MB Block, University Administration Building 3, University of Ulster, Magee Campus

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Detached symmetrical multi-bay two-storey with attic red brick University building, built c.1881, with two full-height canted bay windows to either end and a two-storey red brick extension to rear, built c.1992. Irregular on plan facing south on an elevated site to the west of Magee University Campus adjacent to MC block (HB01/22/009C) and to the east of MA block (HB01/22/009E).

Hipped natural slate roofs with terracotta ridge tiles, lead valleys and five profiled red brick chimney stacks with terracotta pots and corbelled out capstones. Four timber sheeted gabled dormers with paired 2/1 timber sash windows and timber bargeboards. Moulded cast-iron guttering to projecting sandstone eaves supported on two courses angled (cogging) brick and cast-iron downpipes. Red brick walling laid in Flemish bond with red sandstone trim to projecting plinth course and sandstone and cogging brick string course between floors. Square-headed windows with flush red sandstone basket-arched lintels, sandstone sills and 4/1 timber sash windows with slender ogee horns and some historic glass.

Symmetrical front (S) elevation is four bays wide with a full-height three-sided canted bay windows to either end, each having Dutch-style wall-head dormer window with curvilinear coping and ball finial. To the left of the centre, the window openings have been moved to accommodate a new Tudor-arched door opening, reusing the leaded overlight from the west elevation. Door opens onto concrete universal access ramp with steel handrails on brick plinth wall.

Asymmetrical west side elevation has a projecting large brick chimney stack to the right with an angled vertical projecting course, rising above the eaves. Left of the chimney stack is a red sandstone blank cartouche set in a red sandstone panel. The ground floor central window has a four-centred arched red sandstone doorcase (now filled with a 4/2 timber sash window), flanked by Tuscan pilasters with foliate carving to capitals on raised plinths. Pilasters are surmounted by scrolled and fluted console brackets, also having foliate carving with swags in turn supporting a hood cornice; diamond fielded spandrel panels.

The rear (north) elevation is abutted by a U-plan two-storey extension enclosing a small central courtyard. Windows on this elevation are 6/2 timber sashes and do not align from ground to first floor level. Two small rooflights to north facing slope of roof facing courtyard. Projecting gabled returns to left and right side have external (re-built) corbelled chimney stacks with an angled vertical course above first floor level and red clay pots. East and west face of returns, facing into courtyard, retain 2/1 sliding sash windows to upper level; modern aluminium fixed lights below.

Asymmetrical east side elevation, as per west side elevation. Doorcase as per former door opening to west elevation with a panelled and glazed timber door and leaded stained glass overlight. Door opens onto concrete universal access ramp with steel handrails.

Materials:
Roof Natural slate
RWG Cast-iron
Walling Redbrick with sandstone dressings
Windows Original timber sash

Setting.
Located on an elevated site to the west of Magee University Campus adjacent to MC block (HB01/22/009C) and to the east of MA block (HB01/22/009E) and set to the north of a bitmac driveway. Bitmac driveway passes the front elevation opening onto the Northland Road entrance to the campus.

Historical information

The two-storey red brick university building to the south-west side of Magee’s College building (HB01/22/009A), located between the similar building next to the Northland Road (HB01/22/009E) and the later building of 1895 (HB01/22/009C), was originally built as a professor’s house in 1881.

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 and the ‘great generosity of the friends of the college’ resulted in a number of additions being made to the Magee College campus in the late-19th century.

In 1881 the first of the professor’s houses, originally intended to be built along with the college building in the mid-19th century, were constructed on what became known as College Avenue. The pair of two-storey red brick houses located to the south-west side of the Magee college building were designed by Young & Mackenzie, a Belfast-based architectural partnership that was formed in c. 1867 and was described by the Dictionary of Irish Architects as ‘the most successful architectural practice in Belfast [who] had become the leading architects for the Presbyterian church in the north-east.’ The firm were also active for the Presbyterian Church in the north-west having designed Londonderry’s Fourth Presbyterian Church in 1877-79 (HB01/19/059) and also a second church on Clooney Terrace in the Waterside (DIA). The Natural Stone Database noted that the red brick buildings possessed Corsehill sandstone dressings and described the buildings as ‘two-storey plus attic … canted two-storey plus attic bay at each end of face. Basket arched sash windows on ground and first floor. Two dormers on roof and two wall dormers to end bays with Dutch style gable’ (DIA; NSD).

The two red brick buildings to the south-west side of the Magee college building were depicted on the c. 1873-1910 Annual Revisions Town Plan. The map shows that the building was originally identical to the adjoining building along the Northland Road (the two-storey rear extension was added in 1992). The Annual Revisions set the value of the new residences at £90 and recorded that the buildings were internally divided into two separate dwellings, each of which were occupied by a college professor. In 1901 the building was occupied by the Rev. James McMaster (Vice President of the college) and the Rev. Frances Petticrew (Professor of Theology). The contemporary 1901 census building return described the building as a pair of 1st class dwellings that consisted of 28 rooms and possessed two coal houses as their sole out offices.

Under the First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936-57) the professor’s residence was occupied by James McMaster and the Rev. McClean and had been increased in value to £102. During the Second World War many of the buildings at Magee College were requisitioned for the war effort but a number 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. By the Second Revaluation (1956-72) the red brick buildings were also utilised as administration and teaching blocks as well as residential units. The building nearest the Northland Road was converted into halls of residence in 1953 and continued to be used for this purpose until at least the 1970s. The building was subsequently converted into classrooms for the School of Psychology during the expansion of the college from 1984. The two-storey red brick extension to the rear of the former professor’s residence was added to the building in 1992 as a part of the university’s extension scheme (University of Ulster). 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 OS/6/5/20/2 – Second Edition Ordnance Survey Map (1853)
2. PRONI VAL/12/E/157/1/1 – Annual Revisions Town Plan (c. 1873-1910)
3. PRONI VAL/12/B/33/2A-2F – Annual Revisions (1898-1931)
4. PRONI VAL/3/C/6/10 – First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936-57)
5. PRONI VAL/4/B/5/14 – Second General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1956-72)
6. Ulster Town Directories (1880-1918)
7. Census of Ireland (1901; 1911)
8. First Survey Record – HB01/22/009B (1970)
9. 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
H-. Alterations detracting from building
I. Quality and survival of Interior
J. Setting
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

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

Evaluation

Detached symmetrical multi-bay two-storey with attic red brick building to the east side of Northland Road, built c.1881 to designs by Young & Mackenzie as two semi-detached professors' houses. Almost identical to the adjacent MA block, the brick, red sandstone and moulding details also share much in common with both the MC & MD blocks that flank the main neo-Gothic building on College Avenue.
Dutch-style gabled dormers imply a Queen Anne influence that saw popular revival in the High-Victorian era, whilst the cogging brick courses, basket-arched lintels, tall profiled chimney stacks and leaded glass overlights reflect a desire for hand-crafted detailing emerging with the Arts & Crafts movement. Now used as offices by the University of Ulster, the two houses are connected internally and largely modernised, with some loss of historic fabric.
Despite the institutional appearance of the ramp and handrails, the exterior remains well proportioned and a good example of its type. The MB Block shares group value with a wealth of nineteenth-century structures dispersed throughout the campus (HB01/22/009A-C & E-I inclusive) that contribute significant interest to the Magee Conservation Area.