The Nightingale Wards, The Walled Garden, (Former Somme Hospital), Circular Road, Belfast, Co Antrim BT4 2WG

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Single-storey 19 bay Classical-style building to the south side of Craigavon House (HB26/12/025A) built in 1917 as a ward block for the newly converted hospital. The ward block was designed by Robert Inkerman Calwell (1854-1927), a local architect and civil engineer. It is a typical Nightingale Ward (named after Florence Nightingale) - a long open hospital ward with side rooms for storage, office space and patient isolation. Now refurbished and converted into 12nos. apartments with extensions to east elevation and provision of underground parking to central section. To the south is the Walled Garden and the Clock Tower is now part of the complex. Natural slate pitched roof with three gabled projections to west, modern 'conservation-style' rooflights and cast metal rainwater goods. Smooth rendered walls with square-headed window openings with six-pane timber windows to projections and segmental-arched window openings with hood mouldings and margin-paned divisions to main block, some with door openings inserted.

Principal elevation faces west. Northern three bays, central three bays and southern three bays project forward of main building. All projecting gables have smooth rendered walls with plinth topped with splayed moulding, continuous stone cill course, fluted pilasters with Ionic capitals separating square-headed window openings with six-pane timber windows, frieze topped by projecting cornice with dentil-detail, smooth rendered tympanum with applied medallion and pediment with dentil-detail. Smooth rendered walls to main block with 5 nos. segmental-arched openings each, now glazed with margin-paned style framing and plain glass, second and fourth arches with timber and glazed doors. Plinth obscured by modern timber decking, continuous cill course, smooth rendered pilasters between openings with simple capitals; hood mouldings to openings with scrolled keystone detail, dentils to eaves and half-round cast-metal gutter.

North elevation abuts Billiard Room of Craigavon House (HB26/12/025A).

East elevation now with modern extensions. Three segmental arched openings to northern three bays (original), now glazed with margin-paned style framing and plain glass, third arch infilled and having timber and glazed door. Plinth obscured by modern timber decking, continuous cill course, smooth rendered pilasters between openings with simple capitals; hood mouldings to openings with scrolled keystone detail, dentils to eaves and half-round cast-metal gutter. Two storey four bay projecting gable (modern) with double-pile hipped roof with terracotta ridges, smooth rendered walls, square-headed window openings with six-pane timber windows, continuous square hood moulding and continuous cill moulding to upper floor level, four square-headed window openings to ground floor with four paned top-hung timber windows. This projecting gable abuts three-stage tower (modern) with smooth rendered walls, round-arched window openings with continuous hood mouldings, cill courses and modern timber windows to all stages; two-storey section to rear with glazed conservatory; castellated parapet roof with concentric arched detailing below parapet. Two-storey bay (modern) to south with blind arch to ground floor and timber conservatory to first floor. Bay steps back to single storey section with pitched roof and external steps to main ward block (original). Detailing to this block as before but with large square-headed entrance to underground garage (modern) to south end with roller door. Two-storey three bay projection (modern) with two segmental-arched window openings flanking blind arch, all with continuous hood moulding, to ground floor level; three square-headed window openings to first floor with six-pane timber windows, continuous hood moulding and cill course. Steps to south lead to single-storey two bay main ward block (original) with detailing as before.

South elevation has modern two-storey extension to east, original single-storey ward block to west.

The Walled Garden is located to the south of the former Nightingale Wards. Originally a garden area serving the house and laterally the hospital, now enclosing a residential development. Walls in redbrick with two rows of stretchers and one row of headers and topped with stone coping. Two-stage tower detail at south-east and south-west corners, octagonal in plan form in red brick with castellated parapet with stone coping, upper stage having alternate ornate cruciform arrow-loop openings and Tudor-arched openings, all with stone architraves and now having protective polycarbonate coverings; lower level has blank brick wall with Tudor-arched door openings with stone architrave and timber sheeted door to west and south on outer faces of south-western tower and to south-west and south of south-eastern tower. Doorway also to inner exposed faces at corners. New opening formed in west elevation to allow vehicular access to development. Area to south outside Walled Garden currently being developed for residential use.

Setting:
The Nightingale Wards, now a modern apartment complex, are located to the south of Craigavon House (HB26/12/025A) with the original Clock Tower and Walled Garden to the east. A modern Day Nursery is located on the site immediately to the east with boundary hedging giving limited garden area to the apartments. Access is via a new entrance road on Circular Road immediately adjacent to the Gate Lodge (HB26/12/025C).

Materials:
Roof: Natural slate
RWGs : cast metal
Walls : smooth render
Windows : Timber

Historical information

The Nightingale Ward, a single-storey hospital ward located at Craigavon House in the townland of Ballymisert, was constructed in 1917 as a hospital for wounded soldiers returning from the First World War. The adjoining Craigavon House was constructed in 1870 to a design by Thomas Jackson & Sons. The Annual Revisions initially valued Craigavon at £236 and noted that the building was leased by a Mr. David S. Kerr to James Craig (1828-1900), a whiskey distiller of Dunville & Co. Upon James Craig’s death in 1900 Craigavon passed to his son (also named James). James Craig Jnr (1871-1940) was born at Craigavon shortly after it was built. Craig initially pursued a career as a stockbroker before enlisting in the Royal Irish Rifles during the Second Boer War (1899-1900). Craig began his political career in 1903 when he was elected to Westminster as a Unionist M.P. but it was between 1912 and 1914 that he rose to prominence as one of the leaders of the unionist anti-Home Rule movement. Following the Partition of Ireland and the establishment of the Northern Ireland Government, James Craig was appointed the first Prime Minister of Northern Ireland in 1921, and was elevated to the peerage as Viscount Craigavon in 1927. Craig died whilst still serving as Prime Minister and was buried in a Portland limestone mausoleum in the grounds of Stormont (HB26/13/018 - Oxford Dictionary of National Biography).

