Graham House

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A symmetrical three and two-storey red-brick former asylum, with central administration block flanked by side wings; built c.1935 as part of the Purdysburn Villa Colony Asylum complex, now housing offices within the Knockbracken Healthcare Park, located west of the Saintfield Road in the Castlereagh borough. The plan-form is based on the Corridor Plan typically used in Asylum design from the 1830s, and comprises an inverted T-shape three-storey administration block, abutted to rear by a single-storey extension and flanked by two-storey (almost) cross-shaped wings housing the male and female wards.

The wings are connected to the central main block by a single-storey linking bay. They have apsidal east/west ends and are abutted to rear by a single-storey rectangular block, also connected to the wing by a single-storey linking bay. The intersecting bays (those on the north-south axis) project to ground floor to two sides at the south elevation.

Hipped natural slate roof with pierced terracotta ridge tiles and finials; red-brick chimneystacks buttressed to two sides with masonry offsets, having terracotta pots on a masonry corniced plinth. Raised masonry verges to gables. Cast-iron ogee rainwater goods with cast-iron hoppers on projecting eaves. Walling is stretcher-bonded brown-brick on a brick plinth with corbel course between ground and first floor; ashlar blocks to canted bays and door surround. Windows are 6/6 timber-framed sliding sash in camber-headed arches with projecting masonry sills; (unless otherwise stated). Those to ground floor of main block are generally larger. Variety of metal-framed skylights to roof.

The principal elevation faces south. Central entrance bay is three windows wide and flanked by two slightly projecting pedimented gable bays, each with paired windows to a full-height recessed central panel rising from canted bay windows to ground floor. To centre at ground floor is a six-panelled double-leaf timber door with fanlight accessed via six masonry steps and flanked by a window at either side. Neoclassical-style masonry door surround comprises two wide pilasters surmounted by moulded archivolt with label mould, keystone and cornice. Second floor windows to gables have continuous sills and a masonry lintel and are surmounted by a round-headed arch with keystone and basket-weave brick infill (that to left gable is covered).

The west gable has two windows to ground and first floor; window to left at second floor. Recessed section to left is six windows wide, irregularly arranged to left hand side. Exposed section of north elevation has a window at left at second floor.

Irregular fenestration to rear elevation, abutted by a single-storey flat-roof toilet block. Extension has a central half-panelled timber door with transom light flanked by a window and accessed via five semi-circular masonry steps. East and west elevations are five windows wide.

The east gable has two windows to ground and first floor and a window to right at second floor. Exposed north section has a window to first and second floor and a single-storey flat-roof abutment to ground floor. Return/rear wing to right has a variety of fenestration, largely irregularly arranged; eight windows wide to first floor; seven windows wide to first floor and four windows wide to ground floor. Abutted to far left by the single-storey corridor connecting the side wing.

The two-storey east and west wings are arranged on a cruciform plan, each with additional subservient wing attached at a right angle to north, returning towards the centre. For the purposes of this description the east wing will be described here.

Each elevation is lit by an approximately uniform arrangement of windows to each floor, and is otherwise plainly detailed. The outer ends of east-west sections are apsidal. The southern arm is abutted by a later lean-to extension range (of no interest) embracing its south and west elevations.

The west end (adjacent to central block) is extended by a single bay at ground floor, which is surmounted at first floor by a lean-to conservatory (replaced in uPVC). The ground floor section is fronted to south by a demi-octagonal bay, glazed over a brick plinth and with half-pavillion roof.

The single-storey rectangular blocks to rear are asymmetrically arranged and are a mirror image of each other. For the purposes of this description the east is described. Projecting gabled porch to left of centre having pedimented gable with basket-weave brick inset (as at principal elevation of main block), and double-leaf half-panelled timber door with transom light accessed via three masonry steps. Porch is flanked by a window to either side.

Setting:

Situated north of the Knockbracken Healthcare Park (formerly Purdysburn Villa Colony Asylum Complex), occupying a parkland site of 275 acres, to the west side of Saintfield Road. The
setting is largely unchanged since the early twentieth-century and the parkland is largely intact. The building has group value with adjacent hospital buildings (HB25/15/009A-J). Lawned to front with a tarmacadamed entrance and parking bays; to southwest is a large car-park. To rear is a late twentieth-century single-storey In-patients service block.

