HAYPARK HOSPITAL

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

An asymmetrical two-storey three-bay multi-bay Scots Baronial style former mansion with tower, now in use as a residential care home; built c.1880, located at the west side of Whitehall Parade, west of Ormeau Road. Original block is rectangular on plan with portico; abutted to west by L-shaped late-C20 2 storey and attic extension.

Pitched natural slate roof with angled ridge tiles and off-centre leaded valley; tower has a pyramidal roof. Rock-faced sandstone chimneystacks with corniced caps between bays, to east wall, and to tower. Original profile cast-iron rainwater goods on projecting stone eaves. Walling is quarry-faced squared uncoursed sandstone with stringcourse between floors; extension is cement-rendered, also with stringcourse. Transomed and mullioned ashlar sandstone window openings set in full chamfered surrounds, generally tripartite unless otherwise stated; windows are uPVC. Extension windows are uPVC casements.

Principal elevation faces north; right bay is wider and gabled on profiled kneeler stones, with a window to each floor and blind occulus; central bay has a curvilinear wall-head dormer with profiled cornice and blind cartouche, inset with a bi-partite window, over a prostyle tetrastyle portico; square-section piers having ornate foliate and scrolled capitals supporting an entablature, supported on a quarry-faced stone plinth; the entrance has been reconfigured, comprising a uPVC door and window, accessed via two stone steps with original encaustic tiled platform. The four-stage tower is situated to left, ground and first stage windows are closely spaced; third stage window has blind apron panelling and lank shield set into a recess over; fourth stage has bipartite window to three faces. The extension sits flush to right, projecting to north; it is of no interest.

East elevation also three-bay; wide gabled bay to right as previous; gabled wall-head dormer to left. Ground floor windows to central and right bays are plain casements (paired to right).

Rear (south) elevation is subservient, with two curvilinear wall-head dormers to right over a set of three windows, gablet over left bay which is irregularly arranged over three floors, windows set in plain reveals with lintels.

West elevation is fully abutted by the extension. Extension constructed after 1989 is a two storey roughcast rendered block with attic. North elevation has two large almost square windows on the ground floor, two narrower ones on the first and an oculus in the attic storey. A continuous string course separates the ground and first floors. The West elevation is similar to the north with three windows on each floor including three gabled dormers in the attic. The South elevation is similar to the North except there are two doors on the ground floor.

Setting:
Enlarged tarmac entrance and parking area to north and east, with lawned perimeter; late C20 residential development directly to west and south. Red brick entrance walls along Whitehall Parade, not original.

Materials:
Roof: Slate
Walling: Sandstone
RWG: Cast Iron
Windows: uPVC

Historical information

Built c.1880, the building is first shown on the 1883 OS Map as ‘Whitehall,’ a mansion house located within approximately two acres of land. Early occupants of the house are listed as F.J.McCarthy in 1890 and S.Gregg, iron merchant, in 1901. The address at this time was given as “Whitehall, Sunnyside Street.”

The house was acquired for use as the Ulster Penitentiary for Ladies, more commonly referred to as the ‘Edgar Home.’ Founded in 1839 in Brunswick Street, the Edgar Home was established by the Reverend John Edgar, Presbyterian minister and philanthropist, to engage in the rehabilitation of “penitent prostitutes.” The Home moved to Whitehall off the Ormeau Road c.1901, engaging architects Young and Mackenzie to reorder the mansion and to oversee the construction of a new laundry house. The works, which permitted an intake of 75 ‘inmates,’ were carried out by contractor Courtney and Co. and cost approximately £10,000. On the third edition OS map (1901) the house, now labelled ‘Edgar Home,’ appears to have been significantly extended to the west. The street is referred to as ‘New street off Whitehall Parade’ In the valuation revisions and early street directories, with the Edgar Home first being referred to as no.36 Whitehall Parade in 1925.

