Former Workhouse

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A symmetrical two storey three-bay former workhouse administration building, dated 1841, located on the north side of Strangford Road, north of Downpatrick. Rectangular plan with gabled breakfronts to either end, each having a responding rear return; left return is further extended by a slightly lower extension. Abutted at west by a large modern extension, formerly Down District Council offices.

Pitched natural slate roof with angled ridge tiles and replacement brown brick chimneystacks. Cast iron rainwater goods over exposed rafter tails, with profiled bargeboards to gables at front and rear. Walling is lime rendered to principal elevation; roughcast to ground floor, ruled and lined to first floor over painted masonry string course. Feather edged granite quoins. Random schist rubble to rear, generally bedded in lime mortar. Principal elevation windows generally timber sash (1/1 to first floor, 2/2 to ground floor breakfronts; label moulded timber casements flanking entrance) fully chamfered Mourne granite surrounds to most. Some original diamond lattice casement lights to rear, including attic dormer; otherwise replacement casement windows in brick dressings.

Principal elevation faces south and is symmetrically arranged about a central segmental entrance having modern glazed doors; granite surround with hood mould. A string course steps up above the door, which is surmounted by a datestone ‘1841’. Gablets over three first floor windows, breakfronts have a window to each floor. At extreme right is a timber door set in a three-centred arched ashlar granite surround contained in a rubble stone screen wall leading to a small enclosed yard. Steps to both entrances are generally granite, with some modern replacements.

West elevation is partially abutted by the modern office block; rear portion is painted rubble stone without openings.

Rear elevation comprises recessed central section with modern rear door, terminated by returns and extension (extension appears to have been originally single storey, subsequently raised, and has enlarged window opening to inner cheek). Right side obscured to ground floor by Portacabin extensions. Central dormer, and original lattice windows set to right side. Further flat-roofed ground floor addition to re-entrant angle with left return, cement rendered to rear.

East elevation has a large multi-paned timber window to first floor left (extension lit by a replacement casement) and a large 20thC timber transomed and mullioned window to ground floor. To its right is a small narrow lattice window with two original bars fitted into the opening (lighting the cell). Assorted abutments to ground floor.

Setting:
The building is set back from the Strangfoard Road, in an area now characterised by varied late 20thC residential developments. It has a bitmac forecourt with Council garage extension to east, and large office extensions to west (c.1970). To rear is the Council vehicle depot.

Roof: Slate
Walling: Render and rubble stone
Windows: Original timber sash and casement with some lattice lights to rear
RWG: Cast iron

Historical information

The two-storey building on the Strangford Road, until recently utilised as the Down District Council Offices, was originally constructed in 1841-42 as the local workhouse for the Downpatrick Poor Law Union. Poor relief was first introduced to Ireland in 1838 with the passing of the Irish Poor Law; the country was subsequently divided into 130 Poor Law Unions, each of which contained a single workhouse which provided relief to the poor and destitute of its assigned region. Each workhouse was constructed to a standard design by George Wilkinson (1814-1890) who was appointed chief architect by the Poor Law Commissioners from 1st February 1839; Wilkinson was an Oxford-based architect who had previously constructed a number of workhouses in England under the English Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834. George Wilkinson continued to work for the Poor Law Commission until 1855 and was responsible for the standard workhouse design which consisted of three elements: the Front Building, the Main Building (or body of the house), and the Infirmary Building and Fever Hospital.

The Front Building (or entrance block) was located 150 feet away from the Main Building and was utilised for mainly administrative purposes. The building contained the board room, the clerk’s offices and porter’s room, probationary and vagrants’ wards, space for the maintenance of hygiene including washrooms and outhouses, and a room for the gatekeeper of the building.

The Main Building consisted of the main living quarters for those seeking poor relief; under the Irish Poor Law relief was initially only provided to those who admitted themselves into the workhouse as inmates, the provision of outdoor relief was explicitly forbidden. The form of relief that was provided was intended to discourage dependence on the state; workers were encouraged to seek an independent labourer’s lifestyle over reliance on the workhouses. This was achieved by the incorporation of a near-penitentiary form of administration and accommodation whereby the poor entering the workhouse were required to adhere to strict regimentation and segregation. Men and women, and boys and girls, were each segregated into their respective wards and recreation yards; further a punitive lifestyle was imposed as the poor were required to carry out enforced labour and were provided with a monotonous diet (which in the years before the Great Famine relied heavily on the potato – mirroring the dietary climate outside the workhouse). The Main Building also consisted of the dining hall, the main kitchen and laundry rooms, schoolrooms for the children (again segregated into male and female classrooms) and the workhouse officers’ quarters.

