Rathmore Grammar School

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Two storey Italianate style mid-Victorian house dating from c.1870 most likely by the firm of Lanyon, Lynn and Lanyon. Rectangular plan form with a single storey entrance portico to N, an L shaped plan wing to E side and a single storey extension to N-E. The building is now part of the Rathmore Grammar school complex, set within its own grounds that front onto Kingsway, to the southeast side of the M1 motorway in Dunmurry.

Hipped natural slate roof with a skylight to centre. Overhanging eaves supported on a sandstone dentilled cornice. Ogee cast iron guttering discharging to circular cast iron downpipes. Tall chimney stacks in ashlar sandstone with corbelled coping and red-clay chimney pots. Walling laid to coursed rock-faced Armagh limestone with Giffnock sandstone dressings on projecting limestone plinth. Wraparound moulded sandstone sill courses to GF and FF level of main building and E wing; moulded string course between floors with plain sandstone frieze below to main building. Window openings are square-headed with plain architraves to GF and moulded architraves to FF, all having 1/1 timber sash windows (unless otherwise stated).

North elevation:
The principal elevation faces N and is five-bays wide with projecting hipped roof bay to E.
Two bay projecting single storey porch of ashlar sandstone to centre with paired Tuscan columns on stylobate forming an opening to the E bay, sandstone walling with window and paired pilasters to W end. Similar window and pilasters to W elevation of porch. Windows to porch are round-headed with moulded arch hood, pronounced keystones and flanked by small pilasters. The porch is topped by a plain frieze, cornice and a renaissance-style balustraded parapet.
Three stone steps lead inside the porch which has ashlar limestone walling and a rendered ceiling. Square-headed door opening to W face set within a segmental headed arch with panelled tympanum and raised keystone. Polished timber nine-panelled door with bronze door furniture to opening. Moulded string course to impost level across the three sides. Round arch window to N face and recessed segmental arch to E face.
Four windows to FF above the porch, with segmental headed moulded architraves, pronounced keystones and carved tympana.

West elevation:
The west elevation is symmetrical and five-bays wide, with a single-storey semi-circular bay to each end and a three-bay wide balcony to centre.
The semi-circular bays are of ashlar sandstone with three windows and have a balustraded parapet above. Stained leaded glazing to the windows to south bay.
A square-headed door opening to centre with a replacement painted timber panelled door with glazing opening onto four stone steps. The door is flanked by a window to each side. Four corbelled brackets support the balustraded balcony.

South elevation:
The south elevation is five-bays wide with a two-storey semi-circular bay off-centre. Paired windows to GF E bay and three windows to semi-circular bay to GF and FF. The three windows to GF to W and the bay windows to GF have stained leaded glazing.

East elevation:
The E elevation is six-bays wide with a window to each bay to GF and FF and abutted by the projecting E wing.

East wing:
The two-storey E wing abuts the building to NE and consists of two blocks: a block aligned W-E and a second block aligned S-N forming an L-shaped plan.
Single storey U-shaped hipped roof extension to the E of the E wing with curved wall to NE corner. A small open quadrangle is formed between the extension and the E elevation of the E wing.
The L-shaped plan of the E wing is visible from the N elevation: four-bay elevation to the block aligned W-E and single bay elevation to the block aligned S-N. GF windows to first block have a stone panel to apron and a platform in front enclose by Renaissance-style balustrade. Four bay elevation to second block to E.
The S elevation consists of three-bays to W and a single-bay to E. Square-headed door opening to W end with a replacement painted timber panelled door opening onto a ramp. Balustraded platform in front of the three bays to W. The FF is recessed with three bays behind a balustraded balcony.
Following the steep ground level change, the seven bay E elevation is three-storeys high with the GF opening onto a lower level and connected with the U-shaped extension. Square-headed window openings with plain sash windows to E elevation. uPVC rainwater goods and modern doors and windows to extension.
Entrance to the quadrangle through a square-headed modern sheeted timber door to E elevation of extension. Door leads through a covered corridor to the paved quadrangle. Square-headed window openings with plain 1/1 timber sash windows to all four elevations overlooking the quadrangle. Glazed timber screen incorporating a square headed door opening to NE corner. Square headed glazed timber door directly to S. Glazed timber porch to NW corner forms the entrance to E wing.

Setting:
The building, now part of the Rathmore grammar school complex, occupies the N side of a large paved quadrangle surrounded by modern two and three-storey buildings to E, W and S. Small circular landscaped area to N. The complex is located within its own grounds fronting onto Kingsway, to the southeast side of the M1 motorway in Dunmurry.

Materials:
Roof natural slate
RWG cast iron
Walling coursed rock-faced limestone with sandstone dressings
Windows 1/1 double hung timber sashes/ stained leaded glass to windows to SE to GF

Historical information

This house was built by Victor Coates around 1870 on the outskirts of Dunmurry. The son of William Coates of Glentoran. Victor Coates was from a long established Belfast family of iron founders. In 1863, he married Margaret Airth Richardson, daughter of Jonathan Richardson MP of Lambeg House. They would go on to have six sons and a daughter. A growing family and growing prosperity – the firm Victor Coates & Co. Ltd became the leading manufacturer of boilers and steam engines in Ireland – would have contributed to Victor Coates’ desire to build a substantial country residence. In the late 1860s, he acquired a park of 120 acres on a hill at Kingsway, Dunmurry, the location of Huntley Cottage. Here he was to build Rathmore House.

