Moyle Hospital, Gloucester Avenue, Larne, Co Antrim

Moyle Hospital, Gloucester Avenue, Larne, County Antrim

Originally built in 1842 as a workhouse for 400 inmates, this early Victorian institutional building was designed by George Wilkinson of Oxford, who served as architect to the Poor Law Commissioners from 1839 to 1855. The building was completed on 31 October 1842, and its original layout — which included a detached front block to the south, since demolished — is shown complete on the Ordnance Survey map of 1857. In 1888 it was noted as "one of the few in Ireland with a whitewashed front." The complex was converted to hospital use by architect J.A. Hanna, to designs dating from 1925, becoming Larne District Hospital in 1929, before being renamed Moyle Hospital. At the time of survey it was in use as offices. The grounds fall within the area of an ancient monument (ANT 40:35). The character of the complex has been detrimentally affected by many changes, including inappropriate extensions, particularly to the rear of the front block. The building was delisted on 29 August 2001.

The building is two storeys in height, terminating at each end of the main facade in gabled three-storey wings set at right angles, with extensive later additions to the rear. The main entrance faces south. The south front is symmetrical, comprising a long block fifteen windows wide with a gabled central entrance bay and gabled attics to the end bays, with two-bay wings at each end projecting slightly forward from the main facade. Roofs are covered in Bangor blue slates laid in regular courses. Two prominent chimneys in Tudor style, one to each side of the central entrance bay, have angled stacks to rectangular bases with offsets and four original 19th-century terracotta pots reused on each chimney. Beyond the main ridge, in line with each end bay, two prominent vent towers are tucked up against the three-storey wings and rise above them; these are square on plan with pyramidal copper roofs, and their original square openings to the main faces have been filled with later glass bricks. The walls of the main building and vent towers are of basalt with dressings of sandstone and cast stone, with later reticulated pointing except in the central gabled projection.

The main entrance has a terrazzo step, modern two-leaf sliding glass doors with PVC frames, each door comprising two panels, set within a moulded artificial rectangular stone surround. Above the doors is a three-light rectangular fanlight with leaded glazing in translucent glass, the central light containing a red cross motif. To each side of the entrance doors, mounted on the stone surround, is a pair of bronze lamps of hexagonal section, flared to the top and set on bronze mounts, dating from the 1920s. Over the doorway, a cast stone panel of lighter shade than the rest of the surround bears the name "Moyle Hospital" in bronze capitals, though mounting holes for the letters of the previous name, "Larne District Hospital", remain visible. Above the doorway is a slightly projecting gabled bay in basalt — with dark-coloured pointing in contrast to the rest of the walling — dressed all round in artificial stone and supported on two cast stone corbels. It contains a rectangular three-light window with transom lights, replaced in modern PVC with translucent glass incorporating glass louvres, considered inappropriate. In the apex of the gable above is a lozenge-shaped datestone in artificial stone inscribed 1929. The windows to each side of the doorway at ground floor level are large rectangular PVC units with two fixed lights below an opening top vent; they are modern replacements with artificial stone dressings including a deep splayed cill and rectangular drip moulding. The first floor windows above are similar but narrower, each comprising one PVC fixed light with an opening vent. Above these, low parapets extend for the width of one window to each side of the central gable, which projects above the main eaves level as an entrance frontispiece created in the 1920s, standing out from the original 1840s main facade.

To the right of the entrance frontispiece, the windows repeat as PVC replacements similar to those at first floor level, but without drip mouldings or deep splays to the cills. A moulded cast iron gutter runs along the facade, accompanied by two square-section cast iron downpipes with trefoil brackets and decoratively treated hoppers modelled with heraldic beasts, these being 1920s additions. Two narrower circular cast iron downpipes at intermediate positions with plain rectangular hoppers emerge at first floor level only. At the right-hand end bay is a secondary entrance in Tudor style, a 1920s insertion constructed in artificial stone, comprising an arched doorway with translucent glazed spandrels, flanked by sidelights — two-light with transoms to the right, and coupled two-light with transoms to the left — with deep splayed cills and leaded glazing in translucent glass incorporating small pivoting opening lights. The door itself is white-painted ledged timber with a similar tympanum above, an iron handle and a Gothic Revival style iron mount. A new concrete ramp leads up to the door with no step. The stone weathering of the plinth across the main facade returns down to ground level on each side of this Tudor arched secondary doorway. Above it, a first floor window and above that an attic floor window are both situated in the end bay, both in PVC as at the upper windows of the main facade, but with deep splayed cills. At the extremity of the end bay in the corner with the projecting end wing is a rectangular cast iron downpipe with trefoil brackets and an angulated hopper of original 1920s date.

To the right of that is the twin-gabled end block with a double-pile roof running at right angles to the central block, with cast stone quoins to the extremities. Three floors of large rectangular windows, as at ground floor level of the main entrance bay, each have a Tudor-style drip moulding; segmental brick relieving arches appear over the second floor openings. A stone-dressed Gothic lancet to each attic gable is now blocked with cement. A central cast iron rectangular downpipe with rectangular hopper serves this section. Projecting from below the ground floor windows of the end wing, at basement level, is a flat-roofed modern addition; its roof is asphalt with two rooflights. Walls are of concrete brick, with three small rectangular timber windows to the front, painted white, each comprising a two-light unit of fixed pane beside a top-hung vent in translucent glass, plus one larger rectangular window to the right of similar character. The front wall steps back to accommodate double doors of diagonal boarding leading to a basement labelled "Boardroom." PVC gutter and downpipe serve this addition, with an asbestos fascia to the west end adjacent to the Tudor Revival secondary doorway. This extension is considered inappropriate in both style and materials.

