Armagh is the ecclesiastical capital of Ireland, and one of the
finest Georgian towns in the country. St Patrick is said to have
founded the Christian Church in Ireland here in 445 AD, and the
site of his church is occupied today by the Church of Ireland
Cathedral of St Patrick, round which Castle Street curves. The
fourteen houses that make up Whaley's Buildings get their name
from the inscription on the base of a stone urn on the corner
of Castle Street and Upper Irish Street. The Whaley family built
up a fortune in Cromwellian times and had considerable property
in the area.
Soon after Hearth was set up, Castle Street was on its agenda
as a significant group of Georgian buildings at risk, but the
size of the individual houses and sheer dereliction of the block
made its restoration highly problematical. The roofs of many houses
had collapsed, dragging down upper floors, and it was impossible
to survey some of the houses properly as they lacked floors and
staircases, and had basements of indeterminate depth full of sodden
plaster and rotting timbers.
The houses are built of random rubble conglomerate stone known
as 'Armagh marble'. The four-storey houses at 48 and 50 Castle
Street are the earliest in the group; the generally two-storey
houses of Upper Irish Street and 52-58 Castle Street are dated
1773, although the stucco front to the former pub at no.2 is Victorian;
and there is a pair of whitewashed vernacular cottages at 32-34
Chapel Lane which have been combined to form one house. A brick
hall behind no.48 was demolished and a new entrance formed from
Chapel Lane, while three new houses were built to form a terrace
alongside the old cottages. Derelict outbuildings on what is now
a courtyard were demolished and stone salvaged from them to provide
a 'quarry' for rebuilding the facades of nos.10 and 12 Upper Irish
Street, which had been demolished by a bomb. Behind no.10 had
stood a curious group of three ashlar stone arches which were
dismantled and re-erected as the yard wall behind nos.52-54 Castle
Street. An extraordinary bow rising the full height of the back
of no.48 was largely rebuilt as it was in poor structural condition.
Internally, very little timber had survived, but fragments of
stairs and cornices, together with shutters and architraves in
nos.48 and 50, provided evidence to restore the main rooms.
The scheme was awarded a Diploma of Merit by Europa Nostra in
1995. The determination to save the group was a major factor in
the Housing Executive carrying out its excellent new-build scheme
on the remainder of Castle Street, which in its turn facilitated
the restoration of derelict buildings in Market Street.
Client: Hearth Revolving
Fund
Architect: Hearth (Project Architect: Dawson Stelfox)
Quantity Surveyor: W H Stephens, Portadown
Structural Engineer: Kirk McClure & Morton
Main Contractor: Francis Haughey, Keady
Restored: 1990-92
Accommodation: Two two-bedroom houses, seven three-bedroom houses
and five four-bedroom houses.
Assisted by loans and grants from: N I Housing Executive, Historic
Buildings Branch DoE, Architectural Heritage Fund, International
Fund for Ireland, Ulster Garden Villages and own capital.
