Friends' School Lisburn

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A three-storey three-bay Victorian school with associated two-storey wings dated 1878 built to designs by architect J.C. Marsh. Located on the east side of the Magheralave Road north of Lisburn city centre.

Pitched natural slate roof with clay ridge tiles; exposed rafter ends and timber barge boards with decorative mouldings. Cast-iron rainwater goods; ogee moulded gutters with circular downpipes; some uPVC replacement. Tall red-brick chimneys with smooth rendered plinth; corbelled upper courses with moulded sandstone cornice. Flemish bond red-brick walling with cement rendered plinth; fluted terracotta and cement string courses. 2/2 timber sliding sash windows with horizontal glazing bars and horns; flat arched heads at ground floor; segmental-arched heads at first floor, recessed jambs with decorative corbelled upper courses, first floor windows have an additional recessed head course. Cills to ground floor form part of the enlarged plinth; moulded sandstone continuous cill course to first floor. The second floor windows; 1/1 timber sliding sash with round-headed arched heads and individual sandstone cills. The principal entrance comprises a pair of stilted round headed arched openings with cement hood mouldings and key-block; brick pilasters rising to foliated carved sandstone capitals. The left central capital bears the date “1878” and the right bears the initials “U.P.S.” (Ulster Provincial School). The left opening is glazed forming a porch and the right leads to the front door, which is at right angle to the dividing pier. The porch is served by two sandstone steps leading to geometric tiled flooring; groin vaulted ceiling. Large stilted round-headed arched window straight ahead with matching surrounds. Timber door to the left comprising three elongated vertical glazed moulded panels with solid wood-grained horizontal moulded panel at the bottom; brass ironmongery and a stilted round-headed arched over light.

The principal elevation faces south and is symmetrically arranged. The central bay has principal entrance at ground floor level with paired windows at first floor and a wall headed dormer with a single window and decorative corbelled brick-work at the second floor. The matching flanking gabled bays each comprise a two-storey canted bay rising to a cement moulded cornice course surmounted by a castellated parapet. Paired second floor windows and decorative crow-stepped corbelled brick-work to the gable head.

The west elevation is uniformly arranged, left of centre, two windows wide to ground (note vertical glazing bars) and first floor with wall-headed dormer embracing triplet round-headed arched windows with oculus centrally located over. Decorative corbelled brickwork to eaves and dormer gable. The left hand side falls to basement level with a small flat-roofed abutment with timber door. Steel framed fire escape stairs fixed to the façade. The left hand side is abutted by a two-storey over basement four-bay wing; stilted round-headed arched timber sliding sash windows with matching arch-details to the principal elevation at ground floor; segmental-arched timber framed quadripartite casement windows with cills and decorative brick-work aprons to the first floor. Continuous cement moulded and terracotta brick string courses matching the main building. The wing is further abutted by a two-storey over basement three-bay flat-roofed red-brick (English garden-wall bond) addition; minimalist style with hopper heads dated 1936. Each bay comprising a large central 9-pane timber casement window flanked by narrower 6-pane window.

The north elevation is abutted by modern extension c.1970.

The east elevation is asymmetrically arranged. Secondary access located on the right of centre with single ground floor window (vertical glazing bars) to the left and a smaller timber casement window to the right. Two first floor windows over. The right hand side is abutted by a two-storey (no basement) four-bay wing matching the west abutment. The east face of the wing is a symmetrically arranged façade with doors to ground floor with matching surrounds and first floor windows flanking a plain chimney brest; chimney stack removed. The door to the right has been partially modernised.

Setting:

The former school and associated wings now forms part of a larger school comprised of extensions added to the north and west, throughout various stages and in different styles during the 20th century. The approach to the school is via modern gates leading up a tree lined avenue which partially screens the school from view. To the front of the school are a series of car parks beyond which lie various preparatory buildings to the south. Playing fields and a large changing pavilion predominantly occupy the north of the site.

Roofing: Natural slate
Walling: Red brick
Windows: Timber sliding sash
RWG: Cast-iron/uPVC replacement

Historical information

The Society of Friends (Quakers) has maintained an interest in the education of both boys and girls since its foundation in the mid-seventeenth century. The Quaker belief that each individual, male and female, could be a vehicle for spiritual truth and therefore needed to be literate and able to express themselves clearly and effectively, has formed the basis of Friends’ desire to make educational provision for their community. (Chapman, p.22)

The minute books of the Society of Friends record that a Quaker education was being offered in Lisburn as early as 1700. In 1764 a committee of Friends set up to examine the issue of schooling recommended that a boarding school be established in each of the provinces of Leinster, Munster and Ulster. The Ulster project was soon boosted by a legacy from a prosperous linen merchant, John Hancock, who left a bequest of £1,000 to purchase some land in or near Lisburn on which to build a school for the children of Quakers. (Chapman, p. 24)

The site at Prospect Hill was deemed most suitable, overlooking as it did the town of Lisburn and the Meeting House, and in 1766 a lease was signed with the Earl of Hertford. Work was begun on a road to the school almost immediately and the first master John Gough, was appointed, in 1774. A school appears to have been built at this time, a note of 1776 recording an application for £4 ‘for lime for schoolhouse’. (Newhouse, p.1-9) However, in1792 the schoolmaster left to take up another position and the school closed. In 1793 the decision was taken to re-open the school which was by this time known as the Ulster Provincial School. A sum of £3,000 was raised ‘for erecting larger buildings’ and by 1794 a building of two wings had been completed. As many as 56 boarders were being accommodated by 1800. (Belfast Newsletter)

A sketch of the school as it appeared about 1850 is shown in the school history (Newhouse). In 1862, the ‘male and female schoolhouse, gatehouse, offices and land’ was listed in Griffith’s Valuation with buildings valued at £55. The school was situated at the time in a plot of over 22 acres.

