Military complex within Carrickfergus Borough Council yard, Town hall, Joymount, Carrickfergus, Co Antrim, BT38 7DL

This is a well-preserved late Victorian military complex dating from around 1897 to 1900, situated within the yard to the rear of Carrickfergus Town Hall on Joymount. It has substantial local historical interest and group value with the adjacent listed Town Hall. The complex was built for the Royal Antrim Artillery Militia and includes a cell house, a warrant officer's residence, a barrack and ordnance store block, and surviving sections of boundary walling. The site lies within a conservation area.

THE CELL HOUSE

The cell house, dated to 1900, is a small, single-storey, red brick building with a gabled roof. It was originally part of a barrack and ordnance store complex and was probably used for the short-term incarceration of soldiers who had broken discipline. Its south-west gable abuts a high, sturdy rubble wall that was built as part of the former County Antrim gaol, which once occupied this site.

The front (south-east facing) façade is asymmetrical. To the right is a timber-sheeted door with a six-pane segmental arch-headed fanlight. To the left of the doorway are two tall segmental-headed windows with small-paned sash frames, each six panes over six. The south-west gable abuts the former gaol wall. The north-east gable has a rectangular window opening to the right, now boarded up; this opening does not appear to be original. The rear façade is abutted by a relatively recent two-storey brick extension, which spans between the cell house and the warrant officer's residence to the north-east.

The roof is gabled and slated, with an overhang featuring exposed rafter ends and plain bargeboards. There is a single, centrally placed brick chimney stack with one pot and several small vents — clearly intended to allow air into the cells below. Rainwater goods are cast iron.

THE WARRANT OFFICER'S RESIDENCE

The former warrant officer's house to the north-west is of the same date and similar style to the cell house. It has a mainly red brick façade, segmental-headed window openings with Georgian-paned sash frames, and a slated gabled roof with overhang. The front (north-east facing) façade is symmetrical, with a window on either side of a central entrance comprising a timber-sheeted door with a segmental-headed fanlight.

To the south-east gable is the two-storey extension, which is of similar construction to the house — though relatively recent, dating from around 1990 — but slightly shorter. The extension contains a garage at ground floor level and an upper room, probably a bedroom. The north-west gable is blank and rendered. Immediately to the north-east of this gable is the main entrance to the yard. The south-west façade merges with the old gaol wall, which encloses the yard on this side and faces out onto Antrim Street; this façade is of similar rubble construction to the wall itself and contains two windows to the ground floor and one centrally located window to the first floor.

THE FORMER ORDNANCE STORE AND BARRACK BLOCK

To the north-east of the cell house and warrant officer's residence stands a long two-storey gabled building, also dating from 1900, originally built as an ordnance store and barrack and now converted to offices. It is in a similar style to the other buildings, with a red brick façade, segmental-headed windows with small-paned sash frames, timber-sheeted doors, and a slated gabled roof with a slight overhang. The long south-east front of the block appears to have largely retained its original asymmetric arrangement of windows and doors, although a modern glazed porch extension has been added to the right of centre at ground floor level. Internally, the first-floor windows retain their original cast iron decorative grilles.

THE HERITAGE CENTRE BUILDING

To the north-west of the former ordnance store and barrack block, with a large yard between them, stands an originally similar building. The yard between the two has since been enclosed in the manner of a modern atrium, and both the atrium section and the north-western building have been incorporated and converted to form a heritage centre.

THE FORMER STABLE BLOCK

To the north of the town hall is a long, mainly rubble-built, single-storey block with a mono-pitched roof. This block, which may once have contained stables, appears to be late 19th century in date — it does not appear on the valuation plan of 1872. The north-west front of the block has been greatly altered in recent times, with many former openings blocked and a large modern garage doorway with an up-and-over door inserted to the right-hand side. The other façades appear to be blank. The roof is covered in artificial slate.

THE SMALL RUBBLE SHED

In the south-west corner of the yard, between the north façade of the town hall and the high wall backing onto Antrim Street, is a small, single-storey, hipped-roof rubble-built shed-like building. It has a later lean-to addition to its north-west side, probably dating from around 1950. The lean-to is in red brick with a felt-covered roof, three small modern windows to the north-west façade, and a timber-sheeted door to the north-east. The older rubble section has a timber-sheeted door to the north-east and an artificial slate roof.

