Former 'Government Communications Radio Station'

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Large sprawling part two, part single-storey government office building of 1951-2 in sparse Modern Movement style with brown brick façade and flat roof, now vacant. The building is set on a rise in rural surroundings close to the junction of Gilnahirk Road and Lisleen Road East, just beyond the south-eastern suburbs of East Belfast.

[Though the front of the building faces NW, for the purposes of this description NW will be read as W.] The building consists of a largely two storey front wing to W with long single storey wings of differing size stretching eastwards from this and linked to each other by a transverse N-S portion. The centre wing is broader than the other two, whilst the S wing appears to have been extended to the E end c.1975-80, affecting the original symmetry of the plan form. The façade treatment is simple with the windows largely uniform with metal frames (generally mullioned and transomed).

The front elevation -which consists solely of the front of the W wing- is symmetrical. It is two storey with projecting single-storey blocks at either end. The main two-storey portion has a central timber double door with incised geometric (Greek key-like) pattern. Above is a squat rectangular fanlight with metal ‘grill’ in front with similar pattern as door. The door is encased with projecting concrete piers (made to look like dressed stone) which support a projecting flat concrete roof. Concrete threshold.

Either side of the doorway is a row of six identical (metal framed) windows with slender concrete sill course and lintel course. To the first floor directly above the doorway there is a square window with bevelled concrete surround and multi-paned frame with what appears to be toughened semi opaque glazing. To either side of this are three very small widely spaced almost porthole-like windows (square with curved corners) with concrete surrounds and top hung multi-paned frames. Above the central window is a flag pole. The W faces of the single storey outer blocks are blank.

The exposed sections of the rear (E) façade of the front wing could not be seen in their entirety. Internal evidence suggests that the ground floor level (which is abutted by the three other wings) is blank. The upper level, which could be partly observed from the outside, has a large central projecting bay which rises slightly above first floor level. To the actual first floor level of the E face of this bay there appear to be three large but relatively squat windows, with three larger windows to the level above this. [It is possible that this upper level is for water tanks.] To both the N and S faces of the bay there appears to be a single large window at first floor level. To the main wing either side of the bay there are two large windows.

The S elevation consists mainly of the S wing with S face of the aforementioned S outer block of the front wing to far left, which has three windows, as ground floor front. Also visible is the short S face of the upper floor of the main portion of the front wing, which has one very large window. The left hand side of the S façade of the S wing is slightly recessed. It is single storey but with the ground floor set at a relatively high level. To far left is a timber and glazed door reached by a short flight of steps. To right of this are seven windows, similar to ground floor front. Directly underneath these windows is a long lean-to like structure in corrugated iron [?which may have been used as a bicycle / motorcycle shelter]. To right of this (beyond the recessed portion) there is a broad high level window, whilst to right of this are two plain sheeted doorways with large (window-like) fanlights. To right of this is the faced belongs to the extension, which was probably added c.1975-80, and whose brick is a marginally different shade of brown. This portion has a recessed partly glazed door to left with three large windows to right with a high level partly glazed doorway (which must surely have had steps leading to it at one point) between the second and third windows. To far right the façade is recessed again; here there is a single relatively small window.

The very short E façade of the S wing contains one relatively large window. Only the left hand end of the N façade of the S of the same wing is visible to external view, to has four large windows, much as ground floor front. To right of these (roughly to the centre point of the wing) the wing is abutted by the transverse wing (see above). To right of this internal evidence suggests there are no openings.

The central wing (see above) is somewhat broader than the S or N wings, but is roughly the same length as the S wing. The left hand side of its S face (i.e. to left of the transverse wing) could not be seen from the outside, but internal evidence suggests it does not have any openings. To right of the transverse wing there are six large windows. This arrangement is repeated in handed fashion to the N façade of the wing with two windows of differing size and a doorway to the shorter E façade.

The N elevation consists of the N façade of the N wing with the N face of the N projecting front block to right. The N façade of the N wing has two windows to far left, then a small porch projection with partly glazed door to E, then a row of seven windows, largely uniform. To the N face of the N front projecting block there are three windows of differing size (one of which is boarded up), then a broad doorway (boarded up but now largely open), with a narrower boarded up doorway to far right.

The short E facade of the N wing is blank. The S façade could not be seen but internal evidence suggests it is devoid of openings.

The left hand side of the E facade of the transverse wing (i.e. that portion which stretches between the S and centre wings) has a large window with a much smaller one to its right. The right hand side of the façade (i.e. that portion which stretches between the centre and N wings) has two large windows with a much smaller. The W façade of the transverse wing could not be seen from the outside but internal evidence suggests it has no openings.

Though much of the building is single storey the roof levels are not the same throughout (for instance the N wing is considerably lower as is the E end of the S wing. The building is completely flat roofed with the roof itself covered in what appears to be asphalt and interspersed with roof lights. The W end of the central wing has a large gabled roof light. A tall battered brick chimneystack rises roughly from the centre point of the S wing (this section contains the boiler house).

To the N, E and W sides of the building there is considerable open space, largely grass-covered but with a broad tarmac drive to the immediate W and a large tarmac space to the E. There is little ground to the S due to the presence of another property. Much of the front elevation is obscured by shrub growth. There is a small single storey flat roofed structure to the NW of the building in matching brick [?store ?electricity generator house]. To NW of this (on the opposite side of the main drive) is a similarly styled security guard’s office.

Historical information

In the late 1930's the GPO established a radio station on this site consisting of a few wooden and nissan huts and an overhead arial network of cables. The main hut contained 18 banks of american HRO radio receivers. Close by a Marconi-Adcock Direction finding facility was placed into an all metal tank and the whole thing buried. This work was carried out by the Royal Corps of Signals and the GPO who provided an underground telephone cable that enabled the site to be part of a much larger wartime telecommunications network. The equipment was continually upgraded during the war and had the capacity to listen to all radio transmissions and in conjunction with one or two other locations in the UK, to locate the position of that tranmission. Amatuer radio operators were enlisted, throughout the UK, to listen to tranmissions and when an interesting one was located, the frequency was handed over to stations such as Gilnhirk. These intersepts were used in the war against u-boats in the Atlantic. Coded messages were relayed to Bletchley Park.

The station was guarded by The Royal Ulster Rifles and later by the Royal Military police.

The current building first appears in a 1952 entry in the valuation book for the area as ‘Government Communications- radio station’. It functioned as an MOD listening post, part of the West’s Cold War defences ' Ultra Intercept' programme. Other listening stations included those at Churchill House and Oxford Island for both domestic and international intelligence gathering. It is alleged to have continued as such into the mid 1970s when it became a repository for capital tax files. The antennae are now dismantled. In their heyday, they formed a spider's web lattice above the building. The vector marks are in position on the ground. It appears to have ceqased to be used as government offices in the latter half of the 1990s and is now in private hands.

The extension to the east end of the south wing may have been added some time around c.1975-80.

References- Primary sources
1 PRONI VAL/3C/4/34 Valuation book, Ballyhanwood, c.1936-c.1957
2 PRONI OS/11/147/18/1 OS Irish Grid map, sh 147/18 (1971)

Secondary sources
1 Information supplied by the present owner (February 2003)
2 Information of the previous buildings and uses before and during the second World War www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/stories/11

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

Large part two, part single-storey government office building of 1951-2 in sparse Modern Movement style with brown brick façade and flat roof. This former 'radio listening station', although of limited architectural importance, is of some interest as an historic link to the WW2 period.