The house was purchased by the Northern Ireland Government c.1932 to be redeveloped as the Haypark Special School for Mentally Defective Children. The building was again reordered, this time by architect to the Ministry of Finance Mr T.N.McClay, with architecture and engineering services estimated at £10,521. After assessment by Dr. Deane of the Ministry of Education, a total of 189 children across Northern Ireland were deemed appropriate to attend the school, with the school capable of accommodating up to 120 pupils; 40 day pupils and 80 boarders. Robert Shanks, previously principal of Thompson Public Elementary School, was appointed principal in July 1935 and the school opened in March 1936. Many parents were reluctant to permit their children to attend Haypark as the concept of specialist schools for disabled children was new at the time. The first intake consisted of only 25 pupils, 14 of whom were boarders. This rose to 30 pupils in the school’s second term. Attendance rose steadily to a peak of 97 pupils in 1939. Haypark was acquired by the Ministry of Health for use as the Ulster Hospital for Women and Children in 1941.

Originally founded in 1872 in Chichester Street, the Ulster Hospital moved to Fisherwick Place in 1872 and then to Templemore Avenue in 1891. The hospital at Templemore Avenue was requisitioned by the army during the war, something which may have played a part in the removal of the gynaecology department to Haypark House. As the Second World War ended the children’s ward, which had been temporarily relocated to Saintfield House during the Blitz, was also moved to Haypark. No.32 Whitehall Parade was purchased as a doctor’s residence in 1953. The Ulster Hospital continued to operate from Haypark until 1962 when a new purpose-built hospital was constructed in Dundonald. Between 1963 and 1971 the house was known as Haypark Convalescent Hospital followed by Haypark Geriatric Hospital up until 1988. A series of planning applications, including listed building consent, were approved in 1988 and 1989 for “improvements and extension to former hospital to create a residential home” and the “construction of a residential complex consisting of apartments, houses and private nursing home.” The Haypark Residential Home opened in 1992 and continues to operate.

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/3/4/1 First Edition Ordnance Survey Map
2. PRONI OS/6/3/4/2 Second Edition Ordnance Survey Map
3. PRONI OS/6/3/4/3 Third Edition Ordnance Survey Map
4. PRONI VAL/12/B/43/A/35 Valuation of Ireland – General Revisions 1897-1905
5.PRONI VAL/12/B/43/K/4 Valuation of Ireland – General Revisions 1906-1915
6. PRONI VAL/12/B/43/K/7 Valuation of Ireland – General Revisions 1915-1930
7. PRONI FIN/18/16/77 Documents relating to the financing of Haypark Special School
8. PRONI ED/13/1/631 Documents relating to the refusal of parents to permit their children to attend Haypark Special School
9. PRONI ED/32/B/1/2/103 Haypark Special School Committee minutes 1932-1939
10. PRONI Street Directories 1901-1995
11. Planning reference Z/1988/0086 Construction of a residential complex consisting of apartments, houses and private nursing home
12. Planning reference Z/1989/0354 Improvements and extension to former hospital to create a residential home – listed building consent
13. Planning reference Z/1989/0355 Conversion and replacement extension

Secondary sources

1. The Ulster Medical Journal, Volume 56, Supplement, pp. S57 - S64, August 1987. ‘The Ulster Hospital - a short history’ H Logan
2. Harran, P ‘Young & MacKenzie- A Transformational Provincial Practice 1850-1960’ Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 2016

Online sources
1. Dictionary of Irish Architects (http://www.dia.ie/works/view/53005)
2. Dictionary of Ulster Biography (http://www.newulsterbiography.co.uk/index.php/home/viewPerson/2007)

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
H-. Alterations detracting from building

Criteria for listing: historic interest

R. Age
Y. Social, Cultural or Economic Importance
X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Haypark Residential Home is a large imposing Scots Baronial style building, originally built as a private house in 1880, to designs by an unknown architect, although later altered for institutional use by the well-regarded Belfast practice of Young and Mackenzie. The building has had a long and varied history of institutional use, first as a home for the rehabilitation of prostitutes around 1900, at which time the building was considerably extended, and in later years as a school for children with special needs, and part of the Ulster Hospital at providing - at various times - childrens, gynaecological and geriatric services. As such, it is of huge social interest. Architecturally, the building is a good example of its type, constructed in rock faced snecked stone with sandstone dressings, and elevated by retention of its original portico. Unfortunately the setting has been diminished by the gradual encroachment of twentieth-century suburban development and the building's interest has been reduced by the alterations and loss of interior detailing.