Haypark Hospital, Whitehall Parade, Belfast

Haypark Residential Home is a large, imposing former private mansion built around 1880 in the Scots Baronial style, located on the west side of Whitehall Parade, west of the Ormeau Road in Belfast. The original architect is unknown, though the building was later altered for institutional use by the well-regarded Belfast practice of Young and Mackenzie. It is a building of considerable social and architectural interest, carrying a long and varied history of institutional use across more than a century.

ARCHITECTURAL DESCRIPTION

The original building is asymmetrical, two storeys in height, and multi-bay in plan, with a rectangular footprint and a prominent tower. To the west it is abutted by a later L-shaped extension of two storeys with an attic, constructed after 1989. The roof is pitched natural slate with angled ridge tiles and an off-centre leaded valley; the tower is topped with a pyramidal roof. Rock-faced sandstone chimneystacks with corniced caps are positioned between bays, to the east wall, and to the tower. The original cast-iron rainwater goods are of a profiled pattern on projecting stone eaves. The walls of the original block are finished in quarry-faced squared uncoursed sandstone with a stringcourse between the floors; the later extension is cement-rendered, also with a stringcourse.

Window openings throughout the original block are transomed and mullioned, set in ashlar sandstone with full chamfered surrounds and are generally tripartite in arrangement unless noted otherwise; all windows have been replaced in uPVC. The extension has uPVC casement windows.

The principal elevation faces north. The right bay is wider and gabled on profiled kneeler stones, with a window to each floor and a blind oculus. The central bay features a curvilinear wall-head dormer with a profiled cornice and blind cartouche, inset with a bipartite window. Below this sits a prostyle tetrastyle portico — that is, a freestanding porch with four columns across its front — with square-section piers having ornate foliate and scrolled capitals supporting an entablature, all raised on a quarry-faced stone plinth. The entrance itself has been reconfigured and now comprises a uPVC door and window, accessed via two stone steps with an original encaustic tiled platform.

The four-stage tower is positioned to the left of the principal elevation. The ground and first stage windows are closely spaced; the third stage has a window with blind apron panelling and a lank shield set into a recess above it; the fourth stage has bipartite windows to three faces. The later extension sits flush to the right and projects northward; it is considered to be of no architectural interest.

The east elevation is also three bays wide, with a wide gabled bay to the right matching the treatment on the north, and a gabled wall-head dormer to the left. Ground floor windows to the central and right bays are plain casements, paired on the right bay.

The rear, south elevation is more modest in character, with two curvilinear wall-head dormers to the right over a set of three windows, a gablet over the left bay, and an irregular arrangement of openings across three floors, with windows set in plain reveals with lintels. The west elevation of the original block is fully concealed by the later extension.

The post-1989 extension is a two-storey roughcast rendered block with an attic. On its north elevation are two large, near-square windows at ground floor, two narrower windows at first floor, and an oculus in the attic storey, with a continuous stringcourse separating the ground and first floors. The west elevation is similar, with three windows on each floor and three gabled dormers in the attic. The south elevation mirrors the north in general arrangement but has two doors at ground floor level.

SETTING

The building is approached from Whitehall Parade through red brick entrance walls, which are not original. To the north and east there is an enlarged tarmac entrance and car parking area with a lawned perimeter. Late 20th century residential development lies directly to the west and south, diminishing the original setting of the house.

Materials summary: slate roof; sandstone walling; original cast-iron rainwater goods; uPVC windows throughout.

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

The building first appears on the 1883 Ordnance Survey map labelled "Whitehall," a mansion house set within approximately two acres of land. Early recorded occupants include F.J. McCarthy in 1890 and S. Gregg, an iron merchant, in 1901, at which time the address was given as "Whitehall, Sunnyside Street."

Around 1901 the house was acquired for use as the Ulster Penitentiary for Ladies, more commonly known as the Edgar Home. This institution had been founded in 1839 in Brunswick Street by the Reverend John Edgar, a Presbyterian minister and philanthropist, for the rehabilitation of what were described as "penitent prostitutes." On its move to Whitehall off the Ormeau Road, the practice of Young and Mackenzie was engaged to reorder the mansion and oversee the construction of a new laundry house. The works, carried out by contractor Courtney and Co. at a cost of approximately £10,000, provided capacity for 75 inmates. By the time of the third edition Ordnance Survey map of 1901, the house — by then labelled "Edgar Home" — had been significantly extended to the west. The institution first appears in records as No. 36 Whitehall Parade in 1925.

Around 1932 the building was purchased by the Northern Ireland Government for redevelopment as the Haypark Special School for Mentally Defective Children. It was reordered by T.N. McClay, architect to the Ministry of Finance, with architecture and engineering services estimated at £10,521. Following assessment by Dr. Deane of the Ministry of Education, 189 children across Northern Ireland were identified as suitable for the school, which had capacity for up to 120 pupils — 40 day pupils and 80 boarders. Robert Shanks, previously principal of Thompson Public Elementary School, was appointed as principal in July 1935, and the school opened in March 1936. The concept of specialist schools for children with disabilities was new at the time, and many parents were reluctant to send their children; the first intake was only 25 pupils, 14 of them boarders, rising to 30 in the second term and reaching a peak of 97 pupils in 1939.

In 1941 Haypark was acquired by the Ministry of Health for use as the Ulster Hospital for Women and Children. That hospital had originally been founded in 1872 in Chichester Street, before moving to Fisherwick Place in the same year and then to Templemore Avenue in 1891. The Templemore Avenue premises were requisitioned by the army during the Second World War, which appears to have prompted the relocation of the gynaecology department to Haypark House. As the war ended, the children's ward — temporarily housed at Saintfield House during the Blitz — was also moved to Haypark. No. 32 Whitehall Parade was purchased as a doctor's residence in 1953. The Ulster Hospital continued to operate from Haypark until 1962, when a new purpose-built hospital was constructed at Dundonald.

Between 1963 and 1971 the building operated as Haypark Convalescent Hospital, and from 1971 until 1988 as Haypark Geriatric Hospital. Planning consents including listed building consent were granted in 1988 and 1989 for improvements and extension to convert the former hospital into a residential home, and for the construction of a wider residential complex of apartments, houses, and a private nursing home. The Haypark Residential Home opened in 1992 and continues to operate.

While the building remains a good example of its type — notable for its rock-faced snecked sandstone construction with sandstone dressings and for the retention of its original portico — its architectural interest has been reduced by alterations and the loss of interior detailing, and its setting has been diminished by the encroachment of 20th century suburban development.