Officers Mess, Palace Barracks, Holywood, Co Down

Officers' Mess, Palace Barracks, Holywood, County Down

This is a detached two-storey redbrick military building dated 1899, designed most likely by the War Office Architects Department in London and constructed in two phases by Belfast-based contractors — Lowry of Belfast for the first phase and Campbell of Belfast for the second. It forms part of a purpose-built barracks complex constructed between 1894 and 1898, and is of considerable interest both as a late Victorian military ensemble and as an example of the period's approach to housing military personnel.

The building faces west and is irregular on plan, with a symmetrical central block featuring a pedimented entrance bay and portico, flanked by a pair of multi-bay wings. The entrance bay is a notable piece of late 19th-century neo-classical design, and the detailing throughout reflects the robust character of the barracks as a whole. The building was extensively renovated and extended around 1990, at which point all windows and most of the internal fabric were replaced.

The roof is hipped and clad in natural slate, with roll-moulded terracotta ridge tiles and several profiled redbrick chimneystacks. Moulded cast-iron guttering runs along overhanging sheeted eaves supported on carved brackets, with cast-iron downpipes below. The walls are redbrick laid in stretcher bond, with a moulded brick string course at eaves level and a projecting brick plinth course at the base. Window openings are segmental-headed with moulded brick architrave surrounds, red sandstone sills, and replacement multi-pane timber sash windows throughout.

The symmetrical central block is nine windows wide. At its centre is an entrance bay with a balustraded entrance porch flanked by matching balustraded three-sided canted bays. Above the entrance, a segmental dentilated pediment rises from a raised central parapet wall formed in red sandstone; it contains a carved red sandstone Royal coat of arms and a date plaque with a dentilated base inscribed 'MDCCCXCIX'. Beneath the pediment is a Palladian window with a red sandstone Doric entablature and archivolt. The Doric portico itself features a front three-centred arch with round-headed arches to the cheeks, all formed in redbrick and red sandstone mouldings, with a heavy red sandstone cornice and a balustraded parapet above. Granite steps on all three sides lead up to a tiled platform, where the principal entrance is arranged as a further Palladian composition: a central round-headed door opening flanked by square-headed sidelights, all with moulded redbrick architrave surrounds, fitted with replacement double-leaf timber panelled doors and an overlight.

The remainder of the central block has alternating single and paired window openings. The symmetrically placed three-sided canted bays carry a cornice and balustraded parapet matching those of the portico. The flanking wings also have alternating single and paired window openings, with the south wing extending further than its northern counterpart.

The north side elevation is three windows wide and includes two segmental-headed door openings with replacement timber panelled doors. The rear elevation is abutted by a central two-storey return, several single-storey projections, and a modern two-storey L-plan wing to the south that replicates the detailing of the front elevation. The south side elevation is two windows wide and incorporates a single-bay side entrance porch with a flight of stone steps.

The floor plan and most of the original fabric survive, notwithstanding the circa 1990 renovations.

The building stands on an elevated site at the southern end of Palace Barracks, to the east of the A2, in a landscaped setting with a tarmac drive running along the front elevation.

In terms of historical context, the barracks occupies the former grounds of the Bishop's Palace in Holywood, which had served as the official residence of the Bishop of Down and Connor and Dromore. When Bishop William Reeves succeeded to the see in 1886 and chose to reside at his Dunmurry home instead, the Palace fell vacant. Attempts to sell the property proved unsuccessful until 1890, when the War Office purchased it for £1,000. From the mid-1880s the British Army had been using the Kinnegar camp at Holywood as a training ground capable of accommodating more than 400 personnel under canvas. By 1891 the palace and grounds were already in military use, and valuation records of that year record the site as a barracks. Work on officers' quarters began in 1893 and on the wider barracks in 1894. By September 1896 the old palace had been demolished and the barracks were nearing completion, with four accommodation blocks already finished.

A contemporary account in the Belfast Newsletter described the completed scheme in detail: nine blocks in total, each accommodating 84 men and two unmarried sergeants; a recreation establishment of the newest type containing a lecture room, coffee room, billiard room, and canteen with separate accommodation for corporals; cookhouses, baths, and workshops; a sergeants' mess and guardhouses near the site of the old palace's central lodge; the commanding officer's quarters as a separate building at the south-west corner of the grounds; officers' quarters for twenty-seven officers with mess establishment; a hospital with an adjoining medical officer's residence — described as the first time in that part of the country that a medical staff's accommodation had been built in conjunction with a military hospital; and quartermaster's and warrant officers' quarters, together with married quarters at the north end of the grounds along Jackson's Road. The buildings were lit throughout by gas supplied by the Holywood Gas Company Limited, with water provided by the Belfast Water Commissioners. In a parliamentary debate of 1907 concerning improvements to Holywood Barracks, it was noted that recruiting in Ireland was considerably more difficult than elsewhere in the United Kingdom, and that it was therefore especially important to make barracks in Ireland as attractive as possible.