Former Police Station and Jail

Former Police Station and Jail, Ballymoney — originally built as a jail around 1830, later converted to a police station in the 1920s, and in use as such until 2013.

This is an important surviving complex comprising a former jail and its former keeper's house, which together form a group of considerable social significance alongside the adjacent former courthouse to the east (a separately listed building). Although substantially remodelled in the 1920s by the Department of Works and Public Buildings of the Ministry of Finance, the core of the original circa 1830 jail building remains clearly identifiable, and a considerable amount of original building fabric survives. The 1920s conversion introduced some notable architectural features, most prominently a fine full-height open newel staircase in the Art Deco style. The complex as a whole played a significant role in the lives of 19th-century Ballymoney.

OVERALL LAYOUT

The complex principally comprises a canted three-storey cement-rendered main block delimiting the north side of an internal yard, with a two-storey four-bay former Constable's House on the south side, fronting Charlotte Street. A substantial two-storey flat-roofed Guard House extension gives access to the main block on the east side. The west side of the yard is delimited by a gable-ended single-storey 1960s block. The yard is surfaced in concrete and entered from the road via post-war iron mesh gates adjacent to the east side of the Constable's House. The west boundary of the complex is formed by a twelve-foot wall with a 1980s iron security fence outside; a further iron security fence delimits the north side, and the former courthouse flanks the east side.

THE MAIN BLOCK

Formerly the main prison block and later remodelled as the police station, this is a three-storey cement-rendered building on a three-sided or canted plan, enclosing the yard on its south side. It has a shallow pitched and hipped slated roof, cast-iron rainwater gutters and downpipes, a stepped rendered cornice, and raised rendered continuous quoins. The canted block comprises two four-bay wings flanking a single-bay centre containing the main entrance.

On the south elevation, apart from a few blocked openings at ground floor level, the fenestration is largely complete. All windows have raised rendered surrounds with plinth blocks and projecting sloping sills. First and second floor windows are timber sliding sashes of two-over-two panes, with a few modifications. Ground floor windows are multi-paned metal casements of eight panes opening outwards over sixteen panes, half of which — eight panes — forms an opening casement. Those to the east of the central entrance have been blocked at some stage in the post-war period. The centrally placed entrance, which leads into the staircase hall, has a moulded cement architrave with double doors (modern) and a window light above.

The two-bay side elevations each have a single centrally placed top-floor window: on the west side this is a multi-paned narrow sliding sash of four panes over six; on the east side it is a timber sliding sash of two over two, with a modern picture window opening below. The rear elevation has no ground floor windows, as it sits at a higher level than the front. There are ten surviving first and second floor windows on this elevation, which are timber-framed sliding sashes of two over two, except for one modern replacement on the west side. None of the openings on the rear elevation have raised rendered surrounds. Several small single-storey extensions are attached to the rear: a small gabled block on the east side, a lean-to on the west side, and a low shallow flat-roofed extension in the centre.

THE GUARD HOUSE EXTENSION

This two-storey flat-roofed extension is attached to the east side of the main block, occupying two bays, and served as the entrance into the police station. It has prominent overhanging concrete eaves with a steel railing above. The side elevation facing into the yard has two large now-blocked openings at first floor level and one small opening of 1960s appearance at ground floor. The two-bay front elevation has a door opening flanked by a window at ground floor level, and a picture window opening above.

THE CONSTABLE'S RESIDENCE

This is a four-bay two-storey gabled block facing Charlotte Street, set behind a retaining wall, with a two-storey three-bay lean-to extension to the rear facing into the yard. The bottom floor is built of ashlar basalt blocks with dressed stone quoins; the first floor is pebble-dash rendered. The roof is concrete-tiled with overhanging eaves and verge, and cast-iron gutters and downpipes are present. There are no chimneys, though there were formerly two. A door flanked by a small timber window of one-over-one panes is located in the side elevation of the lean-to rear extension. The front elevation windows are all timber sliding sashes of one-over-one panes.

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

The earliest known reference to the building appears in the Ordnance Survey Memoirs for the Parish of Ballymoney (1830–35), which records that the Bridewell was situated at the east end of Charlotte Street, contiguous to the Conventor's meeting house. It is described as a stone building, commodiously and appropriately divided into cells, yards, and so on, erected in 1830 at a cost of £130 defrayed by the county. The building was kept clean, was periodically visited by the rector of the parish and the officer of the police, and employed a single gaoler at a salary of £20 per year. The memoir also includes a ground plan of the Bridewell with annotations and a final elevation of the keeper's house.

