244 Whitewell Road, Newtownabbey, Co. Antrim, BT36 7EN, (The Old Throne Hospital)

Throne Hospital is a detached, ten-bay, two-storey-with-attic French Gothic Revival building constructed in 1873–74 in red brick with buff sandstone dressings, situated on an elevated plateau overlooking Whitewell Road in north Belfast. It was designed by Timothy Hevey (1846–78), a Belfast-based architect described by the Dictionary of Irish Architects as the city's leading Catholic architect, and built by local firm H. & J. Martin at a cost of £4,000. The building is now in private ownership and used as office accommodation.

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

The land on which the hospital stands was formerly part of a gentleman's estate known as The Throne. Around 1860, the Griffith's Valuation records it as the residence of Robert Simms, a partner in the wholesale publishing firm Simms & McIntyre. The hospital was built at the bequest of Samuel Martin, a flax merchant from Killyleagh, who conceived the idea of establishing a children's hospital in a rural district close to Belfast. Following Martin's death in 1872, his father John Martin realised the vision by purchasing 28 acres of land at The Throne. The site was considered ideal, situated on the lower escarpment of Cavehill and commanding an uninterrupted view of Belfast Lough, the County Down coast, and the Crumlin hills. Hevey designed the hospital to accommodate 32 beds, and it was officially opened on 1st October 1874. Control was transferred to Belfast Royal Hospital the following year. The first Annual Report recorded that 121 patients were admitted in the year ending 31st August 1876.

Upon taking control, Belfast Royal Hospital stipulated that a convalescent home be constructed on the site within two years. The memorial stone of the new building was laid on 18th October 1877. The Morning News reported that the extension was "in the Gothic style of architecture, elegantly and tastefully designed," with dressings of white sandstone from the Scrabo Quarry in County Down. The building was divided into two departments — a children's home designed for 32 children on the right, and a convalescent home for upwards of 30 patients on the left — connected by a spacious corridor 240 feet in length. This extension was designed by Thomas Jackson & Son, again with H. & J. Martin as builders, at a cost of £7,000. The Annual Revisions set the total rateable value of the hospital and convalescent home at £305 and 10 shillings in 1878. Beringer's history of the hospital notes that this was the first convalescent home to be erected in Ireland.

The hospital continued operating into the late 20th century, incorporating a Plastic Surgery unit from 1963 and serving as a hospital for the care of elderly patients from 1973. In 1987, the architectural historian Paul Larmour described it as "a vigorous and original treatment of French Gothic in polychrome brick with white Scrabo dressings." The building was listed in 1987 and closed on 4th November 1992. It quickly fell into disrepair and was badly vandalised in 1998. The adjoining convalescent home, which had extended to the south-west of the surviving building and was the larger of the two structures as recorded on the fourth edition Ordnance Survey map of 1921, was demolished around 1995 following residential development in the area.

Between 2000 and 2003, the former hospital was restored by Donnelly O'Neill Architects, who converted the interior into office accommodation and erected a modern extension to the west. During the second survey, the building was occupied by Donnelly O'Neill Architects themselves.

EXTERIOR

The building has a rectangular plan with a hipped natural slate roof incorporating stone ridge tiles and a projecting stone eaves course over a brick-corbelled table. There are modern metal rooflights at attic level, and rounded uPVC guttering and downpipes. The south elevation is gabled with buff sandstone coping to a raised parapet, and is flanked by a pair of two-storey octagonal towers with banded natural slate roofs and gablets to the south, west, north, and east. These towers feature a decorative eaves course with machicolation and trefoil insets, and a buff sandstone and mosaic string course below. Exposed rafter tails are visible throughout. The projecting east and west bays have hipped roofs, while the east projecting bay also has a gabled dormer with a moulded buff sandstone raised parapet with acroteria. A mono-pitched roof covers the north extension, which has a crow-stepped parapet with moulded sandstone coping.

East Elevation: Ten bays, two storeys, with a projecting two-storey entrance bay and gabled dormer. A buff sandstone eaves course sits over a brick corbel table, with buff sandstone springing and sill courses to both ground- and first-floor openings, blue brick banding below, and a battered brick plinth. Piers between the openings divide the elevation into bays. The third bay from the south projects further to form an external chimney breast, which is corbelled out from the sandstone string course at ground floor between arched window openings and then tapers back in at eaves level. The pediment of the gabled dormer has a raised roundel, with a projecting moulded sandstone eaves course supported on piers with a corbelled brick table.

Ground-floor openings have segmental arches with alternating buff and red sandstone headers, a bull-nosed inset edge, a roundel to the keystone and springing stones, and a blue brick header over. First-floor openings are square-headed with projecting sandstone sills, with the exception of the window nearest the north end, which has a segmental arch. The pair of square-headed openings immediately to the north of the projecting bay are separated by a sandstone pilaster mullion.

The projecting entrance gable at ground floor has a square-headed opening with a modern steel beam supporting a pair of pointed-arch openings over timber-sheeted double entrance doors. This is framed by a buff sandstone architrave with a raised roundel above, all set within a trefoil-headed arch with a sandstone hood mould and square hood stops. At first floor, a pair of trefoil-headed window openings with stone cusping are set within a square-headed opening.

South Elevation: Three bays and two storeys, flanked by the octagonal towers. At ground floor, a segmental-headed opening to a depressed arch has buff and red sandstone headers, a hood mould above, and a tiled mosaic spandrel topped by moulded stone coping with stooled ends. Decorative metal railings form the guarding at the balcony edge. At first floor, a Gothic-arched opening has a depressed roundel detail to the buff stones, a hood mould, square hood stops, and alternating red and blue brick headers above. At attic level, a trefoil-arched louvred opening is accompanied by a decorative mosaic-banded spring course. The towers have round-arched first-floor openings with Gothic arched headers and springing courses, polychromatic brick headers above, and blue brick string courses below. Ground-floor openings are square-headed with a buff sandstone lintel course and a round-arched blue brick header over. A projecting sandstone sill course is separated from the battered plinth by a blue brick band. A segmental arched opening spans between the two towers to support a balcony over double doors with a fanlight.

West Elevation: Features a projecting two-storey bay with buff sandstone eaves on a brick corbel table, buff sandstone springing and sill courses to ground and first floor, blue brick banding below, a battered plinth, and piers between openings. Ground-floor openings are segmental-arched with buff and red sandstone headers, a bull-nosed inset edge, a roundel to the keystone and springing stones, and a blue brick header over. First-floor openings are square-headed with projecting sandstone sills. A modern extension, constructed around 2003, abuts this elevation.

North Elevation: The north extension has a chamfered brick plinth. Ground-floor openings are square-headed with concrete lintels, mullions, and splayed sills, while first-floor openings have sandstone sills. A former door opening on the west side has been bricked up.

INTERIOR

The building was extensively renovated in 2003 following a fire that resulted in the loss of much of the original internal fabric. However, the roof trusses and scrolled corbels survived and are now exposed within the current open-plan interior volume.

SETTING AND MATERIALS

The building is set within its own grounds on a plateau overlooking Whitewell Road, with car parking and lawns to the east and south, and a metal fence perimeter to the west and north. A hedge forms the boundary to the east and south, with a contemporary metal entrance gateway to the east. Rendered walls lead from the north-east to the entrance doors, with a ramp to the east. A six-bay, two-storey modern extension was added to the west around 2003.

Materials: natural slate roof; uPVC rainwater goods; red brick walling with buff sandstone dressings; replacement timber windows.