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

Ruc Station, 45 Irish Street, Downpatrick, County Down

This is a symmetrical attached double-pile three-bay two-storey-over-basement former police station, originally built as a house around 1790 and refurbished around 1855. It stands on the south-east side of Irish Street, with lower two-storey eighteenth-century terraced houses attached to either side. At the time of survey in April 2016, all buildings were contained within a sangar barrier.

The main building (No. 43) has an M-profile pitched slate roof with valley gutter and profiled cast iron gutters to the front. Gable chimneystacks are topped with terracotta pots, some now missing. The façade is painted ruled and lined render with vermiculated quoins and band rustication to the ground floor. A loop motif decorates the string course over the ground floor, and the parapet features floriate and dentil mouldings over a moulded string. The side and rear elevations are finished in plain unpainted cement render.

Windows throughout are covered with metal security grilles or timber boards. Internal inspection reveals intact timber sashes, generally 6/6 panes. The ground floor has stone sills; upper floor windows have continuous cills. Ground floor window surrounds are vermiculated with exaggerated keyblocks, while first floor windows have triangular pediments. Other architectural details are concealed behind the security grilles.

The principal elevation faces north-west with three openings on each floor, symmetrically arranged about a central square-headed door. This door sits within a taller round-headed opening set into a classical doorcase. The doorcase comprises a modillioned broken-bed triangular pediment on Doric columns with tall triglyph mouldings above. The modern replacement door is accessed by three concrete steps. The basement well is enclosed by a balustraded dwarf wall with square panelled piers at the corners.

The south-east elevation is abutted by No. 47 and contains two ground floor windows and two at second floor level. The rear elevation is partially covered by a modern sandlime brick cellblock and a full-height enclosed metal fire escape, with scaffolding present at the time of writing. A single opening serves each of the first and second floors. The north-west elevation is abutted at first floor level by Building 2 (No. 41A) and has a vehicular entry to ground floor.

Building 3 (Nos. 45–47) abuts the main building to the south-east. It is a three-storey two-bay block with slate roof and pebbledashed walls. Windows have been resized and partially infilled with no remaining features of architectural interest.

Building 4 (No. 49) is a corner-sited two-storey three-bay house at the extreme south-east end of the group. It contains a ground floor shop with two-storey return. The roof is pantiled with plastic rainwater goods and painted rendered walling. Timber 1/1 sashes remain to the upper floor; the ground floor has two replacement timber doors and the remnants of a timber shopfront partially obscured by the sangar return wall.

The entire complex was originally street-fronted but is now contained within a compound bounded by semi-permanent metal and reinforced concrete security barriers. Original long narrow rear plots are now generally undivided with tarmac surfaces. The precinct is bounded to the north-west and south-west by a tall rubble stone boundary wall, part of which survives between the main building and Building 3. To the rear of Building 2 (Nos. 41 and 41A) stands an eighteenth-century L-shaped two-storey outbuilding with rubble stone walls and slate roof.