The final element of the workhouse was the Infirmary Building, which was located to the rear of the Main Building, and consisted of two wards (male and female); the building also possessed rooms or cells for paupers who were considered to be ‘lunatics.’ From 1843 the Poor Law Guardians in each union were granted the authority to treat victims of fever, who were needy but were not necessarily poor enough to require the same level of relief; prior to 1843, those suffering from fever in the Poor Law Unions were turned away from the workhouse unless they were deemed to be suitably destitute. The construction of Fever Hospitals at most workhouses occurred after 1843 and, again, were constructed to a standard design by Wilkinson; as with the main body of the workhouse patients were segregated by gender in the Fever Hospital.

Downpatrick Union Workhouse was constructed to George Wilkinson’s standard design; however the majority of the original workhouse, including the Main Building, as well as the Infirmary Building and Fever Hospital, has been demolished leaving the Front Building (the main entrance and administrative block) as the sole surviving remnant. Downpatrick Poor Law Union was established in 1840 and covered an area of over 200 square miles; census records note that the population of the area contained by Downpatrick Union stood at 80,642 in 1831. The workhouse was constructed between 1841 and 1842 and cost approximately £7,500 with an additional £2,123 expended on fittings etc. The builder contracted to carry out Wilkinson’s design was John Lynn (d. 1864); an architect and builder based in Sligo, Belfast and Downpatrick, Lynn shifted his focus to Co. Down from the 1820s and was responsible for the design and construction of Downpatrick Gaol during 1821-32. Retiring in the early-1840s the construction of Downpatrick Union Workhouse was one of John Lynn’s final contracts.

The workhouse was completed on 22nd August 1842 and received its first admissions in September of that year; Wilkinson designed the building to accommodate 1000 people. With the 1843 provision of relief to those suffering from fever, plans for the construction of a fever hospital at the site were prepared; the hospital was constructed in c. 1847 (the year the plans were drawn up), however Gould suggests that George Wilkinson was not the architect of this particular design. Gould states that although the fever hospitals were constructed to a standard design, the example at Downpatrick workhouse was non-standard; for example the main entrance of the hospital was located at a lower level than others in the province, however he admits that this may have been due to the steeply sloped ground upon which it had been built (Dictionary of Irish Architects; Gould, p. 23).

Only three years after opening its doors to the poor and destitute, Downpatrick Union Workhouse was put under intense pressure due to the coming of the potato blight in 1845 heralding the beginning of the Great Irish Famine (1845-1852). The failure of the potato crop hit the Irish poor extremely hard due to the overdependence upon a potato-based diet in rural areas; as a result thousands of cottiers throughout the island flocked to the workhouses seeking relief and food. Although the worst effects of the famine were felt in the rural west of Ireland, Ulster was not untouched by the blight; between 1846 and 1851 the average annual rates of excess mortality in Co. Mayo (the worst affected county) was 58.4 per 1000 people whilst in Co. Antrim the rate was 15 per 1000 and 6.7 per 100 in Co. Down (Donnelly). The famine had a direct impact upon one aspect of the running of the workhouses; after 1845 the mundane diet given to those seeking relief (which heavily relied upon the potato) was replaced with a diet that consisted of rice, soup, bread, oatmeal and corn (Poirteir). The Down Recorder notes that during the Famine a deadly outbreak of fever occurred in the Downpatrick area; in 1847 the Fever Hospital held double the number of patients that the building was designed to accommodate: ‘the store room [was] emptied of its contents and converted into a ward but a great number of patients [had] to lie upon the floor, in the space between the beds and what is still worse, in many cases, two patients in one bed.’ In March 1847 the situation was so bleak that the matron of the Hospital, a Miss McCreedy, died from the effects of fever (Down Recorder). The effects of the famine on the workhouse and the surrounding area can be seen in the stark decrease in Co. Down’s population; between 1841 and 1851 the census recorded a decrease of 44,000, chiefly due to death and emigration.

