WW II Structure, to rear of 76 Greencastle Road, Kilkeel, Newry, Co Down, BT34 4JL

A Second World War ablutions block standing to the rear of 76 Greencastle Road, Kilkeel. Single storey, nine and a half bays, constructed 1942 and aligned northwest-southeast on the west side of Greencastle Road. The building represents austerity wartime architecture: minimal materials married with maximum utility.

The structure is built on a concrete plinth with ground falling away on the south and west sides. Each bay is approximately 10 feet wide. The roof is pitched corrugated asbestos cement with semicircular ridges and circular asbestos cement stops, fitted with an assortment of raised vents and no rainwater goods. Moulded asbestos cement barge boards run the length of the building.

Temporary brick walls, 100 millimetres thick, are smooth cement rendered with one brick deep buttresses at regular intervals. These buttresses form the bays and support the internal roof structure. The southeast gable comprises three bays and has a single central door, now blocked up, served by a concrete loading platform with steps on the right side. The left and right bays contain small steel casements, both now either boarded up or blocked. Each side elevation has a single steel window to each bay; these are typically three-paned casements without sills. Doors are framed and sheeted painted timber. Three doors appear on the northeast elevation, though it is uncertain whether all are original. The southwest elevation has no doors.

The northwest gable is abutted at centre by a rendered brick water tower rising above the gable with a flat, overhanging concrete roof. A metal tank is visible through an opening on the southeast face of the tower, with a doorway at ground floor level on the left cheek and a concrete road leading to the main road.

Historical context: An Air Ministry map of 1946 shows this building within "Living site One" of Greencastle Aerodrome. Living site One contained approximately 70 buildings, of which this is now the sole survivor; the majority of others were Nissen huts sold after the war. Construction began in spring 1942 under the main contractor Carmichael of Edinburgh. Kilkeel RAF Station was commissioned on 30 July 1942 and handed over to the United States Army Airforce on 3 August 1943, becoming Station 237, one of 12 American airfields in Northern Ireland. Principal buildings were of utility construction and dispersed to avoid concentrated enemy bombing, with the radar station located at Maghereagh to the northeast. The station served as a satellite to Langford Lodge near Antrim, preparing aircraft for operational bases in East Anglia, and hosted a Combat Crew Replacement Centre from 20 December 1943 to autumn 1944, training American aircrews. The base was handed back to the RAF on 31 May 1945 and decommissioned soon afterwards. It remained in Air Ministry ownership until the early 1960s when sold back to locals. The building is now recorded as derelict and is of industrial archaeological interest.