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

The Nightingale Wards, Craigavon House, Belfast

This single-storey, 19-bay, Classical-style hospital ward was built in 1917 in the grounds of Craigavon House, in the townland of Ballymisert, east Belfast. It was designed by Robert Inkerman Calwell (1854–1927), a local architect and civil engineer who was active during the First World War, having also designed a Ulster Volunteer Force hospital at Botanic Avenue in 1915 and a Soldiers and Sailors Service Club on Waring Street in 1917. The building is a typical Nightingale Ward — a building type named after Florence Nightingale — comprising a long open hospital ward with side rooms for storage, office space and patient isolation. It has since been refurbished and converted into 12 apartments, with extensions added to the east elevation and underground parking provided to the central section. The building and its associated garden structures are of architectural, historic and social interest and contribute to the heritage of the east Belfast area.

Historical Background

Craigavon House itself was built in 1870 to a design by Thomas Jackson and Sons and is located on the Circular Road in Ballymisert. It was initially leased by a David S. Kerr to James Craig (1828–1900), a whiskey distiller of Dunville and Co., who was recorded in the Annual Revisions with the property valued at £236. On James Craig's death in 1900, Craigavon passed to his son, also named James. James Craig Junior (1871–1940) was born at Craigavon shortly after the house was built. He initially pursued a career as a stockbroker before enlisting in the Royal Irish Rifles during the Second Boer War (1899–1900). He began his political career in 1903 when he was elected to Westminster as a Unionist Member of Parliament, rising to prominence between 1912 and 1914 as one of the leaders of the Unionist anti-Home Rule movement. During the Home Rule Crisis the house effectively served as the headquarters of that movement. The Unionist Cabinet held meetings in the billiard room, and the building was also described as the nerve centre of the secret arms committee which organised the gun-running at Larne on 24th April 1914. The lawns in front of Craigavon were frequently used for anti-Home Rule rallies, and it was here in 1913 that the Ulster Volunteer Force was formed. Craig's biographer St. John Ervine noted that Craigavon was the site where "many eventful acts were performed and much that was important to his country was said and done."

The Craig family continued to occupy Craigavon until around 1917, when the Irish Builder recorded that the building was converted into a hospital for shell-shocked Ulster Volunteer Force soldiers returning from the First World War. It was this conversion that prompted the construction of the Nightingale Ward. A plaque at the site records that the hospital was opened by Lady Craig on 21st July 1917. Following the conversion of Craigavon House and the construction of the Nightingale Ward, the combined rateable value of Craigavon and its Gate Lodge was increased to £280. The Nightingale Ward was first recorded on the Ordnance Survey map of 1920–21, which depicted the building in its current layout.

Following the First World War, Craigavon was sold to Down County Council and maintained as a hospital for war veterans, administered by the Somme Association, until the 1990s. Under the First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936–57), the value of the hospital and its outbuildings was assessed at £530, rising to £1,600 by the end of the Second Revaluation (1956–72). Craigavon House was listed at category B+ in 1986. The Nightingale Ward continued in use as a hospital ward for war veterans until 1998, when the Somme Hospital was constructed on the Circular Road. The ward lay vacant from 2000, when it was acquired by Greenbay Estates Ltd., who converted it into self-contained apartments at an estimated cost of £1.1 million. This conversion, carried out around 2002, also included the development of housing within Craigavon's walled courtyard and the construction of the extension to the rear of the building.

James Craig Junior went on to become the first Prime Minister of Northern Ireland following the Partition of Ireland and the establishment of the Northern Ireland Government in 1921, and was elevated to the peerage as Viscount Craigavon in 1927. He died whilst still serving as Prime Minister and was buried in a Portland limestone mausoleum in the grounds of Stormont.

Exterior Description

The building has a natural slate pitched roof with three gabled projections to the west elevation, modern conservation-style rooflights, and cast metal rainwater goods. The walls are smooth rendered throughout.

