McQueen nurses’ home, Ards District Hospital, Church Street, Newtownards, Co Down, BT23 4AS

McQueen nurses' home is a much altered and extended two storey rubble built structure with a gabled roof, originally built in 1841 as the infirmary section of Newtownards Union Workhouse. It is situated to the south-west of the former workhouse building and is now only partly used as offices for Ards District Hospital.

The building appears to have begun life with a two storey central section and single storey outer wings, which were subsequently heightened, possibly during the famine years around 1845-51 or during the early twentieth century around 1900.

The main entrance is positioned at the centre of the south-west facade and consists of a modern glazed door with large sidelights and fanlight. A short distance either side of the door is a full height bay extension in brick with modern windows and a lean-to roof. Beyond each bay, the coursing of the stonework changes and there are remnants of sandstone quoin stones to the upper half of the facade, indicating that the building originally extended as single storey sections. The ground floor of the entire south-west facade has irregularly spaced window openings with painted sandstone lintels and PVC frames. The upper floor windows are also irregularly spaced and much shorter than those to the ground floor, with similar PVC frames and lintels.

The north-west gable contains a shorter gabled projection with two doors to the ground floor and a small sash window to the gable apex. The south-east gable has a large full height brick-built toilet extension to the left, with a modern doorway and PVC window directly above to the first floor to the right.

The rear north-east facade has been greatly altered. Originally there was a single large full height gabled projection just to the right of centre, but now there are two similarly sized projections further to the left. These new projections are finished in roughcast render rather than rubble and have varying sized PVC and sash windows to both floors. One projection has a substantial single storey flat-roofed store extension attached to the gable end. The original projection has large sash windows to both ground and first floor with a mainly corrugated asbestos porch roof over the first floor windows and a doorway to the gable end. The north-east facade of the main body has modern metal windows to the ground floor and smaller sash windows to the first floor, with irregular window arrangement and two upper level openings now serving as doorways, accessed via metal fire escape-like steps.

The main building and the original projection have painted sandstone quoins. The roofs are gabled with Bangor blue slates, with a slight overhang to the main gable ends and to the gables of the non-original projections. The original projection roof has three brick chimney stacks, with two brick stacks to the roof of the main building. A mixture of cast iron and PVC goods is present throughout.

The Poor Law came into operation in Ireland in 1838, dividing the country into 130 Poor Law Unions. Within each union, a workhouse was built to provide indoor relief for those unable to support themselves. The basic plan of workhouses built during the 1840s, designed by Oxford architect George Wilkinson, consisted of a front building containing offices and administration rooms, a rear block housing the workhouse proper, and an infirmary linked to the workhouse, together forming an H-shaped plan. Some designs incorporated elements from late mediaeval and Tudor styling, perhaps inspired by almshouses of centuries past.

The Newtownards Union workhouse was built in 1841 and admitted its first inmates at the beginning of 1842. It was designed to house 600 paupers. This section served as the infirmary. In common with some other workhouse infirmaries, it began with a two storey central section containing male and female wards, with single storey outer wings containing cells for lunatic inmates and rooms for the keeper.

After the reform of local government in 1898, provision was made for the conversion of union infirmaries to district hospitals intended to treat rich and poor alike. In Northern Ireland, workhouse legislation continued until 1948. The Newtownards Union workhouse gradually converted to a district hospital in the early twentieth century, with the conversion officially acknowledged in 1932. During this period, the building witnessed both the addition of extensions and internal alterations. The building served as a nurses' home until recently. Most rooms are now unused, whilst others have been converted to offices.

Of all the original workhouse buildings within Ards District Hospital, McQueen nurses' home appears to have undergone the most changes. Large modern extensions dating from the mid-twentieth century do not successfully blend with the original facade. Window openings have been altered and most windows now sport modern frames. The interior has been progressively altered and modernised. McQueen House is named after Annie McQueen, a former matron who worked at the hospital between 1938 and 1949.