County: Antrim Site name: Belfast City Hospital, Lisburn Road, Belfast
Sites and Monuments Record No.: ANT 60:505 Licence number: AE/14/057
Author: Stephen Gilmore
Site type: Industrial Hospital building boiler
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 732647m, N 872967m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 54.587565, -5.947680
Excavations revealed an historic incinerator building for the City Hospital towards the west end of the Belfast City Hospital site. The building is to be demolished and its site redeveloped as an acute mental health in-patient facility. Attached to the north-west corner of the building is an octagonal brick chimney; this is a Scheduled Monument (ANT 60:505) which will be incorporated into the redevelopment. Because it is physically connected to the building, special conditions were imposed by the DOE: HED (formally NIEA) on the building's demolition. These included a photographic survey of the building prior to its demolition, the manual removal of a modern brick wall between it and the chimney, and the archaeological excavation of any remains revealed once it had been demolished.
The excavation revealed that the incinerator had been modified numerous times; prior to its modernisation as an incinerator building, it was a boiler house that contained three Lancaster Boilers which would have heated the old hospital building via stream. The brick housing for the boilers was still present and visible beneath the concrete foundation bed of the incinerator building. They are similar in construction and size to other such sites in Belfast and elsewhere in Ireland and are of their time. They have been recorded in detail and it was decided that there is no need to preserve these structures.
NAC, Farset Enterprise Park, 638 Springfield Road, Belfast, BT12 7DY
