Schools Meals Kitchen

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A single storey H planned school meals kitchen and dining hall joined on to the NW gable of the school assembly hall.

The building consists of 2 blocks of equal length and height and joined by lower servery connecting block. All elevations are faced with precast conc. tiles slates with exposed pebble aggregate. There are 2 entrances to the SW side of the kitchen with continuous windows on each side running the length of the block with projecting concrete surrounds which detail is repeated on the other windows of the building. Like the school the plane of glass and external wall face are in line. The opposite long wall of the kitchen has high level continuous windows. The dining room has the principal windows in each gable and continuous high level windows on the long walls. The windows in the NW gable have been removed to allow a dining room extension. The servery has windows similar to the kitchen without the high level glazing. The building has 3 flat roofs, each with generous overhangs similar again to those on the school. Roofs are finished with mineral felt and concealed gutters with exposed circular aluminium downpipes. Entrance doors to kitchen are timber with rectangular fanlight. Windows are metal with a mixture of side hung casements and top vents. The soffits are smooth rendered and the mineral felt turned down the thin fascia.

The school meals accommodation is placed at the NE end of the assembly hall with corridor access from all parts of the school. Presently the paving around is a sea of bitmac and the slight building plinth painted a navy blue. However the design is in sympathy with the school being built and finished in the Orlit form of construction and external finishes similar.

Historical information

The school meals accommodation is contemporary with the school and designed to be an entity (see HB01/25/017A). The work was completed in 1954. The architects Messrs Corr & McCormick and the main contractors Messrs Orlit (N.I.) Ltd.

References

Primary Sources
1. Files Corr & McCormick

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
E. Spatial Organisation
F. Structural System

Criteria for listing: historic interest

W. Northern Ireland/International Interest
Y. Social, Cultural or Economic Importance
X. Local Interest

Evaluation

One of the first large primary school meals kitchens erected in N Ireland under the 1947 Education Act. It is of good modern design and a very good example of early post-war school design. The building listing includes the original design without the dining room extension.

(The decision to list was negated by the decision of the N Ireland Department of Education to replace the school on the same site. Demolition proceeded in 2002.).