Lumen Christi College

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Attached symmetrical seven-bay three-storey with attic stone school building, built c.1877, to designs by O'Neill & Byrne architects with multi-bay three-storey Refectory and dormitory block to the rear, dated 1933, to designs by J.P. McGrath. L-shaped on plan facing southeast with cast-iron verandah attached to the southwest gable and three-storey side wing that leads to the chapel attached to the north-east (HB01/16/003A).

Pitched natural slate roof with black clay ridgecomb tiles and four large shouldered stone chimneystacks with stone coping and terracotta pots. Two levels of decorative gabled dormer windows (front and rear) having decorative timber bargeboards on brackets, lead-lined cheeks, single-pane 1/1 timber sliding sash windows to lower dormers and fixed panes to upper dormers. Raised verge to both gable ends having sandstone coping and gableted kneeler stones. Moulded cast-iron guttering to corbelled sandstone eaves course and cast-iron downpipes. Uncoursed roughly squared schist walling with sandstone ashlar dressings including; flush quoins, chamfered trim to schist plinth course and continuous sill course to ground and first floors. Stop-chamfered sandstone ashlar window surrounds, round-arched to ground floor, segmental-arched to first floor and square-headed to second floor. Original timber sliding sash window having 6/6 panes with much historic glass throughout (unless otherwise noted).

Symmetrical front elevation (SE) with central Renaissance style stone entrance porch. Shouldered square-headed door opening with double-leaf 6 diamond-panelled timber doors and plain fanlight set within bowtel-moulded stepped round-arched surround. The outer arch rises from pair of red sandstone columns on plinth blocks with acanthus leaf capitals. Porch surmounted by decorative stiff-leaf cornice and pierced stone balustrade. Carved foliate roundels to each side of outer arch. Door opens onto four terrazzo steps to front bitmac area.

Gabled side elevation (SW) has rendered walling and randomly placed round-, segmental- and flat-arched window openings with ashlar sandstone surrounds and 6/6 timber sash windows. String course at cill level to ground and first floor returned from SE elevation. Ornate cast-iron open verandah (HB01.16.003D) to the ground floor with pitched natural slate roof, black clay ridge-comb tiles and moulded cast iron guttering, housing a later glazed porch, built c.2000.

Rear elevation (NW) abutted by single-storey extensions to the right and three-storey Refectory block to the left. Rendered rear elevation to Junior block with windows as per front elevation without stone surrounds; in-filled windows to far right. Bays separated by exposed buttresses up to first floor level, rendered to match wall with lead flashing to angled top.

The Refectory block is a three-storey eight bay gabled return with lower gabled abutment to the NW elevation now almost fully encompassed within later classroom building set at 90 degrees. Natural slate roof, corbelled eaves, smooth rendered walls and ashlar sandstone toothed quoins and window surrounds. Cast iron guttering and a mixture of round section cast iron and square section uPVC downpipes. The NE elevation to has a later two-storey lean-to extension. Casement windows within square-headed openings to the second floor and segmental-arched openings to the first floor and timber sliding sash windows with fixed overlights within round-arched to the ground floor.

Gabled NE side elevation is abutted by the side wing to the chapel (HB01/16/003A).

Setting:
Located on an elevated site at the south-west end of Lumen Christi College campus. Overlooking River Foyle to the south and forming part of a wider collection of nineteenth and twentieth-century buildings set on a northeast-southwest axis. Bitmac parking areas to front elevation with enclosed yard to rear.

Junior House:
Roof Natural slate
RWG Cast-iron to Junior Block
Walling Random rough-squared schist / sandstone dressings
Windows Original timber/ steel sliding sash to the Junior Block

Refectory:
Roof Natural slate
RWG Cast Iron gutter and mixture of cast iron and uPVC downpipes.
Walling Smooth render / sandstone dressings
Windows Casement to FF & SF and timber sliding sash GF Refectory.

Historical information

Lumen Christi College, a co-educational Roman Catholic grammar school located on Bishop Street, was originally constructed in phases between 1877 and 1941 and was occupied by St. Columb’s College until 1997. The three-and-a-half-storey seven-bay Junior House was the first portion of the current college buildings to be erected in 1877-79.

