Sydenham Primary School

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Modern Style single-storey primary school of 1950, constructed largely out of prefabricated aluminium units, to designs by R.S. Wilshire. The building is set at the NE end of Strandburn Street, Sydenham.

[For purposes of this description SE will be read as E, NE as N etc.] In plan the school is asymmetrical roughly, resembling the shape of a letter ‘P’. It consists quadrangle of classrooms / offices and an assembly hall, with a projecting wing to the SE. The quadrangle is constructed from (largely painted) corrugated aluminium units with large areas of aluminium-framed glazing, with many glazed areas interspersed with projecting angled ‘piers’ (or struts) which help support the overhang of the roof.

The E and W wings of the quadrangle are both classroom blocks and have shallow pitched felted gabled roofs, whilst the much narrower corridor wing to the N side has a flat roof. Photographic evidence suggests the roofs were probably originally aluminium panelled. The corridor wing was originally open to the S (inner) side but is now fully enclosed. The wing to the W has a lower, almost full-length, flat-roofed corridor projection to its W side. To the S end of this projection is a small boiler room extension in brick (added in the 1990s). The main entrance is set to the left side of the E façade of the E wing and consists of a largely glazed timber double door with a projecting hood over.

The S wing, which largely contains offices and toilets, is slightly lower and narrower than the classroom blocks, but much the same in appearance. This wing stretches E beyond the quadrangle to form the projecting SE (corridor) wing. The latter wing is of the same aluminium construction as much of the rest of the school, but was extended (c.2001) in brick to the N side. This extension consists of two distinct sections, with the taller section to the W side having a mono-pitched felted roof, with an unusual raised ‘butterfly’ roof to that to the E (this portion is actually a covered play area). To the E end, the projecting wing abuts another classroom block, similar to the other classroom blocks described above, but much smaller.

To the SE corner of the quadrangle is a large assembly hall, which, unlike the rest of the building, is in brick. It is also significantly taller than the other sections, but also has a large area of glazing, (to its E façade), and a shallow pitched felted gabled roof with brick parapets to the gables. A large water tank projection rises from the NW corner of the assembly hall. To its SE corner, the hall links to the taller section of the brick-built extension to the N side of the SE projecting wing.

The rw goods are a mixture of PVC and metal.

Enclosed by the quadrangle is a garden, whilst to the E and SE of the complex is a large tarmac-covered schoolyard. To the NE is a large separate dining hall block, built in 1959. This is largely single-storey and constructed in concrete brick and render with steel-framed windows. Its roof is felt-covered and part flat and part ‘butterfly’, with the latter rising higher to form a clerestorey section. To the W end is a small two-storey boiler house portion.

Historical information

This school was the first completely new school to be built in Northern Ireland following WWII. Due to the post war shortage of traditional building materials it was largely built of prefabricated aluminium units, a system devised by the Bristol Areoplane Company of Weston-Super-Mare and licensed to the Belfast firm of Short Brothers and Harland Ltd; the accumulated wartime skills and capacity of both firms put to essential pacetime use. ‘Shorts’ manufactured erected the superstructure in 73 days with the assembly hall built by sub-contractors T & J Whiteside, and the layout designed by Belfast Corporation’s Education architect, R.S. Wilshire. The school came into use in August 1950 and was officially opened the following May.

The dining hall, to the north-east side of the school complex, was built in 1959 to designs by Donald Shanks, whilst the extension to the SE and the boiler room were added c.2001.

Primary sources
1 Belfast City Hall Building Control Office App. 18465 (c.1949)
2 Photograph of Sydenham Primary School, c.1950 [In possession of the school itself.]
3 Linenhall Library ‘Belfast News-Letter’, 22 August 1950, 24 May 1951

Secondary sources
1 Information supplied by School Headmistress (Dec 2003)

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
F. Structural System
G. Innovatory Qualities
H-. Alterations detracting from building
I. Quality and survival of Interior

Criteria for listing: historic interest

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

Evaluation

Modern Style single-storey primary school of 1950, constructed largely out of prefabricated aluminium units, to designs by R.S. Wilshire. This school is important in that it is one of the few surviving local structures built using innovative materials and methods pioneered and adapted by the wartime aircraft industry. It is largely inact although the south-east wing has been extended in brick.