Ruc Station, 45 Irish St., Downpatrick, Co.Down

43 Irish Street, Downpatrick, County Down

This is a substantial attached double-pile three-bay three-storey-over-basement former townhouse, originally built around 1790 (though possibly in the early decades of the 19th century) and extensively remodelled around 1855. It has served as a police barracks since 1914 and, until its decommissioning in 2015, was one of only two police stations in Northern Ireland still in operation that pre-dated the formation of the Royal Ulster Constabulary in 1922. The building sits on the south-east side of Irish Street, flanked by lower two-storey 18th-century terraced houses and, at the time of the survey in April 2016, enclosed within a semi-permanent metal and reinforced concrete security compound.

Architectural Character

The building's proportions and original detailing point to an 18th-century shell, but its present character is overwhelmingly defined by the ornate mid-19th-century remodelling. The façade is finished in painted ruled-and-lined render with vermiculated quoins, the ground floor treated with band rustication, and a string course over the ground floor incorporating a loop motif. Above, a parapet carries floriate and dentil mouldings over a moulded string course. The roof is an M-profile pitched slate construction with a valley gutter and profiled cast iron gutters to the front. Gable chimneystacks are present, some retaining their terracotta pots, others with pots missing. Side and rear elevations are in plain unpainted cement render.

Windows throughout are covered with metal security grilles or timber boards, but internal inspection confirms intact timber sash windows throughout, generally six-over-six pane. Ground floor windows have stone sills, with vermiculated long-and-short surrounds and exaggerated keyblocks over each opening. First floor windows have triangular pediments over. Upper floor windows have continuous sills, with further detailing concealed behind the security grilles.

The principal elevation faces north-west and is symmetrically arranged with three openings to each floor. The centrepiece is a square-headed door set within a taller round-headed opening, framed by a classical doorcase comprising a modillioned broken-bed triangular pediment carried on Doric columns with tall triglyph mouldings over. The door itself is a modern replacement, reached by three concrete steps. The basement area is enclosed by a balustraded dwarf wall with square panelled piers at the corners.

The south-east elevation is abutted by the building to the south-east (Building 3). It has two windows to the ground floor and two at second floor level. The rear elevation is partly obscured: the left side of the exposed basement level is abutted by a modern sand-lime brick cell block, surmounted by a full-height enclosed metal fire escape, and the remainder was covered by scaffolding at the time of the survey. There is a single opening at first and second floor levels. The north-west elevation mirrors the south-east and is abutted at first floor level by the adjoining building to the north (No. 41A), with a vehicular entrance at ground floor.

Adjoining Buildings within the Former Station Compound

Building 3 (Nos. 45–47) abuts the main building to the south-east. It is a three-storey two-bay block with a slate roof and pebble-dashed walls. Its windows have been resized and partially infilled, and no features of interest remain.

Building 4 (No. 49) is a corner-sited two-storey three-bay house with a ground floor shop and a two-storey return, located at the far south-east end of the group. It has a pantiled roof, plastic rainwater goods, and painted rendered walling. Timber one-over-one sash windows survive to the upper floor. The ground floor has two replacement timber doors and the partial remains of a timber shopfront, partially obscured by the return wall of the security compound.

Interior

The interior is particularly notable for its exuberant plasterwork, which adorns almost every room in a concentration and quality of execution that was a deliberate expression of the social standing of its owners, the Cleland family. The elaborate decorative scheme originally included the Cleland coat of arms and the family motto 'SI JE POUVOIS' incorporated into the stained glass of the main staircase.

Setting

All buildings were originally street-fronted but at the time of the survey were enclosed within the security compound. The original long, narrow rear plots are largely undivided and have tarmac surfaces. The precinct is bounded to the north-west and south-west by a tall rubble stone boundary wall, a portion of which survives between the main building and Building 3. To the rear of the adjoining building at Nos. 41 and 41A stands an 18th-century L-shaped two-storey outbuilding with rubble stone walls and a slate roof. Rubble stone returns and outbuildings to the western part of No. 43, together with similar outbuildings to the rear of Nos. 41 and 41A, form an enclosed courtyard to the rear of No. 41. Remnants of the original rubble stone boundary wall survive to the east of No. 49, with a modern palisade fence mounted over. On removal of the security installations, the former station will be one of the most prominent buildings in the conservation area and will make a significant contribution to the variety of the streetscape. The retention of original boundary walls enhances its setting.

Historical Background

The origins of the building remain somewhat uncertain. The first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1832–33 shows the property already set back from the main street line, with a linear range of outbuildings and a large garden to the rear. The Ulster Architectural Heritage Society survey of 1970 placed construction in the late 18th century on the basis of the main doorcase's similarity to English pattern books of the period, though field evidence suggests the early 19th century may be more accurate.

The Townland Valuation of around 1834 records the property as occupied by William Thompson, valued at £50. Historical research by Wilson (1995) establishes that William and his brother James Thompson, originally from Rademon, Crossgar, purchased the property around 1799 from a Charles Hawthorne. The brothers had begun with a grocer's shop in a thatched house in Irish Street, opposite James Sweeny's Inn. Through careful accumulation of capital they began acquiring property across the town, and their first major purchase is thought to be No. 43 (then No. 22), which they bought for £1,950 from Charles Stewart Hawthorne, who served as MP for Downpatrick in 1802–06 and 1812–15. Their lease, originally drawn up with Lord de Clifford in 1799, was renewed in 1818. From the rear outbuildings visible on the first edition Ordnance Survey map, the brothers operated a brewing and malting business. In time they acquired some twenty townlands in the Ards and Lecale, and around 1830 purchased Tober Mhuire in Crossgar for £20,000. Neither brother had children. Following the deaths of James in 1847 and William in 1850, their estate passed to the children of their sister Elizabeth Cleland: James, John, Hugh junior, and Anne.