Roof: Natural slate
Walling: Brown brick
Windows: Timber-framed sliding sash
RWG: Cast-iron

Historical information

Graham House, or ‘Grahamholm’ a new infirmary and reception block to the Purdysburn Villa Colony, was added to the site in 1936 and is first shown, captioned, on the seventh edition OS map of 1938. The reception block was built as part of a phase of expansion that saw the construction of two further villas, in addition to the reception block. The architects were Tulloch & Fitzsimons, architects to the villa colony since its inception in 1902, as Graeme Watt and Tulloch. The estimated cost of the additions was £112,000 and the contractor Stewart and Partners who had latterly worked on the Stormont parliament buildings and the central telephone exchange in Cromac Street. (Irish Builder; www.dia.ie)

Following the deaths of Narcissus and Emily Batt, former owners of the Purdysburn estate, the house and demesne of 295 acres were sold in 1894 to Belfast Corporation for the sum of £29,500 for use as a lunatic asylum and the house was adapted for this use by architects Jackson and Tilley following a competition won by them in 1897. (Craig; www.dia.ie)

The initial purchase at Purdysburn was 295 acres from the representatives of Robert Narcissus. In 1902 a further 88 acres was acquired from Mr John Morrow. Further purchases of adjoining land were made in 1904, 1911, 1917 and 1919 bringing the total owned by the Corporation to 554 acres. Sixty five acres were allocated by the City Council for the Infectious Diseases Hospital leaving the remainder as asylum property. (Owen, History of Belfast, 1921)

In 1900 the Management Committee of the Lunatic Asylum decided, on the advice of their Medical Superintendent, William Graham MD to build a new Asylum on the site on the Villa Colony principle which would allow the patients to be accommodated in ‘homely villas’ and would also permit ‘classification according to mental and physical condition’. Messrs Graeme Watt & Tulloch of Belfast were the architects, but as work on the villa colony progressed the committee decided to draw on the expertise of G T Hine, architect to the English Lunacy Commissioners. (Belfast Book 1929)

A dwelling already in existence on the site, ‘Glenavon’ was adapted for the use of 30 patients and two further villas were built in 1902-3, for the accommodation of chronic cases. Two more villas were completed in 1906. In 1907 the Asylum committee authorised the architects to draw up plans for the new Villa Colony Asylum, including four more villas, two churches, a recreation hall and the present hospital block. Work commenced in 1908, using ‘lunatic labour’ to carry out considerable alterations of contour on the site. (Irish Builder) The cost of the work was estimated at £81,000 and the contractors were H & J Martin and Messrs Robert Corry Ltd. The 1911 census shows that by this stage five villas were occupied by patients, four newly built, housing around 55 patients each and one adapted from a former house on the site which was occupied by 33 patients. A hundred and seventy one patients were accommodated in the former ‘Purdysburn House’, indicating that, in total, the numbers of patients cared for on the site had almost tripled since the previous census of 1901. However, this rise was caused by a disproportionate, more than fourfold, increase in the numbers of female patients. Only male patients were accommodated in the villas while ‘Purdysburn House’ became reserved for female patients. (1911 census)

In 1911 the tender of Messrs Robert Corry Ltd was accepted for the building of two further villas, at a cost of £9,790 and by 1913 these villas had been occupied by ‘working patients’ transferred from Grosvenor Road Asylum. Additions continued to be made to the asylum site over the ensuing years with ‘additional buildings’ planned in 1924-5, 1933-6 and 1938-9, all designed by Messrs Tulloch and Fitzsimons. By 1937 there were 17 villas accommodating 1,320 patients together with the hospital for 146 and a sanatorium for 22 patients.