THE BOUNDARY WALLS

The yard is partly bounded to the south-west and north-east by sections of high walling, which presumably date from 1778 to 1779 when the gaol was constructed.

The south-west wall, which faces onto Antrim Street, is in dark basalt rubble with dressed coping and stands approximately 6 metres high. On its inner north-east side it is abutted by the cell house, the small shed-like building, and part of the town hall. The outer face fronts directly onto the pavement. This section of walling contains a tall semicircular arch-headed doorway — located between the cell house and the shed-like structure — fitted with timber-sheeted double doors.

The north-east boundary wall is considerably longer, spanning between the former stable block to the south and the heritage centre to the north, and is largely free-standing. It is of similar height to the south-west wall and largely in rubble on the south-west side; however, on the north-west side it is largely in brick with only a roughly 1-metre base course in rubble. This section lacks coping and is in poorer condition than the south-west wall. A pedestrian doorway has been inserted to the south of centre; this gateway has a cement render surround and appears to be relatively recent.

THE TOWN HALL

To the south-east of the cell house stands the former County Antrim Courthouse, now Carrickfergus Borough Council's town hall — a low, sprawling, largely single-storey, hipped-roof classical building of 1779, much added to during the early 19th century.

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

The Joymount site has a history stretching back to the 13th century. A Franciscan Friary was founded here by Hugh de Lacy, Earl of Ulster, in 1232, and over the following three hundred years it grew to encompass a large church, a mill, and an impressive collection of associated buildings. Following the Reformation, the friars were expelled and the buildings were used as a store for munitions and food for the Carrickfergus garrison. The site later came into the possession of Sir Edmund Fitzgerald, who in 1609 assigned it to Sir Arthur Chichester, then Governor of the town. Chichester demolished the ruinous friary buildings and between 1610 and 1618 erected a magnificent new dwelling known as Joymount — named in honour of his patron Lord Mountjoy. A visitor in 1635 described it as "a very stately house, or rather like a prince's palace, whereunto there belongs a stately gatehouse and graceful terrace." Chichester's descendants, who were raised to the Marquisate of Donegall, remained at Joymount until 1724. By 1760 the house was a ruin, and eight years later it had to be demolished entirely.

In 1776, Lord Donegall gave the Joymount site to the Grand Jury of County Antrim for the purpose of building a new county courthouse and gaol. Both were completed in 1779. The courthouse was possibly designed by one James Drew and incorporated a small turret that had formerly belonged to Joymount's stately gatehouse. Both buildings were much added to in subsequent years: the gaol was extended in 1792 and again between 1815 and 1819, at which time a chapel, infirmary, retiring room for judges, bathhouse, gaoler's lodge, guard room, and execution room were all added within the courthouse yard. The crown court section had to be rebuilt in 1832. These accumulated additions gave the courthouse a somewhat haphazard layout; the Ordnance Survey Memoirs of 1832 noted that whilst its rooms "are suitably and comfortably fitted up… their general arrangement and that of the building is by no means judicious." The entire gaol yard was enclosed by a rubble wall approximately 6 metres high.

In 1850, the functions of both buildings were transferred to the new county courthouse and gaol in Belfast. In 1856 the complex was leased to the Royal Antrim Artillery Militia for use as a barrack and ordnance store. The militia purchased the site outright in 1896, which finally enabled them to demolish the old gaol and construct a purpose-built barrack, ordnance store, and associated buildings. The courthouse itself survived, as did large sections of the gaol walls.

Following the standing down of the militia as part of army reorganisation after the First World War, the complex was vacated by troops but retained by the military as a store. In 1934 it was acquired by Carrickfergus Urban District Council, and the old courthouse — which had latterly served as the main barrack block — was converted into a new town hall, opened on 11 July 1935 by Viscount Craigavon. The ordnance and barrack blocks were later converted to offices. Between 1991 and 1993, the large yard area between the former barrack and ordnance blocks was enclosed and, together with parts of both blocks, incorporated into a large heritage centre.