Ballina Union Workhouse

Remains of Union Workhouse complex, designed 1840; built 1840-2; opened 1843; replaced 1933-4, including: Detached two-bay single-storey dispensary with half-dormer attic on a T-shaped plan with single-bay (single-bay deep) full-height gabled projecting end bay. Occupied, 1911. Now disused. Pitched slate roof on a T-shaped plan including gablet to window opening to half-dormer attic with terracotta ridge tiles, dragged cut-limestone coping to gables on drag edged dragged cut-limestone "Cavetto" kneelers, and remains of cast-iron rainwater goods on exposed timber rafters. Part repointed tuck pointed snecked rock faced limestone walls with drag edged tooled hammered limestone flush quoins to corners. Square-headed window openings with drag edged dragged cut-limestone sills, and drag edged dragged cut-limestone block-and-start surrounds framing concrete block (ground floor) or timber boarded (half-dormer attic) infill. Set back from line of street.

A gate lodge-like dispensary surviving as an interesting relic of the Ballina Union Workhouse complex erected for the Ballina Poor Law Union (formed 1840) to a standardised design signed (1840) by George Wilkinson (1814-90), Architect to the Poor Law Commissioners of Ireland (appointed 1839; retired 1855), with the architectural value of the composition suggested by such traits as the compact plan form; the rock faced surface finish offset by sheer limestone dressings demonstrating good quality workmanship; and the miniature gablets embellishing the roofline. A prolonged period of neglect notwithstanding, the elementary form and massing survive intact together with interesting remnants of the original fabric, thereby upholding much of the character or integrity of a dispensary making a pleasing, if increasingly forlorn visual statement in the streetscape.