Management and clinicians decided to rename Purdysburn in the 1990s in order to attempt to dispel some of the negative associations attached to the name. Today the site is known as Knockbracken Healthcare Park and the site is now shared with around thirty voluntary organisations who work in the healthcare field. The numbers of patients peaked at over 1800 in the mid-1950s but now lies at around 300, largely due to changes in mental health provision and an increased emphasis on treating people within the community. The headquarters of the Belfast Trust is also located on the site. (Mills)

References:

Primary Sources

1.PRONI OS/6/3/9/3 Third Edition OS Map 1901-2
2.PRONI OS/6/3/9/4 Fourth Edition OS Map 1920-21
3.PRONI OS/6/3/9/5 Fifth Edition OS Map 1920-31
4.PRONI OS/6/3/9/7 Seventh Edition OS Map 1938
5.PRONI VAL/1/B/321 Townland Valuation (1828-40)
6.PRONI VAL/2/B/3/29 Griffiths Valuation (1861)
7.PRONI VAL/12/B/20/7A-F Annual Revisions (1864-1929)
8.PRONI VAL/12/F/4/9/3 – Annual Revisions (1930-35)
9.1901 census online
10.1911 census online
11.Irish Times, 23rd September 1903
12.Irish Times, 12th January 1905
13.Irish Times, 10th April 1906
14.Irish Times, 7th May 1906
15.Irish Times, 28th May 1907
16.Irish Times, 4th March, 1910
17.Irish Times, 19th May 1910
18.Irish Times, 6th August, 1910
19.Irish Times, 8th August 1912
20.Irish Times, 17th August, 1912
21.Irish Times, 14th December 1912
22.Irish Times, 18th October, 1913
23.Irish Times, 13th January 1914
24.Irish Times, 16th May 1914
25.Irish Times, 27th June 1914
26.Irish Times, 7th November 1917
27.British Medical Journal 17th November 1917
28.Irish Builder 10th April 1902
29.Irish Builder 20th April 1907
30.Irish Builder 18th April 1908
31.Irish Builder 27th June 1908
32.Irish Builder 31st October 1908
33.Irish Builder 28th November 1908
34.Irish Builder 12th December 1908
35.Irish Builder 28th January 1909
36.Irish Builder 1 May 1909
37.Irish Builder 29th May 1909
38.Irish Builder 26th June 1909
39.Irish Builder 10th July 1909
40.Irish Builder 19th February 1910
41.Irish Builder 18thFebruary 1911
42.Irish Builder 23rd August 1924
43.Belfast Book, 1929

Secondary Sources

1.Craig, D H “Belfast and Its Infirmary – The Growth of a Hospital 1838 to 1948”
2.Mills, Jason “What’s He Building in There?” The Vacuum, Issue 15
3.Owen, D J “History of Belfast” Belfast: W & G Baird, 1921
4.Reuber, M “The architecture of psychological management: the Irish asylums (1801-1922)” Psychological Medicine, 1996, Vol 26, p.1179-1189
5.Roberts, Andrew ‘Notes on Asylum Architecture’ (available at http://studymore.org.uk/4_13_ta.htm)
6.Thomson, M “The Problem of Mental Deficiency, Eugenics, Democracy and Social Policy in Britain c1870-1959) Oxford Historical Monographs, 1996
7.www.simoncornwell.com

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
H-. Alterations detracting from building
J. Setting
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

R. Age
S. Authenticity
T. Historic Importance
V. Authorship
Y. Social, Cultural or Economic Importance
X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Graham House is a symmetrical three and two-storey red-brick former asylum, with central administration block flanked by side wings; built c.1935 as part of the Purdysburn Villa Colony Asylum complex, now housing offices within the Knockbracken Healthcare Park, located west of the Saintfield Road in the Castlereagh borough. A good example of an asylum based on a late-Victorian design, the building is relatively well-preserved on a largely unspoiled site. Architectural detailing is largely intact, having original fenestration and doors throughout. The largely linear plan-form is based on the ‘corridor plan’, popular from the 1830s, and is relatively unchanged. One of five Asylum designs typical of the period, this particular layout allowed for easy segregation of the sexes and aided in the ease of communication throughout the building. Despite a change of use and the subsequent loss of interior detailing, the original floor-plan is strongly indicative of the original function, and allows the building to retain much of its institutional character. The late-twentieth century single-storey block to rear adds to the historic development of the site as it illustrates the move away from the institutional-style of hospital design in the latter part of the twentieth-century. There is considerable group value with a number of other buildings on the Knockbracken Healthcare Park site (HB25/15/009 A - J), and the entire complex is of interest as the earliest example of the colony model of asylum architecture in Ireland. Individually, and as part of this group, Graham House is of significant architectural and historic interest. The building is also of important social interest to the local community.