Former RUC Station, Mill Street, Gilford, Co Down, BT63 6HG

Former RUC Station, Mill Street, Gilford

A symmetrical detached two-storey four-bay rendered former police station, built around 1940 to a standard design by T.F.O. Rippingham, architect to the Ministry of Finance from 1922 to 1956–57. The station is located on the north side of Castle Street, east of Gilford centre.

The building has a rectangular plan with a single-storey box extension to the north. The roof is hipped natural slate with rounded black ridge tiles and rendered chimneystack. Cast-iron ogee rainwater goods are fitted on projecting eaves with cast-iron downpipes and hoppers. The walling is painted roughcast render with a continuous moulded sill course to a diminished first floor and a chamfered plinth course.

The principal elevation faces south and is symmetrically arranged with three windows to the centre at first floor level. The ground floor features a shallow breakfront to the centre comprising three shallow recessed arches containing replacement square-headed doors to left and right with a window to the centre. The three arches are connected by a platband at impost level. To the far left is a replacement timber casement window and to the far right is a 6/6 window. Windows are mainly six-pane over six-pane timber sliding sash, those to the ground floor having projecting stone sills. The west elevation has a window to the first floor right and a uPVC window to the ground floor right with a smooth rendered arched window head. The north (rear) elevation is five windows wide to the first floor with irregular fenestration at ground floor comprising two diminutive windows and two 6/6 windows. To the left of centre is a timber door with narrow sidelights and transom light, abutted at the left by the box bay extension. The east elevation has two windows to the ground floor and a window to the first floor left.

The original interior comprised a guard room, cleaning room, cell, store, kitchen and pantry on the ground floor, and on the first floor, a sergeant's office, cubicle, dormitory and bathroom. The sergeant's accommodation on the first floor included a reception room, kitchen, scullery, three bedrooms, a bathroom and WC.

The architectural detailing reflects the neo-Georgian style favoured for public buildings of this era, with recessed arches and diminished first floor. The hipped roofs and chimneys recall early eighteenth-century styles, while the arched recesses to the front facade are borrowed from the Regency or Late Georgian era. Rippingham's design could be adapted to suit the size of building needed, varying from three to eight or nine windows in width. The design was widely admired as it blended with older buildings within a townscape or suggested the character of a Georgian farmhouse in rural areas.

The building is bounded to the road at the south by a painted roughcast render wall with coping stone surmounted by corrugated steel and wire security fence. Vehicular access is to the centre with a pedestrian gate to the left of centre via steel gates. The site has a tarmacadam front yard and overgrown garden to the rear with a large timber shed. A detached garage stands to the northeast. The site is bounded to the north by a corrugated steel and wire fence.

The police station was built as part of a planned programme of RUC station construction. A significant increase in police station building occurred in the decade after partition, a time of Unionist consolidation and of suspicion and fear of Republican insurgency. Rippingham's design was intended to be secure and defensible but was in keeping with Ulster's previous quiet architectural styles in its neo-Georgian character. The Royal Irish Constabulary was formed in 1867; early constabulary barracks were housed in existing buildings and provided simple living accommodation, a small office and a cell. It was not until after partition that purpose-built RUC barracks began to be constructed across the province, incorporating married quarters for the sergeant in charge.

The valuation records show the building was valued at £60 when first entered in 1940 as property of the Ministry of Home Affairs for Northern Ireland on a previously empty plot. Valuer's notes indicate the building was new in October 1940 and had been built to the usual standard design. The building was first shown captioned as "RUC Station" on the Ordnance Survey map edition dating from the 1960s–70s. Corrugated iron outbuildings to the rear have survived.

Gilford police station provided policing services to the town and rural area for more than 60 years. In June 2006 a recommendation was made for its closure and the building now lies vacant.

Much of the original fenestration and detailing remains intact. The building retains much of its original character and is one of a decreasing number of former police barracks that have survived relatively unaltered. Of social importance and historic interest, it represents a significant phase in the architectural provision of RUC infrastructure in Northern Ireland.