Historic Building Details

HB Ref No:
HB25/11/004

Address :
Willowbrook and Woodstock House Woodstock House Mount Merrion Avenue BELFAST County Antrim BT6 0FQ

Townland:
Ballymaconaghy

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Survey 2:
Record Only

Date of Listing:

Date of De-listing:

Current Use:
House

Former Use
House

Conservation Area:
No

Industrial Archaeology:
No

Vernacular:
No

Thatched:
No

Monument:
No

Derelict:
No

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OS Map No:
147/2

IG Ref:
J3600 7202

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Owner Category

Housing

Exterior Description And Setting

An identical pair of 11-storey over basement, modernist influenced housing tower blocks, erected c.1960 to the designs of the architects of the Northern Ireland Housing Trust; recently renovated with alterations c.2010. Square plan form with an adjoining single storey service block. Located off Mount Merrion Avenue, adjacent to the Cregagh Estate, approximately 2miles south-east of Belfast city centre. The block to the north east of the site is called “Willowbrook House”; the other is “Woodstock House”. Flat roof construction, surmounted by inverted pitched lift shaft and plant; parapet wall with mild-steel railing. uPVC rainwater goods throughout. The exact structural composition is undetermined. Most likely would be the widely used reinforced concrete frame system with the block work outer skin. The block work is dashed with lime stone chips and laid to stretcher bond. Replacement uPVC and aluminium framed glazing throughout. The flat roofed rendered front entrance was added c.2010. The former principal entrance has been significantly modified with replacement doors and the removal of the original porch; now used as a secondary entrance. The principal elevation of Willowbrook House faces west and is symmetrically arranged. Each floor with the exception of the ground floor is identical creating a uniform arrangement of centrally located projected balconies from a recessed bay, flanked by single bi-partite windows to either side. The ground floor entrance porch is located left of centre, occupying the space previously held by a ground floor apartment. The ground floor window to the left of the entrance has been blocked up and the walling has been partially smooth rendered. The thin concrete cantilevered balconies are angled outwards towards the centre with mild-steel railing; partitioned with full height block work. Each balcony is served by a uPVC door and bi-partite window with solid lower panel. The north elevation is symmetrically arranged comprising full height recessed central glazing to the stair well with a secondary entrance at ground floor, with matching apartment accommodation to either side. The block work to the apartments is a lighter shade than the principal elevation and sits slightly recessed, framed with the darker block. Each floor is partitioned with an exposed concrete course and each apartment comprises a uniform arrangement of a single bi-partite window flanked by tri-partite windows. Additional ventilation grilles to the left hand side of the right apartments. The ground floor right apartment has been converted to form the new entrance lobby and has been smooth rendered. The east elevation is symmetrically arranged and matches the north elevation, with the exception that the ground floor apartments have not been altered. The south elevation matches the north elevation in principle i.e. a central recessed bay flanked by apartments, however the central bay comprises a series of recessed balconies serving a refuge chute located to the left hand side. At ground floor level a single storey service block, brick walling with corrugated sheet metal mono-pitch roof; added c.2010. Woodstock House is identical to the Willowbrook House with the exception that the apartment altered to create a new entrance is located on the left hand side on the ground floor level of the west elevation. Setting The tower blocks sit on a small site to the east of the Cregagh Estate, a housing development c.1940 comprising a series of two-storey red brick flat roofed blocks. A principal road runs across the north of the site; immediately to the south and west are parking lay-bys. Much of the hard landscaping immediately adjacent to the buildings has been replaced with modern paving and tarmac. Roofing : Asphalt Walling: Concrete block Windows: Replacement uPVC RWG: Replacement uPVC