The principal elevation faces west. Three bays project forward from the main building: the northern three bays, the central three bays, and the southern three bays. All three projecting gables are treated identically: smooth rendered walls with a plinth topped by a splayed moulding, a continuous stone cill course, and fluted pilasters with Ionic capitals separating square-headed window openings fitted with six-pane timber windows. Above, a frieze is topped by a projecting cornice with dentil detail, a smooth rendered tympanum with an applied medallion, and a pediment with dentil detail.

Between the three projecting gables, the main block has five segmental-arched openings in each section, now glazed with margin-paned style framing and plain glass; the second and fourth arches in each section have timber and glazed doors. The plinth is obscured by modern timber decking. A continuous cill course runs along the main block, with smooth rendered pilasters between openings and simple capitals. Each opening has a hood moulding with scrolled keystone detail. Dentils run along the eaves, with a half-round cast metal gutter.

The north elevation abuts the billiard room of Craigavon House. The east elevation has been extended with modern additions. The original northern section of the east elevation has three segmental-arched openings, now glazed with margin-paned style framing and plain glass, with the third arch infilled and fitted with a timber and glazed door. Detailing here matches the main block: plinth obscured by modern timber decking, continuous cill course, smooth rendered pilasters with simple capitals, hood mouldings with scrolled keystone detail, dentils to the eaves, and a half-round cast metal gutter.

The modern additions to the east elevation include a two-storey, four-bay projecting gable with a double-pile hipped roof with terracotta ridges, smooth rendered walls, and square-headed window openings with six-pane timber windows. A continuous square hood moulding and continuous cill moulding run at upper floor level, with four square-headed openings at ground floor fitted with four-paned top-hung timber windows. This projecting gable abuts a modern three-stage tower with smooth rendered walls, round-arched window openings with continuous hood mouldings, cill courses, and modern timber windows at all stages. A two-storey section to the rear has a glazed conservatory, and the tower is finished with a castellated parapet with concentric arched detailing below the parapet. To the south of this tower is a modern two-storey bay with a blind arch at ground floor and a timber conservatory at first floor. The building then steps back to a single-storey section with a pitched roof and external steps connecting back to the original ward block. At the south end of this section is a large square-headed entrance to the underground garage, fitted with a roller door. A modern two-storey three-bay projection beyond this has two segmental-arched window openings flanking a blind arch at ground floor, all with a continuous hood moulding, and three square-headed window openings at first floor with six-pane timber windows, a continuous hood moulding and cill course. Steps to the south lead back down to the original single-storey two-bay section of the main ward block, detailed as before.

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

The Walled Garden lies to the south of the former Nightingale Wards. Originally a garden area serving the house and latterly the hospital, it now encloses a residential development. The walls are built in red brick with a bond of two rows of stretchers to one row of headers, topped with stone coping. At the south-east and south-west corners are two-stage octagonal towers in red brick with castellated parapets with stone coping. The upper stage of each tower has alternating ornate cruciform arrow-loop openings and Tudor-arched openings, all with stone architraves and now fitted with protective polycarbonate coverings. The lower stage has a blank brick wall with Tudor-arched door openings with stone architraves; the south-western tower has a timber sheeted door to the west and south outer faces, and the south-eastern tower has openings to the south-west and south outer faces. Doorways are also formed on the inner exposed faces at the corners. A new opening has been formed in the west wall to allow vehicular access to the development. The area to the south, outside the Walled Garden, was under residential development at the time of listing.

Setting

The Nightingale Wards, now converted to apartments, are situated to the south of Craigavon House, with the original Clock Tower and Walled Garden to the east. A modern day nursery is located immediately to the east of the site, with boundary hedging providing a limited garden area to the apartments. Access is taken from a new entrance road on Circular Road, immediately adjacent to the Gate Lodge.

Materials

The roof is finished in natural slate. Rainwater goods are cast metal. External walls are smooth render throughout. Windows are timber.