In the 18th century the grounds of Lumen Christi College were located to the south-west of the Bishop’s gardens. In c. 1784 the Earl Bishop of Derry, the Rev. Frederick Hervey, had a two-storey summer residence (known as the Casino) built next to his gardens on the site of the future school buildings. The Casino was purportedly designed by the Milanese architect Placido Columbani who had supervised the construction of contemporary structures at the Bishop’s estate at Downhill. Calley states that the Casino (now demolished) was ‘a stuccoed building 50 feet in length of Ionic temple form with matching bows on its north east and south west elevations.’ The Earl Bishop made little use of the Casino on Bishop Street and by the mid-19th century it formed the centrepiece of a small park that was owned by the Skipton family (Calley; Seeking the Kingdom; DIA).

The Roman Catholic Bishop of Derry, the Rev. Francis Kelly (1812-89), acquired the plot of land and Casino from the Skipton family in 1869 in order to construct a seminary which would provide education for students wishing to join the priesthood. Kelly had been the driving force behind the completion of St. Eugene’s Cathedral in 1873 and had provided £8,000 of his own money towards the construction of the seminary. The foundation stone of St. Columb’s College (briefly known as St. Columbkille’s Seminary) was laid on 11th May 1877. Rowan states that the seminary originally consisted of the Casino, which was adapted into a chapel, and the three-and-a-half-storey seven-bay block which was attached to the south side of the converted Casino. The seminary was designed by O’Neill & Byrne, a Belfast and Dublin-based architectural partnership which predominantly carried out work on behalf of the Roman Catholic Church, and was constructed by Mr. Matthew McClelland, a local builder and contractor. The Natural Stone Database notes that the new building was constructed of locally-quarried Derry schist and Barony Glen Sandstone. The school bell was cast by the Dublin-based Murphy Bell Foundry in 1879. The completed buildings cost £10,000 and were officially opened on 3rd November 1879 with the Londonderry Journal describing the seminary as ‘one of the most eligible sites about the city of Derry – elevated, enclosed, and well sheltered with plantations. [The seminary comprised] residences and a dining hall for the professors, study hall, student’s rooms, and a large dormitory for the students of the junior classes’ (Seeking the Kingdom; DIA; NSD).

The Annual Revisions initially set the total rateable value of St. Columb’s College at £150 with the adjoining chapel (exempt from taxation) valued at £10. The seminary attracted a large number of boarders leading to the construction of the north wing (see HB01/16/003C) of the college in 1892-93. The original building of 1877-79 became the Junior House of the college whilst the new block was utilised as dormitories and classrooms by the senior pupils. The next addition to the college came in 1897-98 when the museum, library and recreation hall and bathhouse (see HB01/16/003D) was constructed to the south side of the Junior House.

There were few further changes to the layout of St. Columb’s College until after the Partition of Ireland. Madden and Bradley state that the school and its pupils were frequently attacked during the War of Independence and that the school buildings were raked by gunfire in the summer of 1920. The next addition to the school came in 1932 when a large extension, consisting of a dormitory block, refectory and kitchen was added to the rear of the Junior House. The addition was designed by James Patrick McGrath (1875-1948), a local architect ‘who developed a varied practice of commercial, domestic, school and Catholic ecclesiastical work’ (DIA). This was followed by the demolition of the 18th Century Casino and the construction of the current college chapel in its place in 1936-41 (see HB01/16/003A). The First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936-57) set the total rateable value of St. Columb’s College at £575 with the new chapel valued at £150.

Following the 1947 Education Act, attendance at St. Columb’s College trebled resulting in the erection of temporary classroom accommodation in the school grounds. The value of the school and its chapel had been increased to £2,584 by the end of the Second General Revaluation (1956-72). Accommodation remained a problem for the Trustees and from as early as the 1950s it was recognised that the school facilities on Bishop Street had become inadequate. The solution was reached by the construction of new school buildings on the Buncrana Road which would be utilised as the Senior School whilst the original buildings on Bishop Street remained in use as the Junior School. The new school building was opened in 1973 and was designed by Frank Corr (of Corr & McCormick).

