5 Millisle Road, Donaghadee, Co. Down, BT21 0HY

Detached seven-bay two-storey former police barracks built around 1939 to standard designs by Ministry of Finance architect T.F.O. Rippingham. The building is roughcast rendered and painted, set back on the south-west side of Millisle Road in Donaghadee. It is rectangular on plan with three single-storey flat-roofed extensions abutting the rear, and a linear range of outbuildings lines the western side of the rear yard.

The building has a hipped natural slate roof with mitred hips and rendered chimneystacks with painted concrete coping and red clay pots (mostly replacements). The chimneys to north and south are connected by gablets to the main roof. A pair of Velux windows sits on the rear pitch. Largely uPVC rainwater goods serve the overhanging eaves, which feature timber-sheeted soffits over a moulded cornice. The overhanging eaves terminate to the central bay of the north and south elevations, flanking recessed chimneystacks. A cast-iron downpipe and hopper remain at the north end of the rear elevation.

The roughcast rendered walls sit over a projecting smooth rendered and painted plinth, with a continuous moulded sill course at first floor level. Window openings are largely square-headed, with projecting painted masonry sills to the ground floor. First floor openings extend to the eaves cornice. Throughout the building, uPVC casement windows have replaced original glazing. Door openings are square-headed, mostly fitted with modern flush timber doors.

The principal elevation faces east, with seven equally spaced openings on the first floor and six irregularly spaced openings to the ground floor. A shallow breakfront extends to the three left bays of the ground floor. The outer two bays contain window openings set within shallow round-arched recesses and linked by a continuous painted masonry blocking course at impost level. This is interrupted by a later gable-fronted single-storey porch addition with a fibre-cement tiled roof. The porch has a single window with a painted concrete sill on its east elevation and the main entrance door on its left side.

The south elevation has three window openings to the ground floor only. The rear (west) elevation contains seven bays to the first floor, with four bays visible to the ground floor; the remainder is abutted by three single-storey flat-roofed extensions, all with painted concrete sills and plainly detailed flush timber doors. The central extension features a parapet with painted concrete coping. Single-storey walls enclose the rear yard on the outer sides of the main building, with painted masonry coping; the former gate to the right side has been removed, and a door opening to the left side has a modern flush timber door.

The north elevation contains a single window opening to the right of centre at first floor level, over a square-headed door opening formerly providing separate access to self-contained constable's quarters. The door is set within a shallow round-arched recess with a continuous painted masonry blocking course at impost level and has a timber-panelled door with a moulded architrave.

A linear range of single-storey flat-roofed outbuildings lines the rear yard facing east, with square-headed plainly detailed openings, uPVC windows, painted masonry sills, and modern timber doors. Openings are concentrated on the eastern elevation but two window openings appear on the right side of the western elevation. A steel fence to the west of the site encloses a communications mast and a single-storey outbuilding with a pitched fibre-cement tiled roof and no openings except for a square-headed opening to the south concealed behind a steel roller shutter. A single-storey flat-roofed red brick outbuilding stands at the south-west corner of the site, with walls laid in English garden wall bond, concrete coping to the parapet, and two door openings with modern flush timber doors.

The building is set back from Millisle Road with a painted and rendered dwarf boundary wall with a shallow angled coping with ramped intervals. Two pedestrian entrances and a vehicular entrance are flanked by square-plan painted rendered piers with pyramidal coping, largely with modern steel gates; those at the north end are cast-iron (elements heavily eroded). A partially enclosed yard to the rear is bound by the linear range of outbuildings to the west. The site is bound by historic rubblestone walls to the south and west, with a modern palisade fence erected around 2014. A small garden occupies the front (east), with largely bitumac hardstandings and concrete steps or ramps providing access to most door openings.