Downpatrick Union Workhouse was first depicted on the second edition of the Ordnance Survey maps in 1859. The map shows that the workhouse closely followed the standard Wilkinson layout, while the Fever Hospital was located to the northwest of the site; the workhouse graveyard was located to the west of the workhouse and it was here that many of local victims of the famine were buried. The contemporary Griffiths Valuation of Ireland records that the Downpatrick Union Workhouse, including its offices and Fever Hospital, was valued at £400 in 1861; there was no further alteration to the value of the workhouse between 1861 and the cancellation of the Annual Revisions in 1929. Further, there was no discernible alteration to the layout of the site on the later editions of the Ordnance Survey maps (1900-1921) which record that Wilkinson’s standard design remained unchanged into the early-20th century.
The population of Downpatrick Poor Law Union had fallen to 38,869 by 1901; the census of that year describes the workhouse as a 1st class building that consisted of 111 rooms and accommodated 203 staff and inmates. The 1901 census records that the workhouse staff included the Master, William M. Stevenson, the Matron, Jessie McCartney, four nurses and a schoolmistress. Downpatrick Union Workhouse continued to be utilised for the provision of poor relief into the mid-20th century despite the closure of most workhouses in the Irish Free State following partition in 1922.

The First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1935) records that the workhouse was administered by the Downpatrick Board of Guardians and had been increased in value to £530 by the 1930s, however the Downpatrick Union Workhouse was eventually closed in August 1948 over a century after it was constructed. There was no further valuation of the site carried out until the 1950s due to the disruption caused by the Second World War, however in the 1950s the former workhouse entrance block had been acquired by Down District Council who modernised the interior and utilised it as offices and storage space. Under the Second General Revaluation (1956-72) the entrance block was individually valued at £64; however with the construction of the modern council offices alongside it, the value of the site was raised to £480 in 1965.

Downpatrick Union Workhouse was visited under the First Survey (1977); however it was not listed at that time. The main body of the workhouse had been demolished by the Second Revaluation when it had been replaced by a factory depot. The Fever Hospital, on the other hand, was converted into a medical centre known locally as the Quoile Hospital; this was valued at £688 under the Second Revaluation but was demolished in the late-20th century. The two-storey Entrance Block is the last surviving remnant of the Downpatrick Union Workhouse; the workhouse is an immensely important building in the social and economic history of the area and is an example of workhouse building in Co. Down (originally there were five workhouses in the county including Downpatrick, Banbridge, Newry, Kilkeel and Newtownards).

References
Primary Sources

1. Census of Ireland (1831-1851)
2. Down Recorder (Feb 1847)
3. PRONI OS/6/3/37/1 – First Edition Ordnance Survey Map 1834
4. PRONI OS/6/3/37/2 – Second Edition Ordnance Survey Map 1859
5. PRONI OS/6/3/37/3 – Third Edition Ordnance Survey Map 1901
6. PRONI OS/6/3/37/4 – Fourth Edition Ordnance Survey Map 1920-21
7. PRONI VAL/2/B/3/78A – Griffiths Valuation 1861
8. PRONI VAL/12/B/18/7A-H – Annual Revisions 1864-1894
9. PRONI VAL/12/B/18/8A-C- Annual Revisions 1895-1929
10. PRONI LA/30/8/J/A/1 – Downpatrick Workhouse plan 1881
11. PRONI VAL/3/B/4/6 – First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland 1935
12. PRONI VAL/4/B/3/37 – Second General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland 1956-72
13. Ulster Town Directories (1843-1918)
14. Census of Ireland (1901 / 1911)
15. First Survey Record – HB18/18/027 (1977)
16. Down Recorder (July 2013)
17. Listing Query Files – HB18/LQ120

Secondary Sources

1. Donnelly, J. S., ‘The Great Irish Potato Famine’ Gloucestershire: The History Press, 2008.
2. Gould, M. H., The Workhouses of Ulster (Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1983)
3. Poirteir, C., ‘The Great Irish Famine’ Pennsylvania: Dufour Editions, 1997.
4. O'Connor, J., The Workhouses of Ireland (Conwy: Anvil Books, 1995)

Online Resources

1. Dictionary of Irish Architects - http://www.dia.ie
2. The Workhouse website - http://www.workhouses.org.uk/Downpatrick/

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

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

Criteria for listing: historic interest

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

Evaluation

The former administration block of the Downpatrick Workhouse is all that now remains of the former site, which included a main block and fever hospital, now demolished. It was built 1841 to a standard workhouse design evolved by George Wilkinson, and is of two storeys, characterised by neo-Tudor detailing to the façade, with traditional construction to rear. The well proportioned exterior retains original aspect, including some original iron windows, and internally, although the building has suffered some loss of character due to conversion to office use, there are some interesting aspects relating to its former use, including the original cell. Although the setting has been compromised, the building is of local and historic interest as the former Downpatrick workhouse, and is also of wider social and historic interest in the context of the history of ninteenth century Ireland

General comments

Listng Criteria R - Age; S - Authenticity and T - Historic Importance also apply to this building.