Ballynafeigh National School Florenceville Drive

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Single story red brick, with reconstituted stone dressings, former national school built in 1905 and now extended and used as a hall for the adjoining Ballynafeigh Methodist Church HB26 01 016. Roughly T-shaped on plan it is located between Florenceville Drive and Whitehall Parade just off the Ormeau approximately 3km from the centre of Belfast.

Materials

Roof : natural Bangor blue slate with exposed rafter ends.
Walls: red clay brick with reconstituted stone dressings to the projecting side bays
Windows: largely original single glazed painter timber – hopper type with deep painted sills
RWGs : mixture of cast iron and uPVC

The side elevation facing South has a projecting gabled former classroom with three tall windows facing the road. The windows have segmental brick lintols and a keystone above which is a rectangular reconstituted stone plaque which reads BALLYNAFEIGH NATIONAL SCHOOL. To the right of this is the main hall which has two segmental headed windows and a double-leaf fire escape door between shallow brick buttresses. A slightly projecting flat roofed section is attached to a similar rendered projection, which is a modern extension linking the former school to the church. To the left of the former classroom is a flat roofed section containing an original door opening, with a decorative lintol. This has been partially blocked up and infilled with a smaller uPVC window. An original wall encloses a small yard to the left and further to the left is a two storey modern extension with doubled pitched slated roof in the same plane as the hall roof. Along this elevation several name stones have been inserted in the exterior wall recording some of those that contributed to the building of the school – Mrs H WHITEHEAD – IN MEMORY OF Mr HENRY WHITEHEAD – Mrs JOHN CONNOLLY – Mrs JB SKELLY – Mrs RB BRANDON – Mrs AC MARSHALL – Mrs TF SHILLINGTON.
To the left of the former school building is a tall brick wall (partially rebuilt with concrete blocks) capped with a terracotta copings which would originally have bounded a playground. To the right is a similar dwarf wall with the original painted wrought iron railings and pedestrian gate.

The East elevation is now attached by a new rendered link to the Methodist church. It’s original composition can still be read as a taller flat roofed middle section, containing the stage to the school hall, with lower projecting blocks on either side.

The West elevation is now concealed by the addition of a two storey extension is similar materials, but with stained hardwood windows.

The North elevation to Florenceville Drive is similar in layout to the South elevation. On the left a single storey projecting bay contains original painted steel windows and the main entrance to the hall. The entrance sits under a projecting flat-roofed hood and has 4 tiled steps. The entrance door has painted double doors (may be original) and has lower solid panels and upper glazed panels. There is a projecting classroom section, similar to the South, but it is more ornately detailed with semi-circular headed reconstituted stone kneelers, two string courses above the windows and a semi-circular apex over an oval oculus.
The extension is more intrusive on this side as it overlaps and projects beyond the original classroom. The extension has a tall projecting triangular window to the first floor and two segmental headed windows on the ground floor.

The boundary treatment has been changed with about half of the walling and railings replaced in modern materials but in a similar style to the original.

This side also has a collection of name stones both from the original construction - FOUNDATION STONE LAID BY THE RT HON SIR DANIEL DIXO, BART MP DL(?) LORD MAYOR OF BELFAST 28TH OCTOBER 1905 – MRS(?) EDWARD BENNETT – MRS JGW REID – MRS S HERALD – MRS ST MERCIER – (?) HENDEERSON -

and three commemorating alterations in 1951 – MEMORIAL HALL FOUNDATION STONE LAID BY REV RH GALLAGHER BA 9TH JUNE 1951 – TH MENARY ESQ – MRS GH STEVENSON

The site is relatively tight with concrete paths around the former school and small areas of grass at each side of the hall. Apart from the Methodist church the other adjoining buildings in both streets are largely two storey early twentieth century houses.

Historical information

The site to the west of Ballynafeigh Methodist Church is vacant on the third edition OS map of c.1900. Ballynafeigh National School was designed in 1905 by James John Phillips & Son, one of the last buildings attributed to the partnership (DIA), and first appears on the fourth edition OS map in 1907. The new school was to serve 350 children and was built to the rear of Ballynafeigh Methodist Church of 1897 (HB26/01/016). The foundation stone was laid by Rt Hon Daniel Dixon, Lord Mayor of Belfast, on 28th October 1906. The annual revisions show that Sir Robert J McConnell, a prominent speculative developer and Lord Mayor of Belfast, received the half-rent for the school of £18 3s. The school sits early in a context of educational reform in the National School system in Belfast and the review and new-building of school buildings in the 1920s, notably under noted school architect Reginald Sharman Wilshere. J.J. Phillips was the architect of choice to the Methodist Church in the north of Ireland, designing around seventeen Methodist churches, most of those in Belfast having accompanying schools. This included the predecessor to the existing Ballynafeigh Methodist Church, which was a “neat” and “commodious” corrugated iron hall that was quickly replaced due to the increasing congregation. The memorial hall extension was built later, in the 1950s, its foundation stone laid on 9th June 1951 by Rev. R.H. Gallagher.
References
Primary Sources
1. PRONI OS/6/1/60/3 Ordnance Survey Third Edition (1901)
2. PRONI OS/6/1/60/4 Ordnance Survey Fourth Edition (1920-22)
3. PRONI VAL/12/B/43/K/4 + 7 Annual Revisions (1906 - 1930)

Online Sources
https://www.dia.ie/works/view/41094/CO.+ANTRIM%2C+BELFAST%2C+BALLYNAFEIGH%2C+NATIONAL+SCHOOLS
https://www.dia.ie/works/view/46015/CO.+ANTRIM%2C+BELFAST%2C+ORMEAU+ROAD+%28BALLYNAFEIGH%29%2C+METHODIST+CHURCH+HALL

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

Ballynafeigh National School is a simple red brick former school building, built in 1905, located off Ormeau Road west of Ballynafeigh Methodist Church (HB26/01/016). It is based around a simple T-plan with a simple aesthetic of brick gables, enhanced by selective stone details, particularly around the north gable. The school has external memorial stones remembering donors to its construction, and has association with James John Phillips, an architect of Methodist churches and schools. The school was extended to the SW in the1950s and the interior was modernised. This building was considered as a separate listing to the church, but as its primary architectural and historic interest is in its links with the Ballynafeighh Methodist Church, also being physically attached to the church, the school has been included within the HB26/01/016 record.