Former St Joseph's Convent Chapel & School

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

2-storey/part double-height, Romanesque style Convent Chapel with painted stucco facade, attached to the former St Joseph’s Covent School complex, built 1877 to designs by architects Mortimer Thompson and Timothy Hevey. Located on an elevated site on Edward Street in Lurgan, just W of the main junction with Church Place and the centre of the town, in an area consisting of mainly mixed-use commercial buildings. The chapel is rectangular in plan with a double-pitched roof and semi-circular apse to the S. It has a square campanile with pyramidal roof at the main entrance, on the NW.

Materials:

Roof: Natural welsh slate with painted timber rooflight to ridge.
RWG: Cast metal, painted.
Walls: Smooth painted plaster (ruled and lined to Apse).
Windows: painted timber/ stained timber

Exterior Description

Front elevation (NW)
To the left-hand side is a square tower and attached to the right is the main gable of the church. The tower is 3-stage with a plain deep plinth at ground level, moulded string course at floor levels and plain pilasters framing the corners. It has a pyramidal roof in welsh slate, with moulded cornice and corbels at eaves supporting ogee guttering. At ground level of the tower is the main entrance doorway accessed via 3 steps (modern replacement with tiled steps and painted metal railings). The doorway consists of a round-headed arched door opening slightly recessed with concentric arched moulding above. There is a moulded archivolt and keystone to the arches and a moulded course at impost level. The door is varnished timber; double leaf with timber paneling and stained glass fanlight over. At first floor level on the tower is a pair of centrally located round-headed arched window openings with moulded archivolts and impost similar to main doorway. They have a string course at cill level with small pairs of moulded corbels below each window. Windows are painted timber with plain and georgian wired glass and opening vents at base. Third level of the tower has a blind arcade in stucco with a trio of arches detailed in similar style to other openings.

The front gable of the church is two-storey with a double pitched roof. It is framed with plain pilasters at the sides, a plain deep plinth at ground level and an open-bed style pediment moulding at the roof. There are string courses at first floor level and cill level, in similar detail to the tower adjacent. The ground level of the gable consists of a blind arcade with a trio of arches. There is a round-headed arched opening located within the middle arch and circular openings in each of the arches flanking it. There are stained glass windows in all three openings. There is decorative stucco work to archivolts and at impost level and, similar to the tower. At first level on the gable is the main church window consisting of a large centrally located round-headed arched window opening with stained glass sections framed in painted masonry. It has geometrical style tracery featuring a cruciform motif and 5 no. round-headed arched lights below. There is a plain crucifix affixed to the gable wall above the window. The roof is parapeted at the gable and there is a plaster finial at the apex. On the roof there is a continuous roof light along each side of the ridge and the roof covering is natural welsh slate.

Side elevation (NE)

The chapel abuts the former St Joseph’s school building to NE. The side elevation of the tower is exposed and abuts the school building, now part of St Ronan’s College, Lurgan. The tower on this side is 4 stage, with a solid stone base at lower ground level, continuous with the front steps. There is a single round-headed arched window centrally located at ground level with stained glass. It is plainly detailed with simple keystone and plain cill. There are blind openings at first and second floor level; a single arched opening at first floor and a blind arcade consisting of 3no. Arches at second floor. Plaster detailing to upper floors and roof is similar to NW. Roof detailing is the same as NW.

Side elevation (SW)

The side elevation of the chapel abuts the former St Joseph’s convent to SW, now Mount Zion House, (local charitable organisation).

Rear elevation (SE)

This consists of a two-storey semi-circular Apse with painted smooth plaster wall finish(ruled and lined).
The Apse area is lighted by 5 no. windows. There is a small pair of round-headed arched windows centrally located at ground level, with stained glass windows and plain cill. There are 3 no. similar but larger windows evenly spaced at first floor level.
The Apse walls abut Mount Zion House at the SW and St Ronan’s College to the NE.
Eaves are detailed with an ogee gutter and roof is conical with natural slate covering and cruciform metal finial at the apex; rain water goods are painted metal.

Set on an elevated site, the main entrance is on a raised terrace (concrete), accessed via a set of external steps with sloping grassed banks adjacent; stone walls, masonry treads and modern railings to steps; There is a carpark area to the front of the complex, in tarmacadam. There is a substantial boundary wall and railings enclosing the site to the NW along Edward Street. Wall is coursed stone with cement mortar; railings(possibly later) are painted cast metal with plain uprights and cruciform motif at intervals. There is a vehicular access along Edward Street at each end of the site; Arched gateway in painted metal to E access with cast lettering in arch reading 'Mount Zion House' (possibly later). To the rear of the chapel is a simple lawned courtyard (tarmac pathways), bound to SW by Mount Zion House (Former Convent) and to NE by St Ronans College(former St Joseph's School). There are some modern buildings which are part of the Mount Zion House complex to the to the SE of the courtyard.

Historical information

Edward Street, part of the original road between Lurgan and Portadown, was largely developed in the 1840s and 1850s. The south side of the street, between present Arthur Street and Waring Street, appears to have served (in large part) as a brickfield during this time, utilised, (presumably) to supply the building materials for the new properties being constructed nearby.