Architects

Not Known

Historical Information

Woodstock House and Willowbrook House were approved for construction in 1957 and were the first tower block housing to be built in Northern Ireland. The blocks are identical, with 11 storeys and 44 flats in each. They were completed in 1962 and were a success, encouraging the Northern Ireland Housing Trust to build more tower blocks, over 40 going up all over Northern Ireland, the majority of these in Belfast. Later, multi-storey living proved less than successful in some parts of Belfast, and high-rise social housing was no longer built in Northern Ireland after the late 1960s, although high building continued in Scotland until the mid-1970s. The tower block experiment began in the context of a social housing boom throughout the UK in the post-war period, when it was taken for granted that municipal authorities would take on a large-scale house-building programme. Northern Ireland lagged behind other regions of the UK in building social housing during the inter-war years, but between 1945 and 1969, 64% of housing was built by public authorities, compared to 51% in England Wales. The existing housing stock at this period was, in many cases, perceived as sub-standard, structurally as well as in its planning and design and many urban areas were labelled ‘slums’. Additionally, overarching values and a sense of mission accompanied what has been called a ‘housing revolution’. Architects and planners were influenced by Le Corbusier’s espousal of high-rise architecture and saw tower blocks as symbolising modernity and post-war progress. Industrialised building techniques were believed to lower costs, by standardising designs and replicating them over many sites. A brutalist aesthetic emphasised the use of exposed concrete, which was flexible and economical in use. (Glendinning and Muthesius; Dunleavy; Hanley) The first social housing tower block to be built in the UK opened in Essex in 1949-51 and by the mid-fifties the addition of ‘point blocks’ or vertical multi-storey blocks to estates was being debated by the Northern Ireland Housing Trust, established in 1945. It was not until 1959 that work began on the two tower blocks at Cregagh, commissioned from Unit Construction Company Ltd, a Liverpool-based company that had previously been employed by Belfast Corporation to build flats on Annadale Embankment. The blocks were conceived as an adjunct to the 1945 Cregagh Estate, a development of low-rise terraced housing that made use of the limitations imposed by lack of materials following the war by adopting flat roofs rather than tiles or slates, giving it a non-traditional aspect. The housing at Cregagh was used to decant tenants from what was regarded as sub-standard housing in overcrowded inner city areas. (Glendinning and Muthesius; Festival of Britain Souvenir Guide) The two tower blocks first appear on the OS map dating from the 1960s/70s and enter valuation records in 1962. Occupiers are noted for each flat and the four flats on each floor are valued at £19, £14, £21 and £21, reflecting slightly different sizes and layouts. A laundrette in the basement of Woodstock House is noted. Slum-clearance and the decanting of tenants from inner city areas proved to be controversial, both politically and socially and was often opposed by politicians, church leaders and the tenants themselves. New development often had to take place on existing sites to preserve the infrastructure and voting patterns of existing populations. Multi-storey buildings were thought to be especially useful in this context, since they allowed people to be rehoused within their own familiar areas. However, these inner-city developments were among the least successful experiments in multi-storey living and the most notorious of these, Divis Flats, was ultimately demolished. (Glendinning and Muthesius) In the late 1960s, politicians and decision-makers began to turn against the building of Modern flats and a proposal to build seven 20-storey blocks at Black Mountain was rejected, Belfast’s Housing Committee citing the unpopularity and social problems of high flats. The Northern Ireland Housing Executive, set up in 1971, imposed a blanket ban on multi-storey building and new social housing since that time has tended to be of traditional design and construction. Nonetheless, the majority of point blocks built by the housing authorities in Belfast have survived and are still in use, although not now seen as suitable accommodation for families. High-rise dwelling has in recent years become popular in Belfast, as in other UK cities, with young professionals, and the private sector has invested in new high-rise developments, often in waterside locations. Not yet seen in Belfast, however, has been the renewal of ex-council high-rises as luxury apartment blocks, a phenomenon noted in London in recent years. (Glendinning and Muthesius; Dunleavy; Hanley) References: Primary Sources 1.OS Map 147 – 1960s/70s 2.PRONI VAL/4/B/3/20 – Second General Revaluation (1956-72) 3.Festival of Britain Souvenir Guide, 1951 Secondary Sources 1.Dunleavy, P “The Politics of Mass Housing in Britain, 1945-75” Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1981 2.Glendinning, M and Muthesius, S “Tower Block – Modern Public Housing in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland” New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1994 3.Hanley, L “Estates: an intimate history” London: Granta Books, 2007

Criteria for Listing

Architectural Interest

Not listed

Historic Interest

Not listed

Evaluation

Evaluation will be amended to reflect NIEA decision following advice from HBC. An identical pair of 11-storey over basement, modernist influenced housing tower blocks. The first tower block housing to be built in Northern Ireland, erected c.1960 to the designs of the architects of the Northern Ireland Housing Trust and recently renovated with alterations c.2010. While lacking the architectural detail of some of the prototype towers in the UK and elsewhere, the Mount Merrion blocks are of considerable local historic interest as the first multi-storey residential blocks of their type in Northern Ireland, most likely constructed using reinforced concrete frame technology. They symbolise the development of new social and architectural solutions to the problems created by lack of suitable post-war housing, in the context of the developing welfare state. Overall their exteriors have remained largely unchanged despite minor inappropriate renovations. They are local landmarks in Castlereagh and of social importance.

General Comments

Date of Survey

30 June 2011