Former workhouse

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A 2-storey, 5-bay building in a plain Tudor-Revival style, with a 1-storey, 1-bay extension to one end, originally built as the ‘front block of a workhouse complex but now standing alone. Main entrance faces north-west.

North-west elevation of main block comprises a 3-bay central recess with gabled dormers and a central doorway, flanked by slightly projecting gabled end bays, one window wide to the first floor. Roofs of Bangor blue slates in regular courses; modern flush rooflight to inner pitch of each end bay roof; two chimneys, smooth cement rendered, each with four diagonally set square stacks linked at the top and carrying four tall dark toned original pots. PVC gutters and downpipes, with projecting rafter ends between gables.
Walling is of coursed basalt rubble with painted granite quoins to extremities of end bays, painted granite dressings to openings, to weathering of plinth, to gable copings, and to projecting stringcourse which steps up over central entrance. Central entrance comprises a four-centred chamfered arch with projecting drip mould and shaped label stops, containing a pair of arched panelled timber doors; modern metal handle.
Above it is a small sandstone shield inscribed with the date ‘1842’. Central entrance flanked each side by modern replacement rectangular timber windows, fixed lights with side-hung casement, set in block surround with projecting cill and square drip moulding with shaped stops as previous. First floor windows in end bays are similar, except they also have top lights. First floor windows in central recess are similar to end bays but without drip mouldings, and heads rise above eaves line and are surmounted by small gablets with shaped kneelers. Central gablets and end bay gables each have a narrow arched ventilating lancet in the apex, with block surrounds. The ground floor of the right-hand end bay has a Tudor-arched doorway with chamfered surround, containing a rectangular timber panelled door with modern handle; plain arched fanlight.
Single storey extension to right-hand end is of similar roofing and walling: Tudor arched doorway with drip moulding and label stops containing an arched timber panelled door with modern handle.

North-east elevation: 2-storey, of similar roofing and walling as previous but without stringcourse. PVC rainwater goods. Exposed rafter ends. Two windows to ground floor, small rectangular timber casements set in painted red brick block surrounds; iron security grilles affixed.

Rear elevation is 2-storey, 5-bay, comprised of a 3-bay central recess flanked by deep projecting gabled end bays. Roofs slated as previous, with a central gabled dormer flanked by modern flush rooflights to the central recess, and similar rooflights to the inner pitches of the end bays, one to the left end and two to the right.
Dormer has shaped timber barge boards and contains a 2-light rectangular timber casement window. Walling is as previous to entrance front except no stringcourse or plinth.
Windows are similar to entrance front, set in painted brick block surrounds.
Doorway to left-hand side of central recess: rectangular flush timber with modern metal handle. End bay gables contain one timber mullioned and transomed window to each floor, with an arched lancet in each apex. Inner facing side wall of right-hand wing is blind; corresponding wall to left has a first floor doorway containing a rectangular flush timber door leading onto a metal fire escape stair.
Extending to the rear of the building, projecting from the north wing is a range of single storey outbuildings with lean-to roofs, and a screen wall projecting from the south wing, both of which return back with angled corners to form a wide opening to a partly enclosed rear courtyard. Outer faces of single storey wings are blind, of coursed basalt rubble with a sandstone coping. Inner faces of screen wall and single storey wing are also of basalt rubble, with red brick and painted brick dressings to openings in the latter. Roofs slated as previous.

South-west elevation: 2-storey, of similar roofing and walling to rear elevation; one small flush rooflight. One window to first floor mullioned and transomed as previous in similar granite bock surround as previous but without drip moulding. Two similar windows to ground floor except in painted brick block dressings. Single storey gabled projection to left has similar walling to previous, with similar quoins to extremities, and shaped kneelers; one small window, rectangular timber casement in granite block surrounds. Back wall of projection is blind.

