The Nightingale Wards, The Walled Garden, (Former Somme Hospital), Circular Road, Belfast, Co Antrim BT4 2WG

The Nightingale Wards, The Walled Garden

The Nightingale Wards is a single-storey Classical-style building of 19 bays, constructed in 1917 as a ward block for the newly converted Somme Hospital. It was designed by Robert Inkerman Calwell (1854–1927), a local architect and civil engineer. The building is located to the south of Craigavon House and is a typical Nightingale Ward—a long open hospital ward with side rooms for storage, office space and patient isolation, named after Florence Nightingale. The building has been refurbished and converted into 12 apartments, with modern extensions to the east elevation and underground parking provision to the central section.

The roof is constructed of natural slate with a pitched profile featuring three gabled projections to the west, modern conservation-style rooflights and cast metal rainwater goods. The walls are smooth rendered. The principal elevation faces west, with the northern three bays, central three bays and southern three bays projecting forward of the main building line. All projecting gables feature smooth rendered walls with a plinth topped with splayed moulding, a continuous stone cill course, fluted pilasters with Ionic capitals separating square-headed window openings with six-pane timber windows, a frieze topped by a projecting cornice with dentil detail, a smooth rendered tympanum with applied medallion, and a pediment with dentil detail. The main block has smooth rendered walls with five segmental-arched openings on each side, now glazed with margin-paned style framing and plain glass. The second and fourth arches have timber and glazed doors. A continuous cill course runs across, with smooth rendered pilasters between openings with simple capitals. Hood mouldings to the openings feature scrolled keystone detail, dentils run to the eaves, and half-round cast-metal guttering is installed. The plinth is obscured by modern timber decking.

The north elevation abuts the Billiard Room of Craigavon House. The east elevation now incorporates modern extensions. Three segmental arched openings to the northern three bays are original, now glazed with margin-paned style framing and plain glass; the third arch has been infilled with a timber and glazed door. The plinth is obscured by modern timber decking, with a continuous cill course, smooth rendered pilasters between openings with simple capitals, hood mouldings to openings with scrolled keystone detail, dentils to the eaves and half-round cast-metal gutter. A two-storey four-bay projecting gable (modern) features a double-pile hipped roof with terracotta ridges, smooth rendered walls, square-headed window openings with six-pane timber windows, a continuous square hood moulding and continuous cill moulding to upper floor level, and four square-headed window openings to the ground floor with four-paned top-hung timber windows. This gable abuts a three-stage tower (modern) with smooth rendered walls, round-arched window openings with continuous hood mouldings, cill courses and modern timber windows to all stages. A two-storey section to the rear features a glazed conservatory, and the roof line terminates in a castellated parapet with concentric arched detailing below. A two-storey bay (modern) to the south has a blind arch to the ground floor and a timber conservatory to the first floor. The bay steps back to a single-storey section with pitched roof and external steps to the main ward block (original). A two-storey three-bay projection (modern) features two segmental-arched window openings flanking a blind arch, all with continuous hood moulding, to ground floor level; three square-headed window openings to the first floor have six-pane timber windows, continuous hood moulding and cill course. Steps to the south lead to a single-storey two-bay main ward block (original) with detailing as before. To the south end a large square-headed entrance to the underground garage (modern) features a roller door. A large square-headed entrance to the underground garage is positioned at the south end with roller door.

The south elevation has a modern two-storey extension to the east and the original single-storey ward block to the west.

The Walled Garden is located to the south of the former Nightingale Wards and originally served as a garden area for the house and subsequently for the hospital. It now encloses a residential development. The walls are constructed in redbrick with two rows of stretchers and one row of headers, topped with stone coping. Two-stage tower details occupy the south-east and south-west corners, octagonal in plan form in red brick with castellated parapets and stone coping. The upper stage has alternate ornate cruciform arrow-loop openings and Tudor-arched openings, all with stone architraves and now having protective polycarbonate coverings. The lower level features blank brick walls with Tudor-arched door openings with stone architraves and timber sheeted doors to the west and south on the outer faces of the south-western tower and to the south-west and south of the south-eastern tower. Doorways also access the inner exposed faces at the corners. A new opening has been formed in the west elevation to allow vehicular access to the development. The area to the south outside the Walled Garden is currently being developed for residential use.

The Clock Tower is now part of the complex. The Nightingale Wards, now a modern apartment complex, sit to the south of Craigavon House with the original Clock Tower and Walled Garden to the east. A modern Day Nursery is located on the site immediately to the east with boundary hedging providing limited garden area to the apartments. Access is via a new entrance road on Circular Road immediately adjacent to the Gate Lodge.