In 1865, Charles Magee of Union Street, acting on behalf of the RC parish, acquired a 99-year lease of part of the site, (noted at that point as ‘garden and waste’), as the location for a new convent and school for a of shoot of the Newry branch of the Sisters of Mercy. The new building commenced in August 1865 was designed by James Rooney of Portadown, ‘a young man of no ordinary ability’, and built at a cost of ‘about £1,500 or £1,600’. Finished in May the following year, it contained, as well as quarters for the nuns, three ‘spacious and lofty’ school rooms, a chapel, community room and refectory. The schools opened in September 1866 to both girls and boys – the former attending ‘St. Mary's Girls School’ and the latter ‘St. Joseph’s Boys School’.

In 1871 Lurgan became an independent foundation with Sister Mary Gertrude O'Hagan as the first superioress, and the following decade witnessed much building on the site. In 1876-77 the chapel was added to the east side of the original convent. Built in ‘the Italian order of architecture’ to plans by Mortimer Thompson and Timothy Hevey of Belfast, with the ‘roof, walls &c…finished in a high style of art’, it cost approximately £2,000, with all or most of the funds coming from a bequest of the deceased mother of the then Parish Priest, Rev. James McKenna, who himself officially blessed the chapel in December 1877. Reporting on the opening, the ‘Newry Reporter’ commented that ‘the building is, perhaps, one of the most handsomest in Ireland. The decorations and ornamental work are profuse and emblematic, and as works of art are well worth visiting.’ Messrs Harkin, McCann and O’Hara of Lurgan were the contractors.

At the same time or shortly after the completion of the new chapel a new boy’s school building was constructed to the east of it. This appears to have been at the planning stage in mid-1875, but must have been up by at least November 1878, for a report in the ‘Northern Whig’ mentioned it having cost £2,000, of which £500 still unpaid at that point. Thompson and Hevey also appear to have been responsible for this building.

Drawings of 1912 by architects Ashlin & Coleman, showing 'designs for decorative details - emblems of the Passion and decoration of the chapel', (and now held by the Irish Architectural archive), suggest that alterations to the interior of the chapel were carried out around this time. The extent of these changes is not clear as the surveyors were not able to consult these drawings, but possibly the walls of the apse assumed their present mosaic appearance at this time.

At the same time as this work to the chapel was taking place, much of the large red brick extension to the rear of the convent was under construction. A further section was added to the latter at some point between 1937 and 1954.

The nuns vacated the convent in 1995 and it was subsequently converted to a centre for community groups - the present 'Mount Zion House'. The chapel and the school building still fulfil their original functions, however, the latter (whilst still a primary school - St. Mary's Primary School) was modernised and extended to the eastern end in c.1966 and is now part of the campus of the recently established St. Ronan's College.

A significant amount of the eastern half of the sloping forecourt between this complex and Edward Street was formerly occupied by terraced housing, with a row of later Victorian dwellings standing directly in front of the school section until c.1966. The detached house to the immediate west of the site, originally known as 'Corso Lodge', was erected in 1869 for the Alexander family and was used by the convent between c.1889 and 1895 as a boarding school. It seems to have subsequently returned to private hands once again, but was later acquired by the nuns, who in 1993 converted it to a counselling and advice centre.

References – Primary sources
1 PRONI VAL12E/68/1 Valuation town plan of Lurgan, 1864-c.1900
2 PRONI VAL12B/14/8B, D, J, F
3 ‘Newry Examiner and Louth Advertiser’, 4 October 1865
4 'Irish Builder', 15 December 1874
5 ‘Newry Reporter’, 13 December 1877
6 ‘Northern Whig’. 18 November 1878
7 Irish Architectural Archive, Ashlin & Coleman Collection 0076/001-119 (1912)
8 Lurgan Mail, 12 August 2016
9 OS town plans of Lurgan, 1935, 1954, 1964, 1968, 1982

Secondary sources
1 Clendinning, Kieran, “Convent schools” in ‘Review – Journal of Craigavon Historical Society’, Vol.7 No.2, 1996-97

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

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

Criteria for listing: historic interest

R. Age
S. Authenticity
T. Historic Importance
V. Authorship
Y. Social, Cultural or Economic Importance
Z. Rarity
X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Romanesque style Convent Chapel with campanile and painted stuccoed facade, attached to the former St Joseph’s Covent School complex. Built 1877-78 to designs of architects Mortimer Thompson and Timothy Hevey, it is situated on an elevated site on Edward Street in Lurgan, just off the town centre. Rectangular in plan with a double-pitched roof and semi-circular apse to the S, it retains its external character with original square tower with pyramidal roof and stained glass windows. It is also intact internally and features a richly decorated interior with mosiac covered apse area and painted dome, original sanctuary fittings and panelled ceiling and gallery, some of this decoration believed to have been added in 1912 by architects Ashlin & Coleman .Situated in a prominent location in the town, close to Shankill Prish Church, Church Place (HB14.23.037) it is of significant architectural and historic interest. It also has social interest, as a former convent chapel now an Adoration Chapel or local Roman Catholic Parish of St Peters and St Pauls, Lurgan.