Downe Hospital (administration block), 9a Pound Lane, Downpatrick, Co Down, BT30 6JA

This is a two-storey classical style fever hospital built in 1834 to designs by John B. Keane of Dublin. It now serves as the administration block of Downe Hospital. The building was constructed as a subsidiary to the larger Down County Infirmary, sited to the north, which was built simultaneously in the same classical style also by Keane. John Lynn served as builder, with the project costing £2,050. The hospital was shown on the Ordnance Survey map of 1834 with its original three rear returns. According to the Ordnance Survey Memoirs of December 1836, the hospital, together with the infirmary, "has added most evidently to the health and comforts of the poorer classes, the infirmary by distributing advice and medicine and by affording an asylum to the sick when necessary, and the hospital by preventing spread of contagious diseases". By the late 1860s, with the construction of another fever hospital at the Union workhouse to the north of Downpatrick in the 1840s and declining outbreaks of diseases such as cholera, patient numbers had fallen significantly, with the building standing completely empty for periods. In 1872 it was therefore handed over to the infirmary for use as female wards. The building retained its original external form until the mid-20th century (circa 1957), when single-storey extensions were added to the rear.

The commanding site sits on a rise to the south of Pound Lane, south of Downpatrick town centre. The symmetrical front façade faces roughly west. Originally the building consisted of a long front wing with three rear returns, the central of which was single-storey. This form is largely retained, though the north and central returns are now linked by flat-roofed single-storey extensions, and single-storey extensions have been added to the gables of the north and south returns.

To the centre of the ground floor is a single-storey square bay with flat roof, cornice and blocking course, built over the original entrance. The front face of the bay has three sash windows with Georgian panes (4/4), with a single similar window to each of the shorter north and south faces. Georgian-paned sash windows have been retained throughout the building. Flanking the bay to either side are two semicircular-headed windows (6/6) set within semicircular-headed recesses. The first floor has five windows, mostly with flat arches (3/6), except the central window which is a tripartite eyebrow window (1/1, 3/6, 1/1). These first-floor windows rest on a sill course. At each end of the front façade are full-height projecting gabled bays finished as broken pediments, with in-out quoins. Each bay contains a tall flat-arch ground-floor window (6/6) and an eyebrow window to the first floor (both set within tall semicircular-headed recesses), with a small unmarked panel above the ground-floor window.

The north elevation is formed largely by the north façade of the north return, symmetrical about a central ground-floor doorway with segmental fanlight and small sidelights contained within a semicircular-headed recess. To left and right of the door are two tall windows (all 6/9), with five windows to the first floor (all 6/6 except the centre which is an eyebrow window). To the east, this façade merges with the north face of the single-storey flat-roofed extension. The south elevation is largely a mirror of the north, merging to the east with the south face of a single-storey gabled extension.

The rear elevation has a complex appearance. At each end are the two-storey gable ends of the north and south returns, with the extended single-storey central return between them. Each two-storey gable has a single-storey extension attached (that to the north flat-roofed, that to the south gabled). The first floor of the south gable has a single 6/6 window, whilst the first floor of the north gable has two windows (both 6/6 but of different sizes). The single-storey central return has been extended north and south with flat-roofed additions, the northern of which now links to the north return. This central section has modern windows throughout. To the north (inner) façade of the south return is a single ground-floor window. Where the south return abuts the main front section is a slim full-height corner projection with a small upper-level window (3/3) to its east face. To the left of the exposed portion of the rear of the main section is a 6/6 ground-floor window with a modern window directly above at first floor. To the right of this is a gabled half-dormer with a segmental-headed window (3/6).

The façade is finished in lined render and painted, with a tall bevelled base to the front façade. The gabled roof is slated and carries six rendered chimney stacks. The rainwater goods are mainly cast iron. To the rear of the building stands a low, two-storey hipped-roof former outbuilding, now used as a store.