Survey Data
Reg No
22502990
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Historical, Scientific, Social
Previous Name
Waterford County and City Gaol
Original Use
Gates/railings/walls
In Use As
Gates/railings/walls
Date
1860 - 1865
Coordinates
260520, 112362
Date Recorded
01/07/2003
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Remains of boundary wall, built 1861-3, including (south): coursed rubble stone wall on benchmark-inscribed margined tooled cut-limestone chamfered cushion course on battered base. Street fronted.
Appraisal
The remains of a boundary wall surviving as an interesting relic of the Waterford County and City Gaol complex. NOTE: The exact location of the first Waterford City Gaol built (1727) by Thomas Roberts (d. 1775) is unknown. The surviving sections of boundary wall at Jail Street and Barker Street, continuing on a line with the city wall [SMR WA009-005002-], show uncoursed rubble stone work and possibly date back to the Waterford Courthouse and Gaol complex built (1784-7) to designs by James Gandon (1742-1823) of Dublin 'on the recommendation of [John Howard (1726-90)] the philanthropist' (Lewis 1837 II, 689-90). The gaol was later condemned for 'the workmanship...most fraudulently executed...the walls of the yards giving way' and required costly essential repairs (Inspector General's Report of the State of the Prisons of Ireland for the year 1807 1808, 16): a new gaol was subsequently built (1807-11) to designs by Sir Richard Morrison (1676-1849). The new Waterford County and City Gaol was built (1861-3) to designs by Charles Tarrant (1815-77), County Surveyor for County Waterford (appointed 1855), and, in addition to the cell blocks centring on a chapel, the debtors' prison, hospital and laundry, the complex included a neo-Gothic gate lodge: it is possible that a section of the boundary wall at Ballybricken Green, which shows coursed stone work and silver-grey limestone dressings, was likewise reconstructed. The closure (1938) of Waterford County and City Gaol coincided with the declaration of "The Emergency" at the outbreak of the Second World War (1939-1945) and the vacant complex was subsequently repurposed by An Fórsa Cosanta Áitiúil [Local Defence Force]. The demolition of the complex (1949-54) was spurred by the "Waterford Jail Disaster" (4th March 1943) when, following a period of heavy rain, a section of the boundary wall collapsed onto houses in Barker Street and King's Terrace resulting in the deaths of four adults and five children: the disaster is commemorated by a nearby memorial (2004) by Declan Breen (b. 1951).