James Cleland, the eldest, inherited No. 43 Irish Street, 3,544 acres of County Down land, the town of Crossgar, and Tober Mhuire house (which burned down around 1860 and was rebuilt four years later). As Chairman of the Town Commissioners, James resided for a time at No. 43 and was almost certainly responsible for the extensive remodelling of around 1855 that produced the present Victorian frontage. Griffith's Valuation of 1863 records a substantial rise in the rateable value from £50 to £80, and the valuer was notably disparaging about the works, commenting that the former corn stores and outbuildings were vacant and in poor repair while the house had been "finished in the most expensive style – and is totally unsuited for such a situation." The adjoining three-bay property to the west, which features an integral carriage arch, appears to have formed part of the same property since at least the mid-19th century, the two being shown as one holding on the Annual Revision map of 1864–1906. James moved to Crossgar House (now Tobar Mhuire Passionist Monastery) around 1867, after which his brother John Thompson Cleland took up residence at No. 43. By 1895 the rear outbuildings and stores had fallen into partial ruin, reducing the rateable value. John, who is listed as a Justice of the Peace in the Census Records of 1901 and 1911, remained unmarried and lived at No. 43 until his death in 1913. The following year, members of the Cleland family — a Mrs Florence Stirling and a Mrs Annie Black — leased the property to the Royal Irish Constabulary. The RUC purchased the freehold in 1940 from the Cleland descendants.

Policing in Downpatrick

Provincial constabulary forces were established under the Irish Constabulary Act of 1822, though they were not introduced to Downpatrick until 1825. County Down was among the last counties in Ireland to accept their authority, as local magistrates were reluctant to see their own influence curtailed. The first barracks in the town was situated within an army horse barracks, followed by premises in part of the old Down Infirmary on Fountain Street, then successively in Saul Street and Church Street, before the move to No. 43 Irish Street in 1914. The Royal Irish Constabulary had been formally established in 1836 from the reorganisation of earlier provincial forces. Following partition in 1922, the RIC was disbanded and replaced in Northern Ireland by the Royal Ulster Constabulary. In 1870 the policing headquarters for County Down was relocated from Hillsborough to Downpatrick, remaining there until 1970 when it became part of the RUC's G Division.

From as early as 1937 the premises were considered insufficient for a county headquarters. Other sites were identified in 1947 and again in the 1960s, but progress was delayed by post-war funding constraints and subsequently by the violence of the late 20th century. During the latter half of the 20th century the police expanded into the entirety of Nos. 41–49 Irish Street. Interiors and exteriors were altered, outbuildings removed or remodelled, and a perimeter wall built to enclose the whole site including the principal elevations and the footpath on Irish Street. The creation of a new housing development and access street led to the demolition of Nos. 51–53 and encroachment onto the rear plots of Nos. 45–49. The former outbuildings to No. 43 visible on the first edition Ordnance Survey map were removed during the latter half of the 20th century, and various modern extensions were added to the rear of the main building. Some remnants of the original rubble stone outbuilding or boundary wall survive, abutting the south-east of the rear elevation.

The station was decommissioned in 2015, with the PSNI relocating to a new purpose-built station in the grounds of Downshire Hospital. Until its closure, it was one of only two stations in Northern Ireland still operating that pre-dated the formation of the RUC in 1922, the other being Edward Street in Portadown, which remains in use by the PSNI.

History of the Adjoining Properties

Nos. 45–47, to the south-east of the main building, are both shown on the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1834 and are thought to date from at least the early 19th century. James Cleland continued to lease them even after moving to Crossgar House around 1866. Each was valued at £9 in Griffith's Valuation of 1863, falling to £6 10s by the Annual Revisions of 1904. The 1901 Census records No. 45 as a shop and house occupied by a hairdresser, William McCartan, while No. 47 was a lodging house operated by a Patrick Trainor. Between 1910 and 1912 a Sergeant Rookes of the local constabulary occupied No. 47. During the mid-to-late 20th century both buildings had their main elevations refaced, their openings reconfigured, and the former outbuilding to the rear of No. 47 was removed, most likely when they were absorbed into the barracks.

No. 41 was occupied in the 1820s to 1830s by Hugh and Elizabeth Cleland — the parents of James and John — as shown in the Ulster Town Directories of 1824–43 and the Townland Valuations of 1834. Elizabeth, born a Thompson, had married Hugh Cleland, a man who had been brought up in the Dublin workhouse and had previously been her servant. Hugh ran a grocery business in Irish Street and for four years served as the first manager of the Ulster Bank in Irish Street, before standing down due to ill health. By Griffith's Valuation the property had passed to a William G. McBride, and through several subsequent occupants until John and Rose Campbell took over in 1890 and operated a china merchants there until 1930. A historic photograph of around 1910 shows the central bays of the ground floor had been converted to a shop by that date, flanked to the east by a domestic sash window and entrance door, and to the west by a doorway to the rear; the display window west of centre carried a simple fascia reading 'JOHN CAMPBELL' and incorporated an entrance door. This ground floor arrangement was later removed or replaced with modern shopfronts, and in more recent decades the openings have largely been filled in.

No. 49, at the far south-east end of the group, comprised a house, outoffice, and yard occupied by a Hugh McVoy in the 1830s, valued at £14 in the Townland Valuations of 1834. By Griffith's Valuation of 1863 it was vacant and in poor repair, with the value reduced to £12. A public house opened on the premises in 1890, run by a Mary Anne Carr, operating until 1903. After a year's vacancy, Bridget Mullan took over and remained there until at least 1930. The building was absorbed into the police barracks at some point during the latter 20th century. Its footprint has remained largely unchanged since the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1834, apart from the removal of a detached outbuilding to the rear.