Former RUC Station

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A symmetrical detached two-storey four-bay rendered former police station, built c.1940 to standard design by T.F.O Rippingham and located to the north side of Castle Street east of Gilford centre. Rectangular plan with single-storey box extension to north.

Hipped natural slate roof having rounded black ridge tiles and rendered chimneystacks. Cast-iron ogee rainwater goods on projecting eaves with cast-iron downpipes and hoppers. Walling is painted roughcast render with continuous moulded sill course to a diminished first floor and chamfered plinth course. Windows are mainly 6/6 timber sliding sash, those to ground floor having projecting stone sills.

The principal elevation faces south and is symmetrically arranged with three windows to centre at first floor. Shallow breakfront to centre at ground floor comprising three shallow recessed arches containing replacement square headed doors to left and right and a window to centre. The three arches are connected by a platband at impost level. To far left is a replacement timber casement window. To far right is a 6/6 window.

The west elevation has a window to first floor right and a uPVC window to ground floor right with smooth rendered arched window head.

The north (rear) elevation is five windows wide to first floor. Irregular fenestration at ground floor comprising two diminutive windows and two 6/6 windows. To left of centre is a timber door with narrow sidelights and transom light; abutted at left by the box bay extension.

The east elevation has two windows to ground floor and a window to first floor left.

Setting

Bounded to road at south by a painted roughcast render wall with coping stone surmounted by corrugated steel and wire security fence. Vehicular access to centre; pedestrian gate to left of centre via steel gates. Tarmacadam front yard and overgrown garden to rear with a large timber shed. To northeast is a detached garage. The site is bounded to north by a corrugated steel and wire fence.

Roof: Natural slate
Walling: Render
Windows: Timber
RWG: Cast iron

Historical information

The police station was completed in 1940 as part of a planned programme to a standard design by T F O Rippingham, architect to the Ministry of Finance from 1922 to 1956/7. (www.dia.ie)

The ‘RUC Sta[tion]’ is first shown, captioned on the OS map edition dating from the 1960s/70s. The ‘police barrack, office and garden’ was entered into valuation records in 1940 as the property of the Ministry of Home Affairs for Northern Ireland on a previously empty plot and is valued at £60. Valuer’s notes of the period indicate that the building was new in October 1940 and had been built ‘to the usual standard design’. On the ground floor were a guard room, cleaning room, cell, store, kitchen and pantry and on the first floor, a sergeant’s office, a cubicle, a dormitory and a bathroom. The sergeant lived in accommodation on the first floor which comprised a reception room, kitchen, scullery, three bedrooms, a bathroom and WC. A plan and dimensions of the building are given which show corrugated iron outbuildings to the rear which have survived.

A significant increase in the building of police stations occurred in the decade after partition, ‘a time of Unionist consolidation and of suspicion and fear of Republican insurgency’. Rippingham provided a single basic design that was intended to be secure and defensible but was ‘in keeping with Ulster’s previous quiet architectural styles’ in its neo-Georgian character. (Irish Times)

The Royal Irish Constabulary was formed in 1867 and the early constabulary barracks, established countrywide, were initially housed in existing buildings. Early barracks provided simple living accommodation, a small office and a cell. It was not until after partition that purpose-built RUC barracks began to be constructed across the province that incorporated married quarters for the sergeant in charge. (Shaffrey) Rippingham’s design had its own distinct identity but incorporated elements from earlier buildings. The hipped roofs and chimneys recall early 18th century styles, while the arched recesses to the front facade are borrowed from the Regency or Late Georgian era. (Dixon) Rippingham’s design could be adapted to suit the size of building needed and varied from three to eight or nine windows in width. The design was widely admired as it was thought to blend with older buildings within a townscape or suggest something of the air of a Georgian farmhouse in more rural areas and some former police stations have since been adapted as dwelling houses. (Dixon; Irish Times)

The next major programme of building for the RUC began in the early 1980s and was governed primarily by considerations of defensibility and bomb-proofing, aesthetics no longer playing a significant part in the design. (Irish Times)

Gilford police station provided policing services to the town and rural area of Gilford for more than 60 years but in June 2006 a recommendation was made for its closure (Banbridge Leader) and the building now lies vacant.

Primary Sources
1. PRONI VAL/3/C/4/2 – First General Revaluation (1936-57)
2. PRONI VAL/3/D/4/3/J/1 – First General Revaluation (1933-57)
3. Banbridge Leader 15th June 2006

Secondary Sources
1. Dixon, H “An Introduction to Ulster Architecture” Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 2008
2. Irish Times 13th October 1983
3. Shaffrey, P and M “Buildings of Irish Towns – Treasures of Everyday Architecture” Dublin: O’Brien, 1983

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

A symmetrical detached two-storey multi-bay rendered former police station, built c.1940. A typical T.F.O Rippingham example of an RUC station as built from the 1920s. Architectural detailing reflects the neo-Georgian style favoured for many public buildings of this era with recessed arches and a diminished first floor. Much of the original fenestration and detailing is intact as well as the functional interior with sub-divided accommodation. Of social importance and historic interest, retaining much of its original character, this is one of a decreasing number of former police barracks that have survived relatively unaltered. However, permission has been granted for its replacement.