informally arranged with differing sized window openings. To the right of centre is the rear door opening which is surmounted by an over-light. To the right are two windows with a further window to the left. At first floor there are three windows. This façade faces the ‘back yard’; the yard is enclosed by the west face of the garage, the north face of the house and a curving timber fence to the north and west.

Materials
The main roof is hipped and covered with black fibre cement slates with matching ridge tiles. At either side, rising out of the hips, are two matching rendered chimneystacks; these have corbelled caps and squat, matching, clay chimney pots. Rainwater goods are formed in aluminium with round downspouts and ogee profile gutters.

There are two oculi windows; the remainder of openings are flat-headed; proportions display Georgian reduction between ground and first floors. Window reveals are plain and sills are cut-stone. Replacement frames are in uPVC with faux astragals (set within double glazed units). French windows are also in uPVC.

Doors include paired timber panelled to the front entrance and timber sheeted to the back entrance.

Walls are finished in plain render and rest on a shallow stone plinth.

Garage
The garage is flat-roofed and rectangular in plan. On the west side there are two small external stores. The replacement up and over door on the south side opens onto the fore court. The front south wall extends west to connect to the NE corner of the house. Set in the middle of the wall is a semi-circular headed door that gives access to the back yard. On the left side of the north wall is a flat-headed window opening.

The flat roof is set behind a low parapet with stone copings. Walls are finished with smooth render to match the house.

Historical information

This house was built as the Commandant’s residence for the new R.U.C. depot at Strand Street, Enniskillen, which was officially opened in 1936 as the force’s main training establishment. It was probably designed by Thomas Francis O. Rippingham (c.1896-1964), as the plans for it are inscribed by the ‘D[eputy] Chief Architect’ of the Ministry of Finance, a post he held under the then Chief Architect, Roland Ingleby Smith (1882-1942). Rippingham appears to have been responsible for the majority of the Neo-Georgian Style police buildings built in Northern Ireland during the 1920s-30s, most of them a variation on the theme displayed in this particular dwelling, although as a house for a high-ranking officer this design contains several finer elements of domestic detailing not seen on ‘public’ police premises, namely the classical doorcase and ‘petal’ fanlight. An early plan of the house -drawn up sometime prior to mid-August 1934- shows that it was originally intended to include an attic level with two bedrooms, but this altered with a revised plan of later that year appearing to show the layout as built.

The building is located within a large enclosed area that was originally an infantry barracks, built in 1790, with many of he original barracks structures gathered in the eastern half of the plot [HB12.17.038]. The site (or at least part of it) was purchased by the Northern Ireland Government in 1927 and the scheme for its conversion to police use was approved in May 1933. Work appears to have commenced in late 1934, with Henry Laverty & Sons the main contractor, and the new facilities were officially opened in 1936 by the Prime Minister of Northern Ireland, James Craig. By 1946 the force were in possession of the whole site, which was visited in that year by Princess Elizabeth.

The R.U.C. training centre closed in 1986 (in the wake of a terrorist mortar attack) and moved to Garnerville in East Belfast. It is probable that the house was vacated at this point, but this is not certain. Post-1986 the complex reverted to the role of a local police station, passing to the newly-formed PSNI in 2001-02. At some point during this period the house was converted to police office space.

This particular part of the site, to the western edge close to the lough shore, was previously occupied by a powder magazine belonging to the barracks, constructed in 1816 to a design by John Berrell of Dublin.

References- Primary sources
1 OSNI OS6-4-22-1 (1834)
2 OSNI OS6-4-22-2 (1857)
3 OSNI OS8-35-2A (1893)
4 OSNI OS9-18-3-1 (1893-94)
5 OSNI OS9-18-4 (1895)
6 OSNI OS10-4-22-9-1 (1905)
7 PRONI CAB/4/198 (1927)
8 PRONI MIC686/14 (1931)
9 PRONI CAB/4/311 (1933)
10 NIEA FIN/19/13/36-43 (1934)
11 PRONI FIN/46/20 (1934)
12 OSNI OS10-4-22-9 (1936)
13 Pathe News (1946) [see http://www.britishpathe.com/video/princess-elizabeth-in-northern-ireland-1/query/Northern+Ireland accessed 2012.02.18]
14 OSNI OS13-24-11NE-1 (1969)

Secondary sources
1 Irish Architectural Archive

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

Simple Neo-Georgian dwelling built for the Commandant of the new R.U.C. depot at Strand Street, Enniskillen, which was officially opened in 1936 as the force’s main training establishment. Probably designed by Thomas Francis O. Rippingham, it is well proportioned and has some interesting details such as the classical doorcase with ‘petal’ fanlight. Unfortunately is has been altered during the twentieth century and the replacement of the original windows with uPVC type and further alterations to the interior have reduced its architectural interest. It shares a site with the older former military barracks which are listed - HB12.17.038A.