St. Columb’s College was listed in 1979. The Junior School of the college continued to be sited at Bishop Street until 1997 when the entire school was relocated to the Buncrana Road (following the completion of a new Senior Block at the site in that year). In that year the vacated school was acquired by Lumen Christi College, a co-educational Roman Catholic grammar school (founded in 1997). The NIEA HB Records note that a number of alterations and extensions were made to the original school buildings in 1998 in order to make the buildings ready for Lumen Christi pupils. In 2010 the school’s spire and bell system underwent conservation works. (NIEA HB Records).

References

Primary Sources
1.PRONI OS/6/5/20/2 – Second Edition Ordnance Survey Map (1853)
2.PRONI VAL/12/E/157/1 – Annual Revisions Town Plan (c. 1873-1910)
3.PRONI VAL/12/B/32/11A-Y – Annual Revisions (1860-97)
4.PRONI VAL/12/B/33/3A-3C – Annual Revisions (1898-1929)
5.PRONI VAL/3/C/6/12 – First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936-57)
6.PRONI VAL/4/B/5/17 – Second General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1956-72)
7.Londonderry Journal (Nov 1879)
8.Ulster Town Directories (1880-1943)
9.First Survey Record – HB01/16/003 (1970)
10.NIEA HB Records – HB01/16/003

Secondary Sources
1.Bradley, T; Madden, F., ‘Seeking the kingdom: St. Columb’s College 1879-2004’ Londonderry: St. Columb’s College, 2004.
2.Calley, D., ‘City of Derry: An historical gazetteer to the buildings of Londonderry’ Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 2013.
3.Ferguson, W. S; Rowan, A. J; Tracey, J. J., ‘List of historic buildings, groups of buildings, areas of architectural importance in and near the city of Derry’ Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1970.
4.Rowan, A. J., ‘The Buildings of Ireland: North West Ulster’ London: Yale University Press, 2003.

Online Resources
1.Dictionary of Irish Architects - http://www.dia.ie/
2.Natural Stone Database - http://www.stonedatabase.com/
3.St. Columb’s College website - http://www.stcolumbs.com/

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
I. Quality and survival of Interior
J. Setting
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

V. Authorship
W. Northern Ireland/International Interest
Y. Social, Cultural or Economic Importance
Z. Rarity
R. Age
S. Authenticity
T. Historic Importance

Evaluation

Attached symmetrical seven-bay three-storey with attic stone school building formerly known as the Junior House, built c.1877, to designs by O'Neill & Byrne architects with later three-storey Refectory and Dormitory block to the rear, dated 1933, to designs by J.P. McGrath. The Junior House is the oldest of the extant buildings within the Lumen Christi school complex, with the exception of the former tower mill (LDY 014:500). Commissioned by Rev Francis Kelly as a seminary, this is a well proportioned building in local schist stone with sandstone dressings, having elegant multi-paned sliding sash windows in a formal fenestration and a roof distinguished by two rows of gabled dormers and four tall shouldered chimney stacks. The Renaissance style porch adds significance to the entrance facade, whilst the Refectory and former dormitories comprised within the rear return, though more modestly built with most windows now casements, largely retain their original plan form and a good portion of historic fabric. It has group value with a linear arrangement of four buildings set on a mature elevated site and comprising very similar late Victorian Junior and Senior Houses (HB01.16.003 B & C) that flank a Gothic Revival Chapel (HB01.16.003A); and a Neo-Classical Library (HB01.16.001D) attached via an ornate cast iron verandah to the left, all forming an impressive vista from the entrance on Bishop Street. As an intact collection of ecclesiastical buildings and a school they are of social and cultural importance to Northern Ireland. Past pupils of St Columb’s College, which occupied the school complex until 1997, include John Hume, Nobel Peace Prize winner and Seamus Heaney, awarded the Nobel Literature Prize.