Saint Bricin's Military Hospital

Detached five-bay two-storey former provost marshal’s house, built c.1800, with single-storey late-nineteenth century lean-to extension to south. Later in use as store, now disused. Pitched slate roof with red brick chimneystacks to gable ends, and cast-iron rainwater goods. Roughcast rendered walls. Square-headed window openings, having cut granite keystone and block-and-start surround. Windows blocked to ground floor, replacement uPVC windows to first floor. Square-headed window openings to extension, having tripartite timber sash windows, six-over-six panes flanked by two-over-two, and cut granite sills. Round-headed door opening to front (west) elevation, having carved granite block-and-start surround with replacement steel door. Square-headed door openings to extension, having timber battened doors. Located within grounds of Saint Bricin’s military hospital.

This former Provost Marshal’s House is one of a group of military related structures built in the area north of the eighteenth century Royal Barracks (now Collins Barracks). The well-cut stone to the door surround and window surrounds of the west elevation is evidence both of the high standard of skilled stonemasonry in the late-eighteenth century, and of the wealth of the military as patron. The ‘Provost’s Ho.’ is identified on the 1837 Ordnance Survey map, as ‘Hospital’ on the Griffith Valuation map c.1850, and as being in residential use on a 1909 military map of the Arbour Hill complex. The provost had the responsibility of policing solely within the armed forces, and the Provost Marshal’s House was accompanied to the east by a late-eighteenth century ‘Provost Prison’, in which Theobald Wolfe Tone famously died in 1798. A new prison was built in 1803 and the former prison building has since been used as officers’ accommodation, and most recently as an officers’ mess. Later neighbouring military-related structures include Arbour Hill detention barracks to the south-west (1838-45) and Saint Bricin’s Military Hospital to the north (1902-13). The former Provost Marshal’s House is now unoccupied and was most recently used as storage for Saint Bricin’s Military Hospital.