The building is clearly shown on the first edition six-inch Ordnance Survey map of 1830–31, marked as Jail. It already had the same canted or three-sided plan outline as the present main block, and was linked symmetrically by two triangular yards to a small rectangular keeper's house set back from Charlotte Street. The first valuation, dated 14th March 1833, records the following dimensions: the body of the building at 41 feet by 17½ feet by 12 feet; an addition at 18 feet by 10 feet by 12 feet; a female day room and cells at 42 feet by 19½ feet by 12 feet; and a male day room and cells of the same dimensions. Also recorded are a garden of 83 feet by 53 feet and 95 feet by 40 feet, equating to 13 perches. All components were rated Grade 1A. These dimensions confirm that the original canted building was one storey in height, as was the keeper's house, and that the two symmetrical yards served as separate exercise yards for female and male prisoners.

On the first revision Ordnance Survey map of the 1850s, the plan is largely unchanged except that the keeper's house is shown as T-plan — probably the same building surveyed in 1923 prior to its alteration. A small rectangular building is also shown at what is now the Charlotte Street entrance east of the Constable's House, which may be the turf house referenced in later records.

The adjacent courthouse was added to the east side of the site in 1838. The second valuation, dated January 1860, records the complex under the entry Grand Jury — Sessions House, Bridewell and Yard, held from the Earl of Antrim at no rent. The Bridewell dimensions are given as: front projection 7 feet by 2 feet; main building 13 yards 1 foot by 5 yards 1 foot 6 inches; return 6 yards by 3 yards 1 foot; male prison 13 yards 2 feet by 6 yards 2 feet; female prison of the same dimensions; and a turf house of 7 yards 2 feet by 3 yards. Within the same plot, the Sessions House dimensions are recorded as: front house 19 yards 1 foot by 3 yards; east addition 4 yards 2 feet by 15½ yards; west addition of the same; the courthouse itself at 10 yards by 15½ yards with one and a half storeys; and a water closet of 2 yards by 3½ yards. All were rated Grade 1A minus.

It is not clear precisely when the prison building was taken over as the district police station, but no major changes appear to have been made until 1923, when detailed plans for the overhaul of the Head Constable's House — formerly the Keeper's House — were drawn up by the Department of Works and Public Buildings of the Ministry of Finance, then based at 113 and 118 Royal Avenue, Belfast. Surviving plans, elevations, and specifications are dated 16th August 1923 and 8th November 1923. These show the existing Head Constable's House as a single-storey building measuring 41 feet 2 inches by 16 feet 2 inches — forming the ground floor of the present building — with a canted return on the north side accommodating a sitting room. The front elevation facing the street had a two-bay breakfront, still evident in the plan, surmounted by a large pediment. Internally it contained a bedroom on the east side, a kitchen in the centre, and on the west end an entry porch from the street with a pantry behind. The canted bay return originally faced onto the prisoners' exercise yards, with one side facing the male yard and the other the female yard.

The 1924 remodelling added a second storey to the house, removed the canted return to the north, and replaced it with a two-storey lean-to extension accommodating the staircase and new entrance. The 1923 plan also depicts part of the Guard House extension, confirming that this structure, or an earlier version of it, was already in place by that date.

No other building records survive for the main three-sided prison block, but it is evident from the interior that this building was also remodelled at this time. The Art Deco staircase at the centre is clearly of 1920s date, as are three Art Deco chimney-pieces within the building. Most of the timber sliding-sash windows were also likely inserted in the 1920s; the only windows considered to be of 19th-century origin are the metal-framed ones on the ground floor facing the yard and a small rectangular window in the top floor of the west gable end.

Although the building ceased functioning as a jail, it continued to hold prisoners who were transferred via a special door into the adjacent courthouse for trial. The courthouse closed in 1990, but the police station continued to operate from these buildings until a new station was completed in 2012 — construction having begun in April 2011 — on the opposite side of Charlotte Street at numbers 74–76. The PSNI had vacated the building by 2013, leaving it vacant.