Downshire Hospital (front terrace), Ardglass Road, Downpatrick, Co Down, BT30 6RA

Downshire Hospital (Front Terrace), Ardglass Road, Downpatrick

This is an extremely long — approximately 300 metres — and impressive asylum complex designed by County Surveyor Henry Smyth, largely built between 1865 and 1869. Originally known as the Down District Lunatic Asylum, it is one of the most substantial Victorian institutional buildings in the region. It sits on a rise to the north-east of Ardglass Road, on the south-eastern outskirts of Downpatrick.

The complex consists of a series of connected, hipped-roof terrace blocks of uniform red brick construction with cream brick saw-tooth quoins and courses. The front elevation faces south-west and is generally symmetrical. The arrangement comprises a central three-storey hipped-roof block with a projecting entrance tower at its centre, flanked by longer but slightly lower three-storey wings, with the whole terrace culminating at both ends in large two-storey hipped-roof pavilion blocks that project well beyond the main line of the elevation. Throughout, the elevation breaks into various gabled and canted bays, but despite its considerable length and the disparity in the age of its various parts, the building presents a remarkably uniform appearance, with neat lines of mostly sash windows.

The Central Entrance Tower

The most dramatic element is the large five-storey entrance tower at the centre. Although it forms part of the original construction, it has an eclectic, somewhat exuberant character that appears stylistically later than 1865–69. Roughly square in plan, it has round, cone-capped, four-storey turrets — presumably stair towers giving access to the clock — projecting from its north-west and south-east corners. These round turrets have slit windows to most floors and are linked at ground level, along with the main tower body, by a single-storey canted extension with a flat roof, which appears to have been built over the original main entrance. A relatively utilitarian doorway opens to the south face of this extension. Above it, on the south-west face of the main tower, is a tall, church-like, semicircular-headed window containing two large semicircular-headed lights with a roundel to the tympanum; all these lights have margin panes. To the uppermost floor of the main tower, each face has a large semicircular-headed louvred opening; those to the south-west and north-east faces also incorporate a traditional clock face. The tower is crowned with a slated, mansard-like roof in an American Gothic style, with an open ironwork crown at the top, and a roundel dormer to each side of the roof. The eaves course is broken on each side by the arched heads of the louvred openings described above.

The Central Hipped-Roof Section

The south-west façade of the large hipped-roof section immediately to either side of the tower is considerably plainer, with sash windows of various sizes to each floor and a single-storey gabled entrance porch at the centre of the ground floor on both left and right.

The Three-Storey Wings

To the north-west and south-east, the central hipped-roof section is linked via short, single-storey flat-roofed corridors to very long, slightly lower, three-storey hipped-roof wings. Both wings have largely identical south-west elevations, with long recessed outer portions flanking a larger central projecting section. The outer portions each culminate in a full-height gabled bay at their outer ends, and the centre of each central projecting section has a full-height canted bay. The windows are evenly arranged with sash frames, many retaining glazing bars; those to the central projecting sections have semicircular heads, while the remainder are flat-headed. The slated roofs carry a uniform series of large brick chimney stacks. At the outer end of each wing's roof there rises a tall battered brick ventilation tower with an open cast-iron crown.

The End Pavilion Blocks

The terrace terminates at both ends in large, two-storey hipped-roof pavilion blocks. The south-west elevations of these are mirror images of one another, each featuring large full-height end projections, canted and flat-roofed bays, and single-storey conservatory extensions. The north-west block has been further extended on its north-west side.

Rear Elevations and Extensions

As is typical of institutional buildings of this age, the rear of the complex is less uniform and has been extended considerably over the years. Large portions of the original rear elevations remain visible, particularly those of the long three-storey wings, which have rubble-faced façades with red brick dressings to the openings. Like their front elevations, the rears of both wings have uniform rows of sash windows to each floor and some utilitarian doorways. Towards their outer extremities, both wings have large, original, three-storey hipped-roof returns, each abutted by substantial mid- to late-20th-century extensions of varying size and shape that are generally out of sympathy with the original fabric. The return to the north-west wing also connects northward to a two-storey U-shaped hipped-roof block of similar appearance to the front pavilions. Beyond this is another similar block of a different plan, originally freestanding but now linked to the former via a first-floor brick-built corridor that also spans over the main drive to the north of the hospital.

To the rear of the central section of the terrace there is a large, original, full-height gabled return — partly rubble-faced and partly rendered — with tall buttresses and upper-level semicircular-headed windows. This return connects to several two-storey gabled blocks that also appear to be original or at least late 19th century in date. These portions are largely rubble-finished with brick dressings to sash windows, but are now partly hidden by a sprawling mass of mid- to late-20th-century brick extensions, generally single-storey with a mixture of flat and gabled roofs and modern windows and doors.

Historical Development

The building opened in October 1869, having been built at a cost of just over £60,000. In its original form it contained four wards, two infirmaries (one male, one female), and 45 single rooms, providing 333 beds in total. In 1882–83 the two-storey pavilion end blocks were added. Further extensions — presumably the two-storey red brick portions to the north — were added between approximately 1895 and 1904, and a gasworks was built in 1905. Additional extensions followed throughout the 20th century, mainly during the 1930s and 1950s, both to the rear of the main complex and as separate buildings within the extended hospital grounds — for example, Finneston House, added in 1955. In 1894 the building was renamed the Down County Lunatic Asylum; it subsequently became Down Mental Hospital, and with the establishment of the National Health Service in 1948, it took its current name of Downshire Hospital.