NI Regional War Room

The NI Regional War Room is a single-storey building with basement, of rectangular plan, constructed in concrete with a flat roof. It occupies a corner site at the junction of Mount Eden Park and Malone Hill Park in the Malone area of South Belfast, where surrounding streets are composed predominantly of houses built during the 1930s and post-war periods.

The building was designed in 1952-53 by the Working Party on Civil Defence War Rooms to serve as a Regional Government War Room. It was built to be capable of withstanding nuclear attack, featuring thick in-situ concrete walls with blast doors at opposite ends (north-west and south-east). These doors now replaced, originally led onto external semi-circular concrete pads that may have functioned as porch or blast wall areas.

The structure is constructed of painted rough-cast concrete walls with an advanced painted concrete bullnose plinth on all four sides. The flat roof overhangs the walls by approximately 600mm on all sides, with a painted shuttered concrete soffit and fascia clad in proprietary metal product with metal studs to timber behind. The roof covering wraps over the fascia at all edges. On the roof level elevation onto Mount Eden Park, profiled metal sheeting conceals three concrete box-shaped structures behind, serving plant and water tank functions.

The north-west elevation is plain and rectangular, featuring a metal fire door to the left side accessed via a modern concrete ramp between concrete dwarf walls with recent painted tubular metal handrails. An external semi-circular in-situ concrete pad sits to ground in front of the door and ramp. A painted cast iron downpipe with hopper is located approximately mid-way along this elevation.

The south-west elevation is plain and rectangular without openings, with a painted cast iron downpipe and hopper at approximately mid-way point.

The south-east elevation mirrors the north-west, featuring a metal fire door to the right side accessed via two modern concrete steps to a small landing between concrete dwarf walls with recent painted tubular metal handrails. An external semi-circular concrete pad sits to ground in front of the door. A painted cast iron downpipe with hopper is positioned at approximately mid-way point.

The north-east elevation is plain and rectangular without openings. It features vertical profiled metal decking to roof level with flat roofed structures behind. A painted plastic downpipe with hopper is located approximately mid-way, with a vent pipe at the extreme left side extending to ground level. Two further vent pipes sit to the left of the downpipe, and a lagged pipe supported by metal brackets is positioned to the right of the downpipe.

The building was in use as a War Room until the 1960s.

The site is roughly trapezoidal in shape and is accessed through a pair of modern brick pillars with concrete caps and a pair of painted galvanised metal gates composed of vertical bars. The site is bounded by mature hedges and trees to Mount Eden Park (north-east) and Malone Hill Park (north-west and south-west). The south-east boundary adjoins No 46 Mount Eden Park, a two-storey detached dwelling, separated from the site by a post and wire fence. The south-west boundary is backed by Nos 41 and 43 Malone Hill Park, with a grass bank rising from behind the south-west elevation to the rear boundary of mature trees, shrubs and timber fences. Within the site, the building is surrounded by tarmac surface, with concrete surfaces to the semi-circular pads at north-west and south-east sides, concrete to the ramp and steps.