Former RUC Station, 59 Coleraine Road, Portstewart, Co. Londonderry, BT55 7PZ

Former RUC Station, 59 Coleraine Road, Portstewart

This is a symmetrical detached two-storey former RUC Barracks built around 1950 to designs by Ministry of Finance architect Thomas Rippingham. The building is L-shaped on plan, facing west onto Coleraine Road, set within its own enclosed site on the east side of the road. It is currently vacant.

The barracks represents a late example of Rippingham's standard Neo-Georgian design for Royal Ulster Constabulary stations constructed throughout Ulster following partition in 1922. The Portstewart station is notable as one of the last to be built before Rippingham's retirement in 1956, and it differs from earlier examples by incorporating a central breakfront—a feature absent in comparable stations such as those at Gilford and Dromara. The design's Neo-Georgian character, combining a hipped roof with end-wall chimneys reminiscent of early 18th-century architecture and arched recesses drawing on Regency and Late-Georgian styles, gives the facade dignity while enabling the building to blend into its residential setting.

The structure is of machine-made red brick laid in stretcher bond with a hipped terracotta tiled roof with half-round ridge tiles, layered tiles to hip ridges, and three red brick chimneystacks with cement coping and terracotta pots. Ogee-moulded cast-iron guttering runs to overhanging timber eaves, with cast-iron box hoppers and downpipes. The walls have cement coping and a cement plinth course.

The symmetrical front elevation is six windows wide. The first floor windows have a continuous flush concrete lintel course with square-headed openings and concrete sills. First-floor windows are boarded up; ground-floor windows have brick soldier flat arches with concrete sills. The central breakfront features a parapet rising above the eaves, with three round-headed recesses to the ground floor having a continuous cement impost course and a cement keystone to the central door opening. A square-headed door opening contains double-leaf hardwood panelled doors set within a ruled-and-lined cement rendered surround, opening onto a concrete universal access ramp.

The north side elevation has a single window opening to both floors with original timber sash windows (6/6 to first floor, 6/9 to ground floor). The south side elevation is three windows wide with a single-storey bay to the east. Original 8/8 timber sash windows and a central square-headed door opening set in a round-headed recess with stop-chamfered cast concrete surround and hardwood flush panelled door are visible. A central attic dormer sits on the rear pitch of the roof. The rear yard is enclosed by a 3-metre-high brick wall.

The building occupies its own site on the east side of Coleraine Road, enclosed by a tall wire fence and low brick walls with concrete coping.

Following the creation of Northern Ireland in 1922, Thomas Francis O Rippingham was appointed architect to the newly-formed Ministry of Finance to design a standard barracks for the Royal Ulster Constabulary. A number of police barracks were constructed between the 1920s and 1950s to his Neo-Georgian design. Rippingham's standard design proved adaptable in size, varying from three to eight or nine windows in width, and achieved environmental success through its ability to blend with older buildings in Ulster's towns or sit quietly in isolated country situations.

The barracks operated as an RUC station until 2001, when the Royal Ulster Constabulary was superseded by the Police Service of Northern Ireland. The station was closed in 2005 under a government estate strategy aimed at streamlining police service operating costs. It was one of 22 stations closed since implementation of this scheme. The building continues to retain its original Neo-Georgian character and holds historic significance as a late example of Rippingham's standard barracks design, though some alterations have detracted from its original appearance.