ADMIN.,TEACHING,RESID. AND RECREAT.BLDGS. AT MAGEE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE,

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Detached three-bay two-storey with attic red brick university building, built c.1911. Irregular on plan facing east and located at the north entrance to Magee Campus at the junction of Rock Road and Northland Road.

Hipped natural slate roofs with roll-moulded terracotta ridge tiles, lead valleys and four tall corbelled red brick chimney stacks with terracotta pots. Hipped roofs to front and rear dormer windows having lead-lined cheeks; paired 2/1 sliding sash windows to timber framed hipped dormers. Moulded replacement steel guttering supported on projecting red sandstone eaves course with two angled (cogging) brick courses below and steel downpipes. Machine-cut red brick walling with original pointing laid in Flemish bond with projecting plinth course and red sandstone platband and angled (cogging) brick course between floors. Square-headed windows with flush red sandstone basket-arched lintels, red sandstone sills and generally original 2/1 timber sash windows with ogee horns and historic glass.

East front elevation is three bays wide with a full-height three-sided canted bay window to the left, full-height rectangular plan bay window to the right and a single recessed bay to the centre abutted by a lean-to entrance porch. Both bay windows have decorative wall-head dormer windows breaking through the eaves with decorative curvilinear gablets surmounted by ball finials. The recessed entrance bay has an original tripartite timber casement window. The entrance porch has a single window and a square-headed door opening with replacement timber panelled and glazed door. Door opens onto concrete paved platform and five steps with a universal access ramp to the left having steel balustrade.

South side elevation is two bays wide with a full-height three-sided canted bay window to the left. To the right of this elevation rises a tall chimney-stack with a corbelled out vertical projection in angled brick.

West rear elevation has a full-height projection to the left, a three-storey stair tower to the centre (upper portion extended from earlier lean-to at eaves height to main building) and external steel fire escape. The right hand side of this elevation is abutted by a lean-to single-storey extension with glazed entrance bay to the south.

North side elevation fronting onto Rock Road has randomly-placed windows with a dormer window to the right and a central Dutch-style wall-head dormer window, detailed as dormers to E. A tall red brick chimney stack rises from the left of this elevation (with same vertical profied angled brick described above). Coat of arms plaque surface mounted to the right hand side and chrome-plated lettering stating; ‘UNIVERSITY OF ULSTER’.

Materials:
Roof Natural slate
RWG Replacement steel
Walling Red brick / Sandstone dressings
Windows Original timber sash

Setting
Located on a corner site between Rock Road and Northland Road at the north entrance to Magee University Campus. The front elevation opens onto College Avenue, which leads to the main campus building (HB01/22/009A). A small yard to the rear is enclosed by tall red brick walls, with curved portion at change in height and moulded terracotta coping and a small red brick shed. The rear (W) of the site is enclosed by a rubble schist stone wall with concrete coping.

Historical information

The red brick university building located at the north side of Magee’s College building (HB01/22/009A), a two-storey early-20th century structure originally built as a professor’s house, was constructed in 1911.

Magee College, a college for the education of men seeking a career in the Presbyterian ministry, was established due to the bequest of over £20,000 by Martha Maria Magee upon her death in 1846. The bequest was to be used by the Presbyterian General Assembly to build a suitable college in Ulster but, due to political interference, debates over where to site the institution and construction delays, it would be almost two decades before the college was opened. In 1853 Londonderry was selected as the only viable site for the new college and an architectural competition was organised to settle upon a design for the college building. The trustees invited plans that would provide eight classrooms, a common hall and library capable of holding 500 people, a laboratory, a small room to be used as a museum and also plans for eight houses that would be utilised as dwellings for the college’s professors.

Dublin-based architect Edward P. Gribbon’s Gothic design was selected and the foundation of Magee College was laid on 18th August 1856 but, due to budgetary constraints, the construction of the eight professor’s houses was abandoned. Magee College was officially opened to students on 10th October 1865. As a result of its failure to acquire an association with any of Ireland’s universities, Magee College possessed few students in its first decade (in 1874 only eight students were enrolled). In 1879 Magee became one of the constituent colleges of the Royal University of Ireland resulting in an increase in enrolment numbers (this was furthered by the admittance of women students from 1883). The connection with the Royal University of Ireland a number of additions were made to the Magee College campus. The first of the professor’s houses that were originally intended to be built along with the college building were erected in the 1880s and 1890s on what became known as College Avenue (see HB01/22/009C E).