Construction of the present school buildings began in April 1877 under the pioneering headship of Joseph Radley, a Quaker from England. The architect was J C Marsh and the contract was awarded to Dixon & Co at an agreed cost of £3,790.14s.10d. Joseph Chandler Marsh was a Quaker architect, born in Surrey, who moved to Belfast after 1861. His work includes the Irish Temperance League Buildings in Lombard Street, Belfast and the Friends’ Meeting House in Portadown. (www.dia.ie) Funds were raised from various quarters, £100 was subscribed by Friends in the south of Ireland, £50 by Sir Richard Wallace, the local landowner, £1,200 by English Friends, £1,250 by various members of the Quaker linen-manufacturing family, the Richardsons and £1,600 by members of the Society of Friends in Ulster. (Belfast Newsletter)

Building Committee minutes reveal that the original intention had been to repair and extend the old school but as work progressed it was discovered that parts of the old building were in a dangerous condition. The front of the school containing the hall, headmaster’s study and reception room constituted part of this rebuild, but until the 1970s parts of the old school remained to the rear of the front block. A wall to the rear of the east wing that has been exposed during renovation shows evidence of what may be the eighteenth century stone structure with newer brickwork above it. Map evidence suggests that the east and west wings of the old school were retained and raised or repaired in the late nineteenth century. The front entrance of the school bears a datestone of 1878 and building work was completed on the main school building in 1880. Further building work was carried out in the 1890s, again to the designs of J C Marsh, including the provision in 1892 of a dining hall , science classroom, boys’ and girls’ ‘gymnasium-playrooms’, laboratory, boys’ workshop and photographic room (Belfast Newsletter) and the opening of a swimming pool to the rear of the school in 1899. (Newhouse, p.64-6).

By 1900 the school had begun to enrol non-Quakers as well as Quakers and the 1911census shows that boarders at this time came from all over Britain and Ireland, other denominations vastly outnumbering Quakers. Of the 31 boarders, only seven were from the Society of Friends, the majority of the remainder being Presbyterian (19). A significant proportion of the pupils had been born in England, Scotland or the south of Ireland (8) and two brothers boarding at the school had been born in China. (1911 census)

Various minor additions and improvements were made in the first quarter of the twentieth century. In 1929 the gas lighting was replaced by electric light, and in 1930 the eight coal fires in the school were replaced by electric radiators (Newhouse, p. 86-7,118). An extension to the west of the main building containing additional classrooms for the expanding numbers of day pupils was added in 1935-6, the contractor being Isaac Thompson who was to work on the school until the mid-1960’s. (Newhouse, p.118-9)

Following the school’s decision to remain voluntary-aided after the Education Act of 1947, there was a large increase in the numbers of day-scholars and further extension to the school became necessary. In 1947 GP and RH Bell, a Quaker firm, were appointed architects to the school and completed several alterations and additions over the ensuing decades, including a large extension to the rear of the school in the 1970s which replaced some of the earlier eighteenth and nineteenth century structure. (Newhouse, p.132-3)

Recent additions have included a sports hall, completed in 2000 and the installation of lifts in the main building. Considerable refurbishment of the interior has taken place over the years and further building is planned for the near future. There is no longer a boarding department, the buildings formerly used for boarding having been converted for use as the school’s Geography and ICT facilities. (www.friendsschoollisburn.org.uk)

Today the school enjoys a reputation as one of the leading grammar schools in Northern Ireland. The Society of Friends retains a strong interest in the school with ten representatives on the Board of Governors. (www.friendsschoollisburn.org.uk)

References:

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/1/68/1 – First Edition OS Map 1833
2. PRONI OS/6/1/68/2 – Second Edition OS map 1857
3. PRONI OS/6/1/68/3 – Third Edition OS Map c1900
4. PRONI OS/6/1/68/4 – Fourth Edition OS Map 1921
5. PRONI OS/6/1/68/5 – Fifth Edition OS Map 1939
6. Belfast Newsletter 19th May 1877
7. Belfast Newsletter 19th December 1892
8. Griffith’s Valuation online (1862)
9. 1911 census online

Secondary Sources

1. Chapman, AG “Quakers in Lisburn, Four Centuries of Work and Witness” Lisburn: Ulster Friends Home Mission, 2009

2. Newhouse, N “A History of Friends’ School Lisburn” 1974

3. www.friendsschoollisburn.org.uk

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
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
X. Local Interest
Y. Social, Cultural or Economic Importance
V. Authorship

Evaluation

A three-storey three-bay Victorian school with associated two-storey wings dated 1878, on the original site of The Society of Friends 18th century Quaker school house. Originally built to the designs of the architect J.C. Marsh, the 19th century school has retained its original character and many features of special interest, despite having lost much of the original school buildings to the rear during the construction of a 1970’s extension. Externally the style and proportion is typical from this period, with good decorative brick work on display. Much of the internal character has been retained, including original victorian classrooms with some fabric from the earlier 18th century school. Although the adjoining 20th century extensions detract slightly from the character of the buidling, the overall setting has not been significantly altered. Originally set up in 18th century as a provincial boarding school for Quakers in Ulster, the site on Prospect Hill has been enrolling non-quakers and quakers since the early 20th century and is an important part of the social history of Lisburn.