Barrack Blocks, Palace Barracks, Holywood, County Down

Barrack Blocks, Palace Barracks, Holywood

A symmetrical detached multi-bay two-storey redbrick barracks building, built around 1900. One of seven almost identical blocks within the Palace Barracks complex.

The building is rectangular on plan, facing west with a central rear projection. It has a hipped artificial slate roof with black clay ridge tiles and metal guttering to a timber box fascia with metal downpipes. The walls are constructed in redbrick laid in stretcher bond with a rendered plinth course. Segmental-headed window openings feature granite sills and uPVC windows. The front elevation is fifteen windows wide and incorporates a central gable abutted by a modern portico added around 1990. A timber fascia to the central pediment has returns supported on corbelled brick, with a louvred loophole within the pediment. A round-headed door opening contains replacement double-leaf glazed timber doors with a timber overlight, opening onto a tiled platform. The north and south side elevations are blank. The rear elevation is abutted by a multi-bay two-storey projection with a pair of steel fire escapes.

The building was constructed in 1898 by contractors Laverty of Belfast, though it appears not to have been completed until 1901. It is one of seven identical blocks positioned at the centre of Palace Barracks, encircled by cobblelock footpaths and bitumac roads.

Palace Barracks was developed following the War Office's purchase of the Bishop's Palace and its grounds for £1,000 in 1890. The palace had been the official residence of the Bishop of Down and Connor and Dromore until 1886, when Bishop William Reeves took up residence in Dunmurry instead. From the mid-1880s, the British Army had established the Kinnegar camp at Holywood as a training ground for regiments stationed in Belfast, capable of accommodating over 400 personnel under canvas. Construction of the permanent barracks began in 1893 with officers' quarters, followed by the main barracks from 1894 onwards. The old palace was demolished by September 1896, when four accommodation blocks were already complete. The complex, likely designed by the War Office Architects department in London, was pioneering for its time. The scheme ultimately comprised nine blocks, each accommodating 84 men and two unmarried sergeants, along with officers' quarters for twenty-seven officers, a recreation establishment, cookhouses, baths, workshops, a sergeants' mess, guardhouses, commanding officer's quarters, an hospital with a medical officer's residence, and married quarters. The buildings were lit by gas supplied by Holywood Gas Company Limited and water was supplied by Belfast Water Commissioners. A parliamentary debate of 1907 noted that improving accommodation at Holywood barracks was important, as recruiting in Ireland proved more difficult than in other parts of the United Kingdom, making it necessary to make the barracks as attractive as possible.

The barracks blocks have since lost most external and internal detailing, leaving little of significant architectural interest as individual structures, though the site remains of interest as a purpose-built military complex of relatively late date and as an example of developments in housing military personnel.