To the left of the central entrance frontispiece the main facade is similar, but with only one intermediate circular cast iron downpipe from first floor level. The secondary entrance in Tudor style at the end bay is a symmetrical composition with the doorway flanked by a two-light sidelight on each side, with a step up to the door rather than a ramp. Projecting forward at the left-hand extremity of the end wing is a low basalt rubble wall with concrete copings, part of the 1920s remodelling, extending to a low corner pier in artificial stone and returning across the front of the building to enclose a concrete area in front. The return wall has a new opening crudely cut through it with cement-rendered reveals, positioned opposite the western secondary entrance. Two sets of similar piers linked by curving basalt walls provide an axial entrance to a new yellow-tiled area outside the main entrance frontispiece. Low walling of similar character encloses a concrete area to the right of the main entrance, extending as far as the eastern secondary entrance only.

The western elevation shows the three-storey side of the end block in basalt rubble, three windows wide, all with new rectangular PVC fixed lights with top-hung vents in stone-dressed surrounds with brick fillings to top and sides; these openings were probably created in the 1920s. The roof is slated as previously described, with a moulded cast iron gutter and rectangular downpipe. Stepped back to the left-hand side is a modern flat-roofed two-storey return of concrete brick, with two rectangular windows to each floor comprising coupled fixed lights with top-hung vents in white-painted wood, all considered inappropriate. The north and east elevations of this modern return are similar in style and character, with PVC downpipes.

The north or rear elevation, approached from the west end, shows basalt walling to the rear of the western end wing above and to the left-hand side of the later end return, with quoins to the extremities. Rectangular PVC windows as on the entrance front are here accompanied by red brick relieving arches to the second floor, and blocked Gothic lancets to each gable above, with a central rectangular hopper and downpipe between the gables. To the left of the western end wing, two-storey flat-roofed infill walling in red brick with rectangular PVC windows is followed by a return link block of rock-faced concrete blocks joined to a lower basalt rubble rear building, with later single and double-storey blocks to the rear in concrete block and concrete brick. The 20th-century additions are so extensive as to obscure the form and layout of the original buildings, and circumambulation of the main building is difficult owing to narrow alleyways between blocks with no exit.

The east elevation shows the four-storey side of the end block, comprising three main storeys as at the west end plus an exposed basement storey below. The basement has a central window similar to those of the main floors, flanked by two coupled timber windows dressed in smooth cement render, with more obtrusive red brick fillings than elsewhere, and wired glass throughout; two cast iron downpipes serve this elevation, one circular at the right-hand extremity and one rectangular one bay to the left. Near the left-hand extremity of the basement, ventilation pipes from the boiler are wrapped in plastic sheeting. To the right-hand side of the eastern end block is a new flat-roofed red brick rear return of two storeys with a basement storey, having six small square PVC top-hung windows with translucent glass and concrete cills to the two main floors, and a similar small window plus two larger PVC fixed lights with top-hung vents to the basement.

The rear elevation approached from the east end shows the rear of the eastern end wing above and to the right of the later extension, similar to the corresponding wing at the west end. The rear elevation of the projecting red brick end return is blank; its west side has two rectangular PVC top-hung windows in translucent glass to each floor. Concrete steps lead down to a basement with a modern white timber louvre door. To the right of the eastern end wing gables, red brick infill walling of three storeys with a flat roof, cast iron downpipes, and rectangular PVC windows is followed by a first floor link in cement-rendered concrete connecting the rear of the main block with a former theatre block return extending northwards. The theatre block is in red brick in the same style as the eastern end return, with small PVC windows to the upper floor and the layer below, all considered inappropriate.

A conglomerate mass of old and new blocks extends northwards, partly replacing and partly retaining some of the original two-storey basalt infirmary block of the 1840s. Partly visible behind the former theatre return and associated later red brick additions is the original axial block linking the main building with the former infirmary block to the rear; this has a pitched roof of Bangor blue slates in regular courses with modern rooflights and one original brick chimney. The former infirmary block to the north is two storeys in height, of basalt rubble with red brick dressings. It retains three original timber sliding sash windows to the first floor south face, vertically hung, six over three panes with horns, surmounted by three-pane bottom-hung top vents; the ground floor is partly obscured by a new red brick projecting block. The eastern end of the former infirmary block has been replaced by a mid-20th-century flat-roofed red brick block in a modern style, with the exposed end of the infirmary block closed off with a red brick gable. A tall red brick chimney and a tall reinforced concrete water tank of mid-20th-century date stand further to the north.

The building stands on a slightly elevated site within the built-up area of the town, with its main facade at right angles to the two parallel main roads by which it is approached. Sloping lawns in front are divided axially by a path leading up concrete steps from the car park in front. From most viewpoints the building is seen mainly against a background of later extensions and additions to the site, which are of inappropriate form and material. Part of the later red brick extension to the rear can be seen rising above the main roofline when viewed from the south, thus detracting from the appearance of the original building.