SETTING: The building stands in its own grounds facing the main road but set back from it, surrounded by lawns which contain mature trees and shrubs. Paved pathway across front of building. Front boundary is formed by a low basalt rubble wall with a vehicular entrance at each end. Gateway to left has a pair of low piers without gates; gateway to right has one pier, to left, but currently knocked over, without gates. A tarmac driveway circumscribes the site.
Rear courtyard has modern landscaping treatment of pavings and plantings, with modern metal fencing closing the rear approach opening.
To the rear of the site, beyond modern timber palisading is a modern shopping centre which has replaced the main workhouse buildings of the original complex.

Historical information

Built in 1842-3 as the front block of a workhouse complex erected for the Board of Guardians of the Antrim Union, to the designs of George Wilkinson, architect to the Poor Law Commissioners in Ireland.
Complex begun in 1842; completed on 4 September 1843; complex originally designed for 700 inmates; became a hospital in 1921; most of complex demolished between 1970s and 2003 but former lodge retained as a community services centre, while a later Fever Hospital block has also been retained at the rear of the original complex.
Workhouses were built in Ireland following the Poor Law Act of 1838 which instituted a universal poor law system into Ireland for the first time and allowed for charity to be dispensed only through being housed in a workhouse. Ireland was divided into 130 areas, called ‘Unions’ (arising from the union of various townlands in each area) each union to be controlled by a Board of Guardians responsible for building a workhouse in their area and administering the system of relief. George Wilkinson of Oxford was appointed as the Poor Law Commissioners’ architect for Ireland from 1 February 1839, and was retained until 1855. He produced a standardised plan which essentially varied only in relation to the amount of accommodation to be provided. A simplified form of Tudor style was adopted for almost all the workhouses, probably due to the historical associations of alms-houses and charitable institutions with the Tudor period in England.
In the standard layout the ‘front building’ of which this block at Antrim is an example, acted as an admissions area with a porter’s room, clerk’s office, and boardroom, and incorporated a gatekeeper’s annex. Behind that was the main building, now demolished at Antrim, in the form of a long lateral block, with attached wings, two, three, or four-storey in all, containing accommodation for males and females rigidly segregated, with communal facilities in a central rear return, and an infirmary block across the end of that rear return. In a typical layout the outhouses attached to the rear of the main block of a ‘front building’ would have contained toilets, washing rooms, cells, fumigation room, and vagrants’ wards.

References – Primary Sources
1. Datestone of 1842 over main entrance.
2. OS Map 1857, Co Antrim 50.

Secondary Sources
1. UAHS, Antrim and Ballymena (Belfast, 1969), p 12.
2. A.J. Rowan, The Buildings of Ireland: North West Ulster (Harmondsworth, 1979), p 353, plate 96 (for a comparable example of the building type).
3. M. Craig, The Architecture of Ireland, from earliest times to 1880 (London, 1982), pp 267, 287 (for the building type in general, with isometric view of a typical layout).
4. M. Gould, The Workhouses of Ulster (Belfast, 1983), pp 9, 18.
5. P. & M. Shaffrey, Buildings of Irish Towns (London, 1984), pp 64, 67, 74 (for the building type in general).
6. C. Dallat, Caring by Design: The Architectural Heritage of Health and Social Services in Northern Ireland (Belfast, 1985), pp 22, 25, 26.
7. N. McCullough and V. Mulvin, A Lost Tradition (Dublin, 1987), pp 114-115 (for the building type in general).
8. S. Rothery, A field guide to the buildings of Ireland (Dublin, 1971), pp 156-159 (for the general type and for comparable examples).

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
J. Setting

Criteria for listing: historic interest

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

Evaluation

This is a good example of a typical ‘front building’ of a standard Irish workhouse complex of the early Victorian period designed by George Wilkinson, the architect to the Poor Law Commissioners in Ireland. Although its original setting has been changed, the rest of the original workhouse complex having been demolished leaving this building standing alone and detached from its original physical setting as well as historical context, and its original interior has been substantially altered, it still retains a number of its original exterior features and most of its original exterior character as an early Victorian building in its own right. This workhouse is a physical reminder of the Poor Law enactment in Ireland and has immense social history for the local community.