Medical Wing

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Detached two-storey redbrick military barracks health centre, built c.1900. Irregular on plan facing south with a west and east wing on a north-south axis connected by a central block. Set on a slightly elevated site to the south of Jackson's Road within Palace Barracks complex.

Hipped natural slate roofs (re-roofed c.2000) with concrete ridge tiles, plastic sheeted overhanging eaves and fascia and plastic rainwater goods. Redbrick walling laid in stretcher bond with moulded terracotta string courses and projecting brick plinth course. Segmental-headed window openings with concrete sills and uPVC windows.

The east wing has a canted front elevation and projects south, beyond the remainder of the structure with a pair of two-storey towers set at an angle. The towers are connected to the the projecting wing by short corridor to each level and have pyramidal roofs. Slender round-headed windows to the tower have red sandstone sills and oculi above the ground floor opes with original timber-frame swivel windows while the upper floor windows have diminutive square openings above.

The cental block has a pair of full-height three-sided canted bays to either end and a central door opening with replacement timber panelled door and original multi-pane overlight.

The west wing projects beyond the front elevation of the central block and is four windows wide with camber-headed window openings and is thirteen windows deep to the west side elevation. To the north end is a single-bay two-storey projection with slender round-headed window openings.

Setting

Set on an elevated site to the south of Jackson's Road within Palace Barracks, Holywood.

Roof Replacement natural slate
RWG Plastic
Walling Redbrick
Windows uPVC

Historical information

The barracks was constructed between 1894 and 1898 by various contractors, (Belfast Newsletter; First Survey Information) and is likely to have been designed by the War Office Architects department, based in London.

The current building is first shown on the third edition OS map (1900-02) and dates from 1898. The contractor was Campbell of Belfast and the cost £9,888 (First Survey Information) In 1901 the hospital was described in House of Commons Sessional Papers as ‘extremely well-built and favourably situated. A hot water apparatus exists at the hospital for heating the corridors, as also a boiler for supplying hot water for baths. The allowance of coal, however, is found to be hardly sufficient for these purposes and great economy has to be exercised.’ (House of Commons Sessional Papers; Belfast Newsletter)

From the mid-1880s the British Army established the Kinnegar camp at Holywood as a training ground for regiments stationed in Belfast. The camp could accommodate more than 400 personnel under canvas. (Auld, p.129-30)

The Bishop’s Palace in Holywood, formerly the official residence of the Bishop of Down and Connor and Dromore, fell vacant on the succession of Bishop William Reeves in 1886, who had a residence in Dunmurry. (Clergy of Down and Dromore, Part II, p.23; Brett, p.143) Attempts were made to sell the Palace and grounds but these proved fruitless until in 1890 an offer of £1,000 from the War Office was accepted. (Belfast Newsletter)

By 1891 the palace and grounds were being used for training by the Royal Irish Rifles and the site is recorded as a military barracks in valuation records of that year. (Annual Revisions) In 1893 work began on officers’ quarters and in 1894 the construction of barracks. By September 1896 the barracks were nearing completion and four blocks which comprised accommodation for the men were already finished. The Belfast Newsletter described the scheme, which was pioneering in its day, “In all there will be nine blocks, constructed to quarter one regiment of infantry. Each block will afford accommodation for 84 men and two unmarried sergeants. A recreation establishment of the newest type is in course of construction which will contain lecture-room, coffee-room, billiard-room, and a canteen, with separate accommodation for corporals. The usual cookhouses, baths, and workshops, which appear to be very numerous, are in the course of erection. A sergeants’ mess establishment and guardhouses are being erected near the site of the central lodge of the old palace. The commanding officer’s quarters is a separate building and is situated at the south-west angle of the grounds. The officers’ quarters will accommodate twenty-seven officers, with mess establishment...An hospital is almost completed, with a medical officer’s residence adjoining, which is the first time in this part of the country that accommodation for a medical staff has been constructed in conjunction with a military hospital. There is also in course of construction quartermaster’s and warrant officers’ quarters and there will also be erected several blocks of buildings for the accommodation of married men. These houses will be erected at the north end of the park, along the side of the road known locally as Jackson’s Road. The buildings are lighted throughout with gas, supplied by the Holywood Gas Company Limited. The water is supplied by the Belfast Water Commissioners. The sanitary arrangements are perfect. Nothing has been left undone for the comfort and health of the men, who seem well pleased with their new quarters.” (Belfast Newsletter) The barracks were completed in 1898. (First Survey Information)

The records of a parliamentary debate of 1907, in which improving the accommodation at Holywood barracks was discussed, noted that, “There was much more difficulty in recruiting in Ireland that in any other part of the UK and therefore it was important to make the barracks in Ireland as attractive as possible.” (The Parliamentary Debates)

References:

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/3/1/1 – First Edition OS Map 1834
2. PRONI OS/6/3/1/2 – Second Edition OS map 1858
3. PRONI OS/6/3/1/3 – Third Edition OS Map 1900-02
4. PRONI OS/6/3/1/4 – Fourth Edition OS Map 1919-31
5. PRONI OS/6/3/1/5 – Fifth Edition OS Map 1938-41
6. PRONI VAL/12/B/17/2E – Annual Revisions
7. Belfast Newsletter, 5th March 1887
8. Belfast Newsletter, 4th April, 1888
9. Belfast Newsletter, 31st October 1890
10. Belfast Newsletter, 15th June 1891
11. Belfast Newsletter, 25th September 1891
12. Belfast Newsletter, 3rd January 1893
13. Belfast Newsletter, 2nd January 1894
14. Belfast Newsletter, 30th September 1896
15. House of Commons Sessional Papers, Vol 39, HMSO 1901
16. The Parliamentary Debates, 1907
17. First Survey Information, 1989

Secondary Sources

1. Auld, C. “Holywood Co Down, Then and Now” Holywood: Con Auld, 2002
2. Brett, C.E.B. “Buildings of North County Down” Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 2002
3. Rankin, F., Leslie, Canon, J.B., Swanzy, Dean H.B. “Clergy of Down and Dromore” Belfast: Ulster Historical Foundation, 1996

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

Detached two-storey redbrick military barracks health centre, built c.1900. Irregular on plan facing south with a west and east wing on a north-south axis connected by a central block. The complex has been extensively refurbished over the course of the twentieth-century with the loss of most original fabric detracting from any merits the structure may have possessed. The barracks site is of interest as a purpose-built military complex of a relatively late date and as an example of developments in housing military personnel.

General comments

Please note this record has been renumbered it was previously recorded as HB23/17/010