Creamery building (off Alderwood Hill), Knockbracken Healthcare Park, Saintfield Road, Belfast BT8 8BH

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Freestanding hexagonal-plan former creamery with abutting rectangular-plan annexe to rear, built c.1909-10 along with adjacent farm as part of the then Belfast District Asylum. Probably designed by Watt & Tulloch, it is located immediately south-east of farm buildings, with the the whole group set within almost semi-rural surrounds to the north-west of the main hospital site (now Knockbracken Healthcare Park), and just south of Alderwood Hill (Road)

Main elevation faces south-west, providing access via steps flanked by low brick walls with chamfered slat top concrete coping; annexe accessed through door to rear; former doorway linking two rooms now infilled; external stairwell leading to underground space to north side.

Red brick walling laid in English garden wall bond over projecting bevelled brick plinth course. Camber-headed door opening to main elevation with brick voussoirs containing timber sheeted doors under transom; square-headed door opening to rear with plain reveals over concrete step to ground level. Camber-headed window openings with brick voussoirs, plain reveals and sloping cast concrete cills containing four-paned timber double casement windows throughout. Hexagonal, natural slate roof over stepped brick roof cornice; terracotta ridge tiles and cast-iron rainwater goods to rear annexe.

For information on the neignbouring farm complex see HB25/15/012A.

Roof: Natural slate
Walling: Red brick (exterior), glazed brick (interior)
Windows: Timber
RWG: Cast-iron

Historical information

This small creamery was built c.1909-10 as part of the farm complex for the then Belfast District Asylum.

This asylum itself was established in late 1890s in the grounds of Purdysburn House to relieve the overcrowding in the long-established asylum off Grosvenor Road (built 1829). Patients were initially housed within the old 18th century mansion itself, but in 1900, William Graham, Medical Superintendent of the Committee of Management of Purdysburn Lunatic Asylum, persuaded the committee to erect their new asylum for the city on the ‘Villa Colony’ principle. This concept was modelled on the Austrian State Mental Hospital template, and was founded on the belief that a high standard of ‘homely villa’ accommodation and meaningful activity was beneficial in the rehabilitation of those suffering from mental illnesses. The new complex itself was commenced in 1902 and continued to be added to up until the late-1930s. Much of the design work was carried out by local architects Graeme Watt & Tulloch (and in the firm’s subsequent iterations of later Watt, Tulloch & Fitzsimons and Tulloch & Watt), in conjunction with English architect George Thomas Hine, a specialist in asylum architecture [for more details see HB25/15/009A-J.] Purdysburn was one of the earliest and most fully realised examples of the villa colony principle in the UK and the only one of its kind in Ireland.

In the course of the 19th century, productive physical labour gradually come to be viewed as important to the healing process of patients. As such, many residents were set to work producing their own food, a strategy which also helped supply food for the institution itself. At Purdysburn, the presence of a farm is mentioned in a short article about milk production in the Belfast News-Letter of 9 June 1905. However, we should not assume that both the creamery and the rest of the farm buildings to the immediate north were present at this stage, for the construction of ‘farm buildings’ only appear to have been approved by the Corporation as part of a larger scheme to create ‘the best and most up-to-date [asylum] in the United Kingdom’ in June 1908. They must have been finished by late 1910, however, for a News-Letter report of 15 November that year refers to ‘farm buildings…now completed’, and ‘stabling’ is recorded in the valuation book of the following year. As such they were part of the large expansion of the institution that took place c.1907-11, which, amongst other things, witnessed the building of two churches [see HB25/15/009G and HB25/15/009H], a recreation hall and mortuary.

The numbers of patients at Purdysburn peaked at over 1,800 in the mid-1950s but due to changes in mental health provision and an increased emphasis on treating people within the community in the later 20th century, this amount was greatly reduced in the following decades. As a result, by the later 1960s the farm had become largely redundant and by 1969 as part of a new policy ‘of hospitals to dispense with their livestock farming activities’ the decision was taken to close it completely.

Now known as ‘Knockbracken Healthcare Park' the former Purdysburn site and is currently shared between various organisations in the healthcare field. Since 1970 the former farm buildings appear to have remained in use as an ambulance station and latterly also as an equestrian centre. The small creamery appears to have remained largely disused and, for some locals, its original function mistakenly believed to have been that of a folly.

References: Primary sources
1 OS maps - 1902, 1919, 1931, 1938, 1971
2 PRONI VAL12/B/20/7E Valuation book, Knockbreda parish - 1909-19
3 ‘Belfast News-Letter’ - 9 June 1905, p.5; 15 November 1910, p.3; 15 December 1917, p.2; 31 October 1918, p.1
4 ‘The Irish News and Belfast Morning News’ - 12 June 1908, p.8
5 ‘Belfast Telegraph’ - 5 April 1969. p.7; 27 August 1970, p.6; 24 September 1970, p.6; 7 October 1970, p.3

Secondary sources:
6 Stephen Hamilton and David Martin, ‘The Burn, the fever and Beyond…’ (H. M. Productions, 2015)
7 Stephen Hamilton and Hugh O’Donnell, ‘Purdysburn Hospital: The Legacy of a Villa Colony’ (Self-published, 2014)
8 Information supplied by Dr. Gill Allmond - October 2021

Online sources
9 https://www.dia.ie/works/view/55259/building/CO.+DOWN%2C+PURDYSBURN%2C+LUNATIC+ASYLUM [accessed 12 October 2021]

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
D. Plan Form
E. Spatial Organisation
I. Quality and survival of Interior
J. Setting
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

R. Age
S. Authenticity
V. Authorship
Y. Social, Cultural or Economic Importance
Z. Rarity
W. Northern Ireland/International Interest

Evaluation

This former creamery is laid out in an interesting hexagonal plan form. The building is situated on a quiet northern corner of the Purdysburn Hospital site, now knowns as the Knockbracken Healthcare Park, surrounded by land ideal for the grazing of livestock. Most original features remain in situ, including the interior glazed brick walling, terrazzo flooring, ironmongery and hand-operated pump.

Alone, the creamery structure is a physical reminder of a bygone era when the hospital site was more self-sufficient, maintaining livestock for the production of dairy products. It is of considerably more importance, however, when considered in conjunction with adjacent farm buildings and the hospital site as a whole. Collectively, these fulfilled an important role in the running of the villa colony concept, providing a place of work and source of food for the hospital patients and staff. Given the thinking behind this new style of hospital system to care for those with mental illnesses, the entire site is reflective of an important development in healthcare facilities, not only in the Belfast area, but for Northern Ireland more generally.