Survey Data
Reg No
31204083
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Historical, Social
Previous Name
Ballina Constabulary Barrack
Original Use
Garda station/constabulary barracks
Date
1925 - 1930
Coordinates
124668, 318953
Date Recorded
09/12/2008
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Detached nine-bay two-storey Garda Síochána station, built 1926-7, on a rectangular plan. Closed, 2005. Now disused. Pitched slate roof with clay ridge tiles, rendered chimney stacks on rendered bases (east) or rendered buttressed chimney stacks (west) having concrete capping supporting terracotta pots, and replacement uPVC rainwater goods on rendered eaves retaining cast-iron downpipes. Rendered wall (ground floor) on rendered chamfered plinth with rusticated rendered quoins to corners; roughcast surface finish (first floor) with rusticated rendered quoins to corners; roughcast (east) or rendered (west) surface finish (remainder). Square-headed window openings with drag edged dragged cut-limestone sills, and concealed dressings framing six-over-six timber sash windows having part exposed sash boxes. Street fronted with concrete footpath to front.
Appraisal
A Garda Síochána station erected to designs by the Office of Public Works (established 1831) representing an integral component of the early twentieth-century built heritage of Ballina with the architectural value of the composition, a somewhat featureless block repurposing the shell of an earlier constabulary barrack (----), suggested by such attributes as the elongated rectilinear plan form; and the uniform or near-uniform proportions of the openings on each floor. A prolonged period out of use notwithstanding, the form and massing survive intact together with substantial quantities of the original fabric, both to the exterior and to the utilitarian interior, thus upholding the character or integrity of a Garda Síochána station making a pleasing visual statement in Walsh Street.