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A grade B listed building on Ormeau Road in the south of the capital city, the Good Shepherd Centre is to be transformed into apartments in an £8.6m overhaul.
The building dates back to the 1860s; from the Victorian era until 1977, the site contained a workhouse laundry for women and girls run by Catholic nuns. As such, it appears in a report into mother and baby homes and Magdalene laundries in Northern Ireland that was carried out a few years ago by a combined group of Stormont departments and two universities.
When the flats plan arrived at a Belfast Council committee last night, officials revealed a member of the public had objected to the plans, claiming parts of the site earmarked as a car park, bike park and bin shed were “used as a mother and baby home, Magdalene laundry, children’s home and adolescent centre”. An official added the objector raised “concerns there could be burial remains”.
As a result the council is in talks with Stormont’s Historic Environment Division (HED), the official said, and may set future conditions on construction.
“We’re confident that if there is an issue it can be dealt with,” he added, “and I believe that HED has a sort of standard condition for dealing with these issues.”
Sited close to the junction of Ormeau Road and Ravenhill Road, the former convent is to be turned into 28 apartments, ranging from one-bed to three-bed units, by Dungannon-based property developers Alskea.
Speaking on their behalf, planning consultant Clyde Shanks argued the project would “deliver vital regeneration and repurposing of a derelict and under-utilised listed building” that would be “restored to a long-term positive future use”.
Turning to what could lie under the car park, he added: “Any works that would be going on, if any remains or anything were found, it would be natural for there to be an immediate halt to that until those were recorded, and done in accordance with HED. We’re more than content to accept the wording of such a condition.”
Revealing the revamp would have ‘marginal’ profits, Mr Shanks pointed out that the site had been disused for around 10 years after previous plans to turn it into the headquarters of a housing association failed to materialise amid changing working patterns.
Councillors unanimously agreed to green-light the flats plan, with the possibility of adding any conditions HED may recommend. Sinn Fein’s Natasha Brennan asked the developers to work with council officials to deal “sensitively” with what she described as “a key site [that] was a mother and baby home”.
The Good Shepherd workhouse wasn’t officially a Magdalene laundry, but would be regarded as a similar institution.
Results of an official probe published five years ago showed that close to 30% of those admitted from 1933 onwards were under 18, while more than one-third were aged between 18 and 23.
Due to a lack of detail in the home’s records it wasn’t always possible to investigate why women and girls were sent there, but some were tried for minor crimes such as shoplifting or drunkenness and offered the laundry instead of a conviction.