Craig’s biographer St. John Ervine noted that Craigavon was the site where ‘many eventful acts were performed and [where] much that was important to his country was said and done.’ During the Home Rule Crisis the house was effectively utilised as the headquarters of the anti-Home Rule movement. Haines notes that the Unionist Cabinet held their meetings in the billiard room of the house whilst the building was ‘also the nerve centre of the secret arms committee which organised the gun-running at Larne on 24th April 1914.’ The lawns in front of Craigavon were the frequent location of anti-Home Rule rallies and it was here in 1913 that the Ulster Volunteer Force was formed (Haines, p. 58).

Craigavon continued to be occupied by the Craig family until c. 1917. In that year the Irish Builder recorded that the building was converted into a hospital for shell shocked U.V.F. soldiers returning from the First World War. The conversion included the construction of the single-storey Nightingale Ward which was designed by Robert Inkerman Calwell (1854-1927), a local architect and civil engineer who was active during the First World War having also designed a U.V.F. hospital at Botanic Avenue in 1915 and a Soldiers and Sailors Service Club on Waring Street in 1917 (DIA; Irish Builder, p. 396). The Nightingale Ward was first recorded on the Ordnance Survey map of 1920-21 which depicted the building along its current layout. The building at Craigavon is a typical Nightingale Ward (named after Florence Nightingale) which was a long open hospital ward with side rooms for storage, office space and patient isolation. A plaque located at the site records that the hospital was opened by Lady Craig on 21st July 1917. Following the conversion of Craigavon House and the construction of the Nightingale Ward, the total rateable value of Craigavon and its gate lodge (see HB26/12/025C) was increased to £280. Following the end of the First World War, Craigavon was sold to Down County Council and was maintained as a hospital for war veterans (administered by the Somme Association) until the 1990s. Under the First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936-57) the value of the hospital and its outbuildings was increased to £530. This was further raised to £1,600 by the end of the Second Revaluation (1956-72).

Craigavon House was listed category B+ in 1986. The Nightingale Ward continued to be utilised as a hospital ward for war veterans until 1998 when the Somme Hospital was constructed on the Circular Road. The NIEA HB Records note that the Nightingale Ward lay vacant in 2000 when it was acquired by Greenbay Estates Ltd. who converted the former hospital ward into a number of self-contained apartments. The conversion of the Nightingale Ward, which cost an estimated £1.1 million and was carried out along with the development of housing within Craigavon’s walled courtyard in c. 2002, included the construction of the extension to the rear of the building (NIEA HB Records).

References

Primary Sources
1. PRONI OS/6/3/4/4 – Fourth Edition Ordnance Survey Map (1920-21)
2. PRONI VAL/12/B/17/2A-2H - Annual Revisions (1863-1897)
3. PRONI VAL/12/B/43/N/1-9 – Annual Revisions (1897-1930)
4. PRONI VAL/3/B/3/20 – First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1935)
5. PRONI VAL/4/B/7/48 – Second General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1956-72)
6. Irish Builder (4 Aug 1917)
7. Belfast Street Directories (1868-1943)
8. Census of Ireland (1901; 1911)
9. PRONI Wills Catalogue (24 Nov 1940)
10. First Survey Record – HB26/12/025 (1984)
11. First Survey Image – HB26/12/025 (No Date)
12. NIEA HB Records – HB26/12/025

Secondary Sources
1. Dixon, H., ‘Honouring Thomas Jackson’ Belfast: Belfast Natural History and Philosophical Society, 1970 77.
2. Haines, F., ‘East Belfast: Paintings and stories from harbour to hills’ Donaghadee: Cottage Publications, 2001.
3. Larmour, P., ‘Belfast: An illustrated architectural guide’ Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1987.

Online Resources
1. Dictionary of Irish Architects - http://www.dia.ie
2. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography - http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/32310?docPos=1
3. The Peerage - http://www.thepeerage.com/p28038.htm

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

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

Criteria for listing: historic interest

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

Evaluation

Single-storey 19 bay Classical-style building to the south side of Craigavon House (HB26/12/025A) built in 1917 as a ward block for the newly converted hospital. The ward block was designed by Robert Inkerman Calwell (1854-1927), a local architect and civil engineer. It is a typical Nightingale Ward (named after Florence Nightingale) - a long open hospital ward with side rooms for storage, office space and patient isolation. Now refurbished and converted into 12nos. apartments with extensions to east elevation and provision of underground parking to central section. To the south is the Clock Tower (HB26/12/025A) and the Walled Garden with two-stage octagonal towers with castellated parapets at south-east and south-west corners. The building and its associated garden strucures are of architectural, historic and social interest and contribute to the heritage of the East Belfast area.