Rankin (p. 174) refers to the family records – ‘Etablissements Victor Coates, Paris’ – that state that the house was designed by Paxton (Sir Joseph Paxton?). Larmour (p. 107), however, attributes the house on stylistic grounds to Lanyon, Lynn & Lanyon. Noting that it is Italianate in style, he finds similarities between Rathmore and Stradbally Hall, County Laois, and Newtownbarry House, County Wexford, both of which were by Lanyon, Lynn & Lanyon. The Valuation Revision Books show that in 1872 the valuation placed on the buildings was £180. In 1874 this was raised to £187.

Rathmore was one of the most advanced houses of its day and the Coates family lived here in some style. The family records previously referred to describe the house as ‘quite modern with light from the roof and central heating; the first in Ireland and considered for many years most unhealthy. The rooms were too large to be heated by fires and this central heating made the house too comfortable.’ The range of outbuildings was quite extensive and included stables, a gas works and greenhouses. There were also two gate-lodges. The Valuation Revision Books show that in 1884 the farm buildings were valued separately and consequently the valuation of the house and its immediate outbuildings was reduced to £135.

The 1901 census provides an indication of the extent of the household for there were 44 rooms in the house occupied by the family. By 1911, the household, though still large, occupied 27 rooms in the house. Victor Coates died on 27 July 1910, leaving an estate valued at £5,788. His obituary in the Belfast Newsletter records that he had been in ailing health for some years and had withdrawn from the family business some fifteen years before – the firm itself closed in 1906. Though involved in public life in Belfast, he was active in the commercial sector, serving for a time as director of the Great Northern Railway Company, and also of the York Street Flax Spinning Company. He belonged to Drumbeg Parish Church. He was survived by his wife, daughter and five sons. A sixth son, Captain Frederick R. Coates, had been killed in the Boer War.

Victor Coates’ widow Margaret became the named occupier of the property in the Valuation Revision Books in 1912 and this continued until her death on 24 December 1923. Rathmore was then acquired by Samuel McCrudden, a linen manufacturer. The annual revision lists of the First General Revaluation records show that in 1943 Rathmore passed from McCrudden to Harland and Wolff. This firm had drawing offices erected in the grounds.

In 1947, Rathmore was acquired by the Religious of the Sacred Heart of Mary. This Catholic order had originated in France and in 1870 had established a presence at Lisburn. The house was used as a convent by the Sisters and in 1949 a preparatory school was established. The Valuation Books show that in 1951 the owner of the house was listed as the Convent of the Sacred Heart of Mary, though in 1952 this was amended to Rathmore Convent School. In 1953 a grammar school opened at Rathmore. As numbers increased further buildings were opened in the 1960s and 1970s. In 1997 the Sisters moved out of the convent which was then acquired by the school with a view to having it refurbished to provide additional classrooms.

Plans for new school buildings were approved in 2001 and work began the following year. The works included the refurbishment and careful restoration of the former convent (what had been the original Rathmore House) which would house the history, politics and religious education classrooms as well as the school chapel. The stained glass windows in the chapel were installed by the firm of Clokeys. By the summer of 2005 most of the building work was complete and the new school was ready for the start of the autumn term.

References

Public Record Office of Northern Ireland
Valuation Revision Books – VAL/12/B/8/15A-J (1862-1930)
Valuation Revision Books – VAL/12/B/8/3A (1923-29)
First Northern Ireland General Revaluation Books – VAL/3/B/1/14 (1935)
First Northern Ireland General Revaluation Books – VAL/3/C/1/26 (1936-57)
Ordnance Survey 6-inch maps – OS/6/1/64/3 (1901)
Ordnance Survey 6-inch maps – OS/6/1/64/6 (1920-1939)

Northern Ireland Environment Agency
First Survey Record – HB/26/15/005
HB Records – HB/26/15/005

Published sources
Belfast Newsletter, 29 July 1910
Paul Larmour, Belfast: an illustrated architectural guide (Belfast, 1987)
Kathleen Rankin, Linen Houses of the Lagan Valley (Belfast, 2002)
Matthew Neill, Ecclesia De Drum: Recollections of the parish of Drumbeg … (n. d.)

Online sources
Natural Stone Database: www.stonedatabase.com
Dictionary of Irish Architects: www.dia.ie
1901 and 1911 census returns: www.census.nationalarchives.ie
Rathmore Grammar School website:
www.rathmoregrammarschool.org/rgs/index.php/about-us/our-history
Lisburn.com:
www.lisburn.com/history/memories/memories-2005/rathmore-school-officially-opens.html

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
I. Quality and survival of Interior
J. Setting

Criteria for listing: historic interest

R. Age
S. Authenticity
T. Historic Importance
U. Historic Associations
Y. Social, Cultural or Economic Importance
V. Authorship
X. Local Interest

Evaluation

An elegant example of a two storey Italianate style mid-Victorian house dating from c.1870 to designs by the prominent architectural firm Lanyon, Lynn and Lanyon. Rectangular plan form with a single storey portico to N, an L shaped plan wing and a single storey extension to N-E. Rathmore was the first house with central heating in Ireland. Rathmore still retains its well proportioned and detailed elevations, an impressive principal stairwell with stained glass skylight and carefully restored interiors. The building is now part of the Rathmore grammar school complex and occupies the N side of a large paved quadrangle surrounded by modern two and three-storey buildings to E, W and S. Although the modern buildings compromise the original setting somewhat, Rathmore house remains an important building and as a school has social importance for the local community.