Former nurses' homes, 102-160 Castle Street, Bangor, Co Down, BT20 4SY

A group of three identical two-storey former apartment blocks completed in 1956 to designs by architect Stanley Devon, located on the south-west side of Castle Street, to the south-west of Bangor town centre. Originally built as nurses' homes for the hospital opposite, the three blocks are now occupied by private tenants renting individual apartments.

Each block contains ten apartments, five to each floor. The buildings are constructed in red-brown rustic brick with pantile hipped roofs displaying pronounced overhangs and boxed-in eaves. Each has a central brick chimneystack. The structures exemplify typical post-Festival of Britain detailing and are worthy of recording as representatives of mid-20th century institutional housing design.

The front north-east elevation of the south-east block (numbers 142-160, McMillan House) is asymmetrical. To each floor are five apartments. Ground floor apartments are set within veranda-like structures with plain concrete columns supporting the walkway access to the upper floor apartments. The structure has thick end piers in brick; the north-east end pier is notably thicker and incorporates a tall brick chimneystack to the north-west side and a door to the south-east leading to what is probably a boiler house. The walkway wall is constructed in brick but is pierced with a row of evenly spaced small square openings framed and lined in smooth render, with concrete coping to the top of the wall and smooth render to the base. At the mid-point of the base is a small panel displaying the block's name. Individual apartments are accessed via plain sheeted timber doors with small round glazed porthole-like panels. Apartments feature square windows with metal frames and concrete sills, narrower windows, and concrete return stairs with geometric metal railings. First-floor openings are identical in arrangement to those below, but have concrete lintels as opposed to brick on the ground floor. The south-east and north-west elevations each contain small metal-framed windows to both floors.

The rear (north-west) elevation features paired large window openings with glazed metal-framed doors, each combination belonging to a separate apartment except for two central pairs serving a single apartment. First-floor arrangements are identical, with concrete lintels. Untidy render beneath each first-floor door suggests that pairs of neighbouring doors originally shared small balconies. The facade is throughout in red-brown rustic brick. Metal rainwater goods are present.

The two blocks to the north-east are virtually identical in design to this, though with different windows and doorways boarded up, and two satellite dishes to the rear of each. The block at the north-west end has a very small lean-to cupboard added to its north-west elevation.

To the immediate front of each block is a tarmac-covered area with a path leading south to the main public footpath and a driveway to the north end. In front of the tarmac-covered areas are large lawns bounded by a low brick wall facing the public footpath. To the rear, a continuous concrete threshold and path runs the length of the blocks with a long continuous lawn beyond.

The three blocks are named after local benefactors: Hadow House, McMillan House and Tughan House.