Marlborough House, Central Way, Tamnafiglassan, Craigavon, BT64 1AD

Marlborough House is a freestanding Modernist office block of seven storeys, built between 1973 and 1977 on Central Way, Craigavon. It was designed by Sandy Bannerman and Donal Crawley of the Craigavon Development Commission's architectural team as one of the first components of the town centre of Craigavon — Northern Ireland's only New Town development. It is the sole surviving building from that original town centre phase in anything resembling its original form, and as such stands as the most tangible physical remnant of the entire Craigavon project.

SIGNIFICANCE AND CONTEXT

Craigavon was conceived following Sir Robert Matthew's advisory plan for the Belfast region, produced between 1960 and 1963. The plan's central recommendation was the creation of an entirely new large-scale settlement between Lurgan and Portadown, intended to draw projected population growth away from Belfast. The Northern Ireland Government approved the scheme and the newly constituted Craigavon Development Commission began work in 1965. The new city was planned along a linear arrangement that would eventually absorb the two existing towns into a single conglomeration. At its heart, a compact rectangular Central Core was to contain commercial and civic buildings — government offices, a retail complex, hotel, post office, warehouses, and a bus and railway station — arranged between the existing railway line to the north and a new road alignment to the south, bisected by a dual carriageway. Residential development and recreational spaces were planned beyond the core to east and west, and poorly drained land to the east was to be flooded to create two lakes.

The plan set out a phased programme: the basic elements of the core in place by 1974, expanded office and retail provision, a courthouse, telephone exchange, and multi-level car parks spanning over the dual carriageway by 1976, the bulk of housing completed by 1981, and towards the end of the century a large sports stadium, sports centre, and museum. The whole concept was viewed at the time as the stimulus for the modernisation of urban planning in Northern Ireland, and in some respects for the wider modernisation of Northern Irish society.

The onset of the Troubles, combined with economic slowdown, a much slower rise in population than had been projected, concerns about the quality of housing in the earliest new estates, and a consequent failure to attract long-term residents, stymied the project. Progress on the Central Core was slow. Building work on the first phase of what was by then being called Craigavon Town Centre did not commence until late 1973, and by late 1976 only the lakes and the retail complex — Craigavon Shopping Centre, not yet fully tenanted — had materialised.

Construction of Marlborough House began in late November 1973. Heralded at the time as the "first beat for heart of New City", it was promoted as state-of-the-art office accommodation: contemporary sources describe it as "one of the most advanced blocks in Britain", an "ultramodern office block", a "city centre showpiece", offering "accommodation of the highest standard" that far outshone "anything on offer in the rest of Ulster". Particular attention was drawn to its futuristic heating system, described as using "thermal balance rays" and as being "completely automatic", and to its use of natural light to reduce running costs. It is recognised as an early local venture into creating a sustainable large-scale workplace building, and may have been one of the first large fully air-conditioned office buildings in Northern Ireland.

The building was originally intended to be ready for occupation by the end of 1975 or early 1976. It was hoped it would serve as administration space for the new Craigavon Borough Council — the body that succeeded the Development Commission in 1973 — whilst also attracting private businesses to the area and acting as a catalyst for the new town centre. In practice, no private tenants came forward, and in January 1976 the Council declined the offer of a floor and a half, opting instead to pursue a dedicated civic centre. The Government decided in May 1977 to use the building for Housing Executive and Civil Service personnel, but the absence of canteen facilities and disagreements over the telephone system to be installed left the block vacant for a further year and a half. Officially named Marlborough House in September 1978 — the name was chosen by local schoolchildren and was reportedly inspired by Marlbrook Terrace, a row of twelve dwellings built in 1953–54 that stood close to the north-east of the site — the building was featured the following month in a newspaper article as "the house that nobody wants" and was dubbed by some locals a "white elephant". Others, however, praised it as a "luxury building" and "the utmost in offices". The block's first occupants, the staff of HM Inspector of Taxes, Craigavon, arrived in December 1978. They were joined by the Area Officers of the Housing Executive in March 1980, with the local Department of the Environment Planning Office taking up the remaining three floors by the end of that year.

Despite the subsequent completion of two other elements of the original central core plan — the civic centre (opened 1983) and the courthouse (opened 1985) — the impetus for major officially led development in the Craigavon area had virtually ceased by the mid-1980s. Later decades brought extensions to the shopping centre, scattered retail units, upgraded leisure facilities, and significant private housing development, none of which bore any reference to the 1969 grand plan. Marlborough House has remained the only office block to have been built within the locality, and has been retained for government use since the 1980s. At the time of the listing assessment in January 2024, only a small part of the building remains occupied.

DESCRIPTION

In overall form, the building is a compact, slightly flattened cuboid — essentially a large cube with a recessed, cantilevered ground floor level and a set-back plant section on the roof. The plan is broadly square, with a wide single-storey entrance and foyer projection to the north.

Elevations — upper levels

Apart from the entrance projection, all four sides of the building are identical. The upper six floors are composed entirely of a uniform grid of textured, exposed aggregate, grey-coloured rectangular concrete panels. Within each outer panel sits a marginally smaller and slightly projecting inner panel with curved corners. Each inner panel has a similarly textured, white-coloured surface and contains a tall, narrow, offset pill-shaped fixed-pane window. Each inner panel projects further at the top, creating a subtle but noticeable illusion — particularly when viewed at close quarters from ground level — that the faces of the building are splayed, giving the block the appearance of being wedge-shaped.

Ground level

The recessed ground floor is largely composed of the same textured grey concrete panels, again with offset pill-shaped windows. The panels curve into matching concrete paving, and the pilotis supporting the overhanging upper floors are clad in the same material. The north-west corner section is finished in brown rustic brick. There are several service doorways to the rear on the west side, and another doorway with an access ramp to the south.

Entrance projection

Although large, the entrance projection is discretely positioned to the right of centre on the north side. It is finished in the same manner as the rest of the ground level, with an overhanging flat roof and a tall parapet. Its broad frontage has five large openings, centrally and symmetrically positioned, all with curved corners. The three central openings are doorways: the outer two have glazed doors that appear to be replacements, and the central one has a plain flat-panel double-leaf door. The flanking openings are windows with two-pane frames. A relatively recently constructed access ramp stands in front of the entrance.

Interior

The interior represents an early local example of open-plan office space. It was designed from the outset to be flexible in layout. There have been some minor changes to internal detailing and arrangement, but the structure is largely as built.

SETTING

The building stands in a largely open setting to the west of Central Way. To the immediate east is a large car park. A landscaped parkland area lies to the west and north. A smaller area of landscaping and a further car park to the south separate the block from more recently constructed buildings. Several small single-storey freestanding structures stand close to the rear of the building. The original landscape design is fulfilled on three of the four sides. The open location emphasises the block's solitary mass, its style, its ornamentation, and its proportions, and reinforces its character as the sole intact remnant of the new town centre plan for Craigavon.