Portstewart Primary School

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Detached single-storey red brick school complex, built c.1937, extended c.1970 to the designs of Malcolm Moon McQuigg & M. Given. Irregular on plan and comprising approximately eight blocks with connecting wings and corridors, the central block facing east and set back from Central Avenue in its own extensive grounds.

Hipped natural slate roofs with black clay ridge tiles, lead valleys and uPVC rainwater goods to boxed timber eaves. Red brick walling laid in English garden wall bond and rusticated rendered eaves. Flush cement course below eaves and a red brick plinth course with chamfered cement trim. Square-headed window openings with concrete lintels and sills and uPVC windows.

Central administration block is four windows wide, having a hipped roof surmounted by a lead-lined gothic styled open timber lantern to the centre and a tall red brick chimneystack rising from the rear. To the centre of the front elevation rises a rendered parapet wall with bronze lettering stating; ‘PORTSTEWART / Public Elementary & Technical / School’, and surmounted by a pediment. The two entrance porches comprise a square-headed door opening set within a brick porch having a stepped rendered parapet with keystone to the centre and bronze lettering stating ‘GIRLS’. Rear elevation abutted by a U-plan accretion. Central block flanked by lower wings set at an angle; that to the south formerly the ‘Girls’ entrance and that to the north, formerly the ‘Boys’ entrance, now used as the principal entrance. The north wing connects to a classroom block three windows wide, while that to the south connects to a classroom block nine windows wide.

Central bitmac playground lined by all the interconnecting buildings of the complex. To the west is a connecting corridor with murals a flat roof and a 1980s two-storey block behind.

The north blocks fronting onto Queenora Avenue have hipped slate roofs and a large flat-roofed accretion spanning the entire north elevations. Detailing as per above with a central recessed square-headed door opening to the flat-roofed section having timber doors and sidelights.

Setting
Located on a large triangular site between Central Avenue, Queenora Avenue and Garden Avenue with several bitmac and turf playing areas to the west and a large lawn and bitmac car park to the front enclosed by original red brick walls having Art Deco style rendered piers and coping.

Roof Natural slate
RWG UPVC
Walling Red brick
Windows UPVC

Historical information

Portstewart Public Elementary & Technical School, a redbrick school complex was constructed in 1937 to designs by Malcolm Moon McQuigg of W. & M. Given. With the establishment of Northern Ireland and the passing of the 1923 Education Act, local authorities became responsible for the construction of schools throughout Northern Ireland. Malcom M. McQuigg (1904-1974) was a Coleraine-based architect who had attended Coleraine Academical Institution before joining the architectural practise of W. & M. Given in 1923. McQuigg designed Portstewart Primary School as a partner of W. & M. Given, which the Dictionary of Irish Architects states he built up ‘to become one of the largest in the north-west of Ireland’ (Dictionary of Irish Architects).

The Irish builder records that construction of Portstewart Public Elementary & Technical School was begun in 1936; the architect estimated that construction would cost approximately £3,500. McQuigg designed the school in the Modernistic Functional style which was introduced to Northern Ireland during the 1930s and was prominently utilised by R. S. Wilshere in his Belfast school designs (Dixon, pp 196-197). W. & M. Given completed the building in 1938 and the school was officially opened on 25th May of that year. The contemporary fifth edition of the Ordnance Survey maps (1939-1950) records that, upon its completion, the school solely consisted of the central entrance block which included separate entrance wings for both male and female pupils (Irish Builder, p. 1179; p. 453).

The school was first included under the Second General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1956-72) which noted that the school was administered by the County Londonderry Education Authority and was valued at £800. Portstewart Public Elementary & Technical School was increased in value to £1,520 in 1970 when the school underwent a major extension when many of the current school buildings were constructed to the north-west of the original 1936-37 block. The current edition of the Ordnance Survey map records that all of the current school buildings had been completed by 1979. Portstewart Public Elementary & Technical School continues to operate as a primary school.

Primary Sources

1. Irish Builder, Vol. 78 (26 Dec 1936); Vol. 79 (15 May 1937)
2. PRONI ED/13/1/1709 – School Proposal papers (1933-39)
3. PRONI OS/6/5/3/5 – Fourth Edition Ordnance Survey Map 1939-50
4. PRONI VAL/4/B/5/35 – Second General Revaluation of Northern Ireland 1956-1972
5. Ordnance Survey Map – 5-16SW (1979)

Secondary Sources
1. Dixon, H., ‘An introduction to Ulster Architecture’ Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 2008.

Online Resources

1. Dictionary of Irish Architects - http://www.dia.ie

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
E. Spatial Organisation
H-. Alterations detracting from building
J. Setting

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest
Y. Social, Cultural or Economic Importance
R. Age
S. Authenticity

Evaluation

Detached single-storey red brick school, built c.1937 to the designs of the prominent local architectural firm W and M Given; extended c.1970. The original school comprises a butterfly plan with a central administrative block and classrooms either side. The Modernist aesthetic created using brick and pitched roofs has produced an accompished building and it sits well, alongside the contemporary Belfast schools designed by R. S. Wilshere. The low scale and subtle detailing allow this school to fit in to this largely residential district as well as forming a focal point for the community.

General comments

Listing Criteria R - Age; and S - Authenticity also apply.