Former orphanage,

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Large, austere, and some what stark and angular, four storey (3 storeys plus a ground floor ‘basement’) orphanage of c.1885, in semi-coursed basalt rubble with central five storey (bell) tower and crow-stepped gabled end bays. The building is prominently sited to the N of the Comber Road, to the NW side of the village of Ballygowan. This former orphanage with its mannerist late medieval styling and basalt façade, bears a resemblance to some of George Wilkinson’s work house ‘front buildings’ of the 1840s, but is larger in scale, dwarfing its domestically sized rural village
setting.

The front façade faces S. In the centre is the projecting five storey tower. To the first floor (the entrance level) is a large timber panelled double door with crow-stepped shaped fanlight. The main entrance door is reached via a flight of stone steps. Above this is a narrow-ish window with fairly recent looking frame and in and out dressings in matching basalt.

Above the this window is a course which projects slightly, above which is a projecting crow-stepped ‘diamond’ panel with clock face thereon. Above the clock is a triangular crow-stepped shaped window opening with fixed five pane frame. Just below this opening is the phrase ‘The time is short’ in raised lettering. The tower is topped with a castellated parapet and flag pole.

To the E and W faces of the tower there is a tall, narrow, window opening (similar to 2nd floor front) to each floor except the ground. These windows have a variety of frames, some sash, some more recent and a few now partly louvered. To the ground floor on the W side is a doorway and to the E side there is a broader (square-ish) window with recent frame. Slightly projecting course between 1st and 2nd floors and 3rd and 4th floors on both sides.

To either side of the tower on the ground floor are five square-ish windows with a mixture of (recent) timber and PVC frames. The two outer windows to each side are each contained within four storey outer bays. All the ground floor windows are covered with security grills. At ground floor level the front, N and S façades projects slightly in the form of a tall chamfered ‘base’.

To the 1st floor are three taller windows to either side of the tower, with modern frames and dressings as those to the tower itself. The outer bays each contain two more windows, each double sash with a sandstone mullion and dressings. To the 2nd floor are windows to the 1st floor, only with those to the outer bays slightly shorter. The bays each have a 3rd floor window of triple sash separated by sandstone mullions. The centre light is taller. The outer bays are topped with crow-stepped gables.

The short N and S facades are identical. To the ground floor are two windows as ground floor front with a sheeted door between. To the 1st and 2nd floors are outer windows as to corresponding floors on the front façade of the bays, but with extra single sash window to the centre. The 3rd floor has a similar arrangement but the openings are much smaller.

The rear façade has less of the formality of the front and has been altered and added to over the years. At either end of the façade is a full height gabled bay with chimney stack to apex (face on). To the inner sides of both bays are gabled stairwell bays with small sash windows to their inner faces. The gables of the main bays have a sash window to the 1st, 2nd floors, with two much smaller windows to the 3rd floor. To the centre at the rear is the main (three storey) stairwell projection, which also has a gabled roof. To the rear of this projection are two sash windows with a much larger sash window above with margin panes. To the right of this central stairwell projection is a 2nd floor sash window, below which another opening has been blocked. There is a similar 2nd floor window to the left side of the stairwell projection. The rear façade is finished in rough cast.

Attached to the ground floor left at the rear is a large modern single storey hall, with a shallow pitched gabled roof and random rubble basalt [?cladding] façade to gables. This hall was added in c.1993/4.
The roof of this former orphanage is covered in Bangor blue slates with four matching basalt chimney stacks. Cast iron and PVC rw goods.

To the S and E of this building is a large car park.

Historical information

This building dates from c.1885. It was constructed mainly through the efforts of Alexander Orr Reid of near by Orrmount House (now Ardmore), who wished to erect a memorial to his only son who had met an untimely death (apparently in a hunting accident) in October 1880.

Mr. Reid, who was a partner in Robbs of Castle Place, Belfast, worked on the project with Rev. T.S. Woods, the then Minister of Ballygowan Presbyterian church. Both originally intended the building to be a boarding school closely associated to the church. To this end, Rev. Woods encouraged his congregation to assist in the costs of the building. A dispute arose between Reid (who was actually a Non-subscribing Presbyterian) and the minister, however, with the result that the school project was abandoned, Reid proceeding alone with the building of what was to become an orphanage. It is said that the positioning and large scale of the finished orphanage was a deliberate move by Reid in order that his building would stand in confrontation to Wood’s church.

The orphanage (which was ultimately badly managed) closed in c.1919 and the building was bought (ironically) by Ballygowan Presbyterian Church for c.£900, for use as a school and church hall. Local folk memory suggests that the minister persuaded the congregation to purchase the building in order to forestall a rumour which suggested it was going to be converted to a convent!

A church publication of 1938 carried a description of the building as it appeared at that time: ‘It is of blue cut stone from neighbouring quarries, is 142 feet long and 40 feet wide, has three storeys of exceptional height, and the tower in the centre of the front lifts its massive head 90 feet in the air. The yard at the rear can be used as a hard tennis court, and is surrounded by a wall 12 feet high and in harmony with the main building. The first thing likely to impress the passer-by is the strength of the whole structure, and the next is the graceful proportion of its outlines. It contains a large and a minor hall, two well lighted rooms in which a flourishing P.E. school is carried on, a splendid suite of rooms at either end that are used as residences and a variety of other apartments. The woodwork is almost entirely of solid Irish oak’.

The building continued to function primarily as a school until the 1960s, when, with the opening of close by Alexander Dickson Primary School, it reverted solely to a church hall. A new hall extension was added to the rear was added in 1993/4.

The clock to the tower was installed by the church in 1937, by friends of Senator J. Hill Dickson of near by Ardmore, who wished to present him with a token of ‘friendship and esteem’. The phrase above it (‘The time is short’) is original, a reference to the early death of Mr. Reid’s son and a reminder of mortality in general.

Primary sources
1 PRONI MIC/1P/406 Records of Ballygowan Presbyterian Church.

Secondary sources
1 ‘Ballygowan Presbyterian Church…1838-1938’ (Belfast 1938), pp.10-11, 14-15.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
H-. Alterations detracting from building

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Y. Social, Cultural or Economic Importance
X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Large, austere three / four storey basalt built orphanage of c.1885 with central bell tower and crow-stepped gabled outer bays. With its late medieval overtones this building resembles some of the George Wilkinson designed work houses of the 1840s, however, its appearance more stark, angular and mannerist and its scale somewhat larger and exaggerated by the its siting within a domestic proportioned village.