The professor’s house located to the north of the Gothic college building, at the corner of the Northland and Rock Roads, was constructed in 1911 and was facilitated by the bequest of Basil McCrea who left his entire estate to the college trustees following his death in 1907. The final professor’s house was designed by Robinson & Davidson, a local architectural partnership formed between James M. C. Robinson and John Adam Davidson in 1909 (the professor’s residence at Magee was one of the firms earliest commissions). Robinson & Davidson replicated Young & Mackenzie and W. A. Barker’s designs for the earlier residences but built the new professor’s house on a smaller scale. The partnership were also responsible for erecting a gate lodge on the site (now demolished). The Natural Stone Database described all the professor’s residences as ‘two-storey plus attic, red brick building with stone dressing [and] Dutch style gable’ (Logan; DIA; NSD).

Upon the completion of the building, the Annual Revisions set the value of the new professor’s house at £54 and noted that its first occupant was Alexander Larmour who was Professor of Natural Philosophy. Under the First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936-57) the house was increased in value to £65 and was occupied by Professor Robinson. During the Second World War many of the buildings at Magee College were requisitioned for the war effort but many of the professor’s houses were utilised as classrooms whilst the remainder of students were educated at the Model College on the Northland Road. Following the end of the war the professor’s houses returned to their original use as private residences but by the 1950s not all of them remained occupied.

In 1950, on the recommendation of the Acheson Report, some of the professor’s houses were converted into student residences but by the Second Revaluation (1956-72) the buildings were utilised as administration and teaching blocks as well as residential units. The building at the corner of the Northland and Rock Roads was converted into an administration block and became part of the college buildings. The red brick buildings along College Avenue were listed in 1976 and were included in the Magee Conservation Area in 2006. The buildings continued to be used as administration, teaching and residential blocks for Magee University during the Second Survey (NIEA HB Records; Conservation Area Design Guide).

References

Primary Sources
1. PRONI VAL/12/E/157/1/1 – Annual Revisions Town Plan (c. 1873-1910)
2. PRONI VAL/12/B/33/2A-2F – Annual Revisions (1898-1931)
3. PRONI VAL/3/C/6/10 – First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936-57)
4. PRONI VAL/4/B/5/14 – Second General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1956-72)
5. Ulster Town Directories (1880-1918)
6. Irish Builder (22 Sep 1911)
7. First Survey Record – HB01/22/009B (1970)
8. NIEA HB Records – HB01/22/009B

Secondary Sources
1. Calley, D., ‘City of Derry: An historical gazetteer to the buildings of Londonderry’ Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 2013.
2. 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.
3. Holmes, R. F. G., Magee 1865-1965: The evolution of the Magee colleges’ Belfast: B. N. L. Printing Co., 1965.
4. Logan, W., ‘The story of Magee College’ Londonderry: Standard Office, 1909.
5. Rowan, A. J., ‘The Buildings of Ireland: North West Ulster’ London: Yale University Press, 2003.
6. ‘A design guide for the Magee Conservation Area’ Belfast: Department of the Environment, 2010.

Online Resources
1. Dictionary of Irish Architects - http://www.dia.ie
2. Natural Stone Database - http://www.stonedatabase.com/
3. University of Ulster website - http://library.ulster.ac.uk/magee/history.htm

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
H-. Alterations detracting from building
I. Quality and survival of Interior
J. Setting
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

R. Age
T. Historic Importance
V. Authorship
X. Local Interest
S. Authenticity

Evaluation

Detached asymmetrical three-bay two-storey with attic red brick building, built c.1911 to designs by Robinson & Davidson and originally used as a professor's house. Although later, the ME block emulates the High-Victorian MA & MB blocks by Young & Mackenzie and its brick and red sandstone details also share much in common with the MD Block on opposite side of the main neo-Gothic building on College Avenue.
Dutch-style gabled dormers imply a Queen Anne influence, whilst the cogging brick courses, basket-arched lintels and tall profiled chimney stacks reflect a desire for hand-crafted detail that emerged with the Arts & Crafts movement. Now used as offices by the University of Ulster, the interior is modernised with glazed fire screens that detract to some extent, however the plan form and a good amount of historic detailing survives, including the richly decorative staircase.
Despite the institutional appearance of the ramps and external escape stair, the exterior remains well proportioned and the enclosed yard with red brick walling further enhances the quality of its setting. The ME Block shares group value with a wealth of nineteenth-century structures dispersed throughout the campus (HB01/22/009A-D & F-I inclusive) that contribute significant interest to the Magee Conservation Area.