Parish Centre

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A one-and-two-storey red-brick mid-Victorian former school, now church hall; dated 1871 and located at the corner junction of Brook Street and Circular Road in Coleraine town centre. Plan comprises rectangular central block with projecting gabled wings to east and west; original lean-to entrance porch to south and modern stairwell extension to north.

Pitched natural slate roof with angled ridge tiles and lead-lined valleys; rendered chimneystack to northwest gable. Plastic rainwater goods on timber eaves. Walling is Flemish-bonded red brick on a chamfered stone and red brick plinth with sandstone dressings; sandstone first floor sill course at east; eaves at gables lined with cut red-brick. Windows are a variety of replacement timber casements with horizontal glazing bars in sandstone blocked surrounds; those to south are set into stop-end chamfered reveals; some1/1 sash windows to east wing, all with horns and some with cambered-heads having drop finial detail in chamfered reveals with splayed sills.

The principal entrance is located to the east face of the east wing; first floor is four windows wide; ground floor has a group of three mullioned windows to left of centre and bipartite mullioned window at right, both under relieving arches; to left is a replacement segmental-headed timber-sheeted door with cast-iron door furniture in a sandstone blocked surround surmounted by a stone canopy on carved console brackets.

South elevation of central block has two sets of bipartite mullioned windows; at right is a set of modern timber-sheeted entrance doors surmounted by a slated canopy; modern wall-head dormer insertion over. Right gable (two-storey) has two 1/1 sash window to first and ground floor (that to ground floor left is narrower); to apex of gable is a sandstone plaque inscribed “IRISH CHURCH/ SCHOOLS/ 1871”. Left gable (double-height) is lit by two three-light casement windows, surmounted by a louvered vent in a sandstone surround. To re-entrant angle to west wing is the slated lean-to porch, lit to right cheek by a two-pane fixed timber window. Porch opens to south with a replacement pointed-headed timber-sheeted door with cast-iron door furniture, accessed via two sandstone steps with an original cast-iron gate.

West gable has three regularly arranged timber windows to first and ground floor and a recessed roundel over with keystones at cardinal points. Right bay is blank; left bay has a modern metal door in a cement rendered surround.

North elevation of central block has three sets of bipartite mullioned windows; abutted at right by the modern stairwell extension (of no interest). Right gable has two three-paned window openings, top and lower panes are boarded, central pane is fitted with louvered timber vents; left gable is lit by two three light casement windows.

Setting:

Situated to the northeast of St Patrick’s Parish Church (HB03/18/010) on a prominent corner site at the junction of Brook Street and Circular Road, surrounded by a variety of two-storey terraced dwellings and commercial units dating from the Victorian era to the late-twentieth century. To north at the junction of Union Street is a seven-storey mid-twentieth century red-brick office block; to southwest is Anderson Park (accessed from Brook Street). Directly to north is a mid-twentieth century cement rendered church hall, connected by the single-storey stairwell extension at north. The building is set back slightly from the street with modern brick pavior and bounded by original red brick walls with pointed sandstone coping topped by cast-iron railings with finials. Cast-iron gate encloses porch to south. Car-park to west.

Roof: Natural slate
Walling: Flemish-bonded red brick with sandstone dressings
Windows: Replacement timber casements or 1/1 timber sash with horns
RWG: Plastic

Historical information

St. Patrick’s Parish Centre, a one-and-a-half-storey redbrick building located at the corner of Brook Street and Circular Road, Coleraine, was constructed in 1871 and was originally utilised as a schoolhouse for the Church of Ireland (for St. Patrick’s Church see HB03/18/010). The schoolhouse was built during a spate of construction that took place in Coleraine during the mid-Victorian period when many of the town’s first public buildings were erected. The schoolhouse was also built during a transitory period in the parish’s history due to the disestablishment of the Church of Ireland in 1871; Sturdy states that St. Patrick’s parish lost most of its property and also lost the patronage of The Honourable The Irish Society at that time (Sturdy, p. 10).

The Irish Church School was constructed at the height of this uncertainty for the parish. The schoolhouse was first recorded in the Annual Revisions in 1872 which valued the building at £35, a rating that was not altered until the cancellation of the Annual Revisions in 1930. The Annual revisions note that the schoolhouse continued to be utilised as an educational establishment until at least 1930, however the third edition of the Ordnance Survey map for Coleraine (1904) records that the building was also utilised as St. Patrick’s Parochial Hall from at least the turn of the century. Under the First General Revaluation of property in Northern Ireland (1935), the school and church hall had been inexplicitly decreased in value to £6 (the recorded value may have been an error). There was no further valuation of the site carried out for over two decades due to the outbreak of the Second World War, however under the second revaluation (1956-72) the value of the church hall had been increased to £70.

Having been utilised as a church hall for at least sixty years, the former schoolhouse was extended to the north in 1964 with the construction of a modern cement rendered two-storey hall, connected to the original building by a single-storey stairwell extension. Sturdy records that the construction of the modern hall was undertaken in order to improve the declining fortunes of St. Patrick’s Church; by the 1960s declining membership and the indifference of the parish population had led the church trustees to action. The extension, as well as the provision of activities and projects directed at young people in the parish, was intended to alleviate the apathy associated with the church during the changing social climate of the 1960s-70s (Sturdy, p. 38). The extension of the hall resulted in the joint rateable value of both buildings being increased to £544 at which it remained by the end of the revaluation in 1972.

Following the erection of its modern extension, No. 50 Brook Street, the original Parochial Hall, continues to be utilised as a meeting hall for St. Patrick’s Parish Church. In the late-20th century the interior of the Victorian hall was modernised and restyled as a Parish Centre; a plaque on the ground floor of the building records that the building was rededicated by the Bishop of Connor on 26th April 1989. The former Victorian schoolhouse continues to be utilised by the parish as a church hall; its construction in 1871 and extension in 1964 reflects the methods in which St. Patricks met the social and political changes that affected its parish.

References

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/5/7/3 – Third Edition Ordnance Survey map 1904
2. PRONI OS/6/5/7/4 – Fourth Edition Ordnance Survey map 1923
3. PRONI OS/6/5/7/5 – Fifth Edition Ordnance Survey map 1949
4. PRONI VAL/12/B/30/9K-P – Annual Revisions 1900-1931
5. PRONI VAL/3/B/6/3 – First General Revaluation of property in Northern Ireland 1935
6. PRONI VAL/4/B/5/3 – Second General Revaluation of property in Northern Ireland 1956-1972
7. Ulster Street Directories (1877-1918)
8. Ordnance Survey map – 13-13NW (1989)

Secondary Sources

1. Sturdy, D. J., ‘St. Patrick’s Church Coleraine: 1884-1984, Its development and role in the community’ Coleraine, St. Patrick’s Church, 1984

Online Resources

1. St. Patrick’s Church Coleraine website - http://www.stpats.co.uk/history.html

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
H-. Alterations detracting from building
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

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

Evaluation

A one-and-two-storey red-brick mid-Victorian former school, now church hall; dated 1871 and located at the corner junction of Brook Street and Circular Road in Coleraine town centre. Retaining its original proportions and much of its architectural detailing, with the exception of original fenestration, this is a relatively well-preserved example of a nineteenth-century urban school well detailed in a Victorian style. Prominently situated on a corner site, this is one of the few remaining buildings of distinction in this area of Coleraine. Of significant local interest and social importance, the church hall makes an important contribution to the historic character of Coleraine town centre and has group value with St Patrick’s Parish Church (HB03/18/010).

General comments

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