St. Philip & St. James Parish Hall

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Picturesque single storey gabled hall (with part attics) with decorative bargeboards, originally built in 1845 as a school house. The building is set on the NE side of the Church Road.

The front façade faces SW. To the centre is a projecting entrance porch with gabled roof, decorative barge boards and overhanging eaves. The front entrance is to the SW face of the porch has a painted diagonal timber sheeted door with drip moulding and label stops over. To the NW face is a small two pane fixed window also with drip moulding and label stops. The porch roof is finished in Bangor Blue slate and is gutterless. A small finial sits on the apex.

To the left and right of the porch are three equally spaced window openings each with moulded surround. Each window is sliding sash and case, six over six and with fine margins.

The SE gable has a central, first floor, semi circular arched window with a muli pane frame with ‘gothic’ tracery. To the ground floor is a centrally placed plain timber door.

To the NW are two small pointed arch headed windows with modern fixed frame. To ground floor is a plain timber door. To the N side of the gable is the edge of a fairly recent lean-to extension with a small square window.

The rear has a lean-to extension to the right side. This has a corrugated [?]asbestos roof. To the rear NE wall are three window openings to the left, a door opening and a further two window openings to the right, all of which are blocked. There is a further double door opening to the SW of the leanto. To the SE of the main building rear wall is a small square window opening to first floor with a further wider, modern window to ground floor.

The building is finished in lined render and the gabled roof has a large overhang with shaped barge boards. The roof is covered in Bangor Blue slate. Two brick chimney stacks are positioned symmetrically close to the gables.

Historical information

History to follow with complete re-survey of the ward. Some preliminary points below.

This hall was originally a school house and dates from 1845. It is shown on the OS map of 1858 and marked as a National School. The growth in pupils meant that by 1875 the building was deemed to small and plans to enlarge it were put forward, however, the then owner of the land to the rear refused to sell on reasonable terms and an entirely new school had to be built on the opposite side of the road. After the new building (designed by William Batt) was completed in 1878, the old school became the parochial hall of St. Philip & St. James Parish.

The building remained the main parochial hall until 1954, when (ironically), the school which had originally replaced it was converted to serve as a larger hall for the parish.

The rear lean-to was added c.1950.

References- Primary sources
1 PRONI OS maps, 1st rev., 1858, Down 1.

Secondary sources
1 Tony Merrick, ‘Buildings of Holywood’ (‘Holywood Advertiser’ publication 1986), pp.67-70.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

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

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Picturesque single storey school house of 1845 with overhanging roof, decorative barges and gabled porch. The building has been a parish hall since 1875 and a lean to was added to the rear in c.1950.
The hall’s current ‘picturesque’ appearance may be due to a later 19th century renovation, though this is in no way certain.