Administrative block and nurses’ home, Ards District Hospital, Church Street, Newtownards, Co Down, BT23 4AS

The Administrative Block and Nurses' Home at Ards District Hospital is a long rectangular building of basalt rubble with painted sandstone quoins and lintels, built in mildly Tudor style. Constructed in 1841, it originally formed the workhouse proper of the Newtownards Union workhouse, designed by Oxford architect George Wilkinson. The building is positioned, as was typical of Irish workhouses, between the front administrative building and the infirmary to the rear. It is now part of Ards District Hospital.

The building is predominantly two storeys with three-storey gabled sections at both the north and south ends. The roofs are gabled and covered in Bangor blue slates. The main central section is plain and rectangular, with simple sash windows to the ground and first floors on both the eastern and western facades. The eastern facade is interrupted by an untidy corridor connecting to the entrance block, lined with many sash windows with painted sandstone lintels; some window openings appear non-original and many cills are concrete. The north and south end sections feature larger square window openings with double sash windows on each floor and facade. A red brick tower-like extension projects from the south facade of the southern section, containing upper-floor doorways and an attached fire escape stairway.

On the western facade, a rubble-built return originally connected this building to the infirmary further west. Sections of this return historically housed the laundry to the south and the kitchen to the north. The laundry is single storey with a hipped roof, now altered with modern windows and a brown concrete brick boiler house extension. The kitchen has been greatly extended in recent times with modern windows throughout. Lean-to sections are attached to the rear of the main central section and either side of the return. Rendered chimney stacks sit on the roof. The rainwater goods are a mixture of cast iron and PVC.

Originally designed to house 600 paupers, the building contained large separate wards for adults in the outer wings, with quarters and school rooms for children in the centre. The utility return block housed the kitchen, laundry and dining hall. Following the conversion of the complex to a district hospital, largely completed by the 1930s, the building was progressively altered. It latterly served as nurses' accommodation and hospital offices.

The building has undergone significant recent alterations both inside and out, including modern extensions, window frames and doors, which have compromised its heritage value and removed it from listing consideration.