Former Coleraine Union workhouse 'front building', Mountsandel Road, Coleraine, Co Londonderry

This is the surviving front building of the former Coleraine Union workhouse, built in 1841 and designed by George Wilkinson, the Poor Law Commissioners' appointed architect for Ireland. It is a two-storey structure in the Tudor almshouse style that Wilkinson adopted for almost all Irish workhouses of this period — a deliberate architectural choice intended to evoke the charitable institutions of the 15th and 16th centuries, even within a brief that called for the cheapest construction compatible with durability. The building later formed part of Coleraine Hospital and is situated on the east side of Mountsandel Road, roughly half a mile south of Coleraine town centre. It is the only component of the former workhouse complex to have survived in largely original form.

The main external walls are built in random basalt rubble. The front (west-facing) elevation is symmetrical, with the exception of a small single-storey section to the south end. At ground floor centre is a Tudor arch doorway with a bevelled painted stone architrave — almost certainly sandstone — now filled with a recent timber-sheeted door, with the fanlight and sidelights boarded up. To either side of the doorway is a square window with the reveal acting as an architrave. A continuous label moulding runs over both the doorway and these flanking windows, and just above sill level a thick stone band links the window reveals to the doorway architrave, extending slightly beyond the outer edge of each window. Directly above the doorway is a small painted stone shield with the date 1841 inscribed on it, above which a painted moulded stone stringcourse rises in the manner of a label moulding. The five first-floor windows are identical to one another, each with in-and-out painted stone dressings and recent two-pane frames. The two outermost windows are partly set within large gables, while the three inner windows are set within much smaller, half-dormer-like gables.

At the far south end of the front elevation is a small single-storey gabled projection, almost certainly the original gatekeeper's annex. Its front gable has a doorway similar in character to the main entrance but slightly smaller, fitted with a timber-sheeted door only. The south gable of this projection has a small, centre-left window with a simple painted stone surround, now boarded over. The east face of the projection has a plain, low flat arch doorway with a plain timber-sheeted door.

The north elevation is two storeys to the right and single storey to the left. The two-storey section has three windows of similar size, all with brick dressings and concrete lintels. The first-floor windows are symmetrically placed, while the ground-floor windows are set further to the right; all appear to be relatively recent insertions. The single-storey section to the left is blank.

The south elevation is largely two-storey with a small single-storey portion to the right. At the left of the ground floor of the two-storey section sits the small single-storey gabled projection already described. Immediately to its left is a large window without dressings, now boarded over. To the right of this is a smaller window with plain painted stone dressings and what appears to be an original lattice-pane frame with equally original-looking wrought iron security bars. To the right of centre on the first floor is a broad window with a recent frame, which also appears to be a relatively recent insertion. The single-storey section to the right is blank, with a small lean-to behind it. The far right (east) edge of the single-storey wall has been patched in breeze block.

The rear elevation is arranged as two outer gabled projecting bays with a larger central recessed section between them. Each bay has a single-storey section projecting from its gable. The left bay has a full-width lean-to at ground floor level; the east face of this lean-to has a plain square window (boarded over) and the north face has a similarly sized window (also boarded over) that appears originally to have been a doorway, evidenced by a rendered section running from beneath the sill to the ground. The first floor of this left bay has a plain sash window. On the north face of the bay there is a boarded-over ground-floor window that appears to have begun as an arched doorway, the outline of which is still visible above and below the window. In the central recessed section, four symmetrically arranged ground-floor windows are all boarded over; all but the far right appear to be relatively recent insertions with concrete lintels and surrounds patched in concrete brick. Between the second and third of these windows a doorway has been blocked up, evidently before the flanking windows were inserted. At first floor, there is a plain sash window at centre and a boarded-over window to the right. The right-hand window was used latterly as a fire escape, with a small balcony extending from it and a ladder to the left.

A large single-storey section extends from the gable of the right-hand projecting bay. It has a mono-pitched roof and is finished in plain render on its south and east faces. The south face has a large boarded-over window and a plain timber-sheeted door. The east face has three narrow windows and a small projection to their right, with a partly louvered door on its south face. The first floor of the right-hand gabled bay has a plain sash window. On the south face of this bay a boarded-over ground-floor window was probably once a doorway, as the walling above and below has been patched in concrete brick. Two narrow recently inserted windows with brick dressings occupy the first floor of this bay.

The roof of the main building is gabled with a slight overhang and plain bargeboards, covered in asbestos tiles. The small south projection has a similarly detailed gabled roof also covered in asbestos tiles. The lean-to to the rear left bay has a corrugated asbestos roof, while the single-storey section to the rear right bay has a corrugated iron roof. Rainwater goods are PVC. The chimneystacks have been removed. At the centre rear of the main roof there is a small gabled dormer with overhang, plain bargeboards, and a four-pane window.

To the north, south and west of the building is a large tarmac car park. To the east, north-east and south-east are other hospital buildings, most in a modern style with flat roofs, dry-dash render and uniform rows of large windows. Some of these appear to incorporate fabric from the remainder of the old workhouse complex and seem to follow much of its original plan form.

The building was constructed under the Irish Poor Law Act of 1838, which divided Ireland into 130 Unions each centred on a market town and required each to maintain a workhouse. George Wilkinson of Oxford was appointed architect to the Poor Law Commissioners from 1 February 1839, having previously designed workhouses for English unions including Chipping Norton, Thame and Witney. Within two months of his appointment he had produced model plans that formed the basis of almost all Irish workhouse buildings. Wilkinson's brief required the cheapest construction compatible with durability, with all mere decoration studiously excluded, but his preference for the Tudor style ensured the buildings were not entirely utilitarian.

In Wilkinson's standard arrangement, the front building stood approximately 150 feet in advance of the main workhouse. It contained the board room on the first floor; the clerk's office and porter's room; probationary wards and vagrants' wards on the first and ground floors respectively; outhouses including privies, washing rooms and refractory (punishment) cells; sometimes a fumigation room for clothing; and a small gatekeeper's annex. After the reorganisation of local government in 1899, many front buildings were taken over by Rural District Councils as offices.

Coleraine workhouse opened in April 1842, designed for 700 inmates. Like most Irish workhouses it assumed the functions of a district hospital in the early 20th century, becoming Coleraine Hospital. In common with many former workhouses, the majority of the complex was subsequently adapted, extended, modernised beyond recognition, or demolished — particularly in the latter half of the 20th century. The old fever hospital became a nurses' home. The front building is the only part of the complex to survive in largely original condition. Coleraine Hospital was gradually wound down through the 1990s and finally closed in 2001, replaced by the Causeway Trust Hospital complex on the southern side of the town. A better-preserved example of the same building type can be found at Limavady.