Blythefield Primary School

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A modern art-deco-style two-storey primary school arranged in a quadrangle comprising four blocks with outer re-entrant angles infilled with lower subservient link blocks, with central single-storey administration block built to the designs of Education Architect Reginald S. Wilshere 1929. Located at the end of Blythe Street of Sandy Row in south Belfast.

Flat-roof with parapets; cast-iron RWG with decorative hopper-heads; brick chimney. Red-brick walling laid to English garden wall bond; soldier course to top of parapet surmounted with masonry coping stone; moulded plinth course; moulded surrounds. Multi-paned single glazed timber casement windows with replacement brass ironmongery; arranged as a double-height recess; central spandrel panel with simple geometric mouldings; painted rendered surrounds. Timber double-leaf front door with triplet raised and fielded panels; geometric grille overlight; step-moulded surrounds with pronounced key block.

The principal elevation faces south and is symmetrically arranged; five bays each comprising a uniform fenestration arrangement of triplet double-height windows; continuous ground floor cill course. The parapet over the central three bays is slightly raised. The front entrance is located centrally; projected apron with inverted curved edges, supported on plain brackets. Flag pole brackets over first floor fixed onto geometric brickwork on parapet. The façade is flanked by narrow bays one window wide; each comprising a double-leaf secondary entrance; projected apron with geo-metric detailing and plain brackets over. Single first floor window.

The left elevation (west facing), comprises a projected double-height seven-bay façade with plain brick-pilasters and geometric moulded capitals; encompassed by painted rendered and geometric brickwork surrounds. Each bay comprises a double-leaf timber door with multi-paned glazing and geometric surrounds; tripartite vertical windows (now infilled) recessed at high level. The central portion of the parapet is slightly raised below which reads “CITY OF BELFAST” in large individually fixed brass letters and a cast-iron moulding of the Belfast coat-of-arms. Either side of the projected façade is a narrow bay with a single double-height window. Two-storey chamfered blocks located at the re-entrant of the west elevation and the front and south elevations; comprising varying quadripartite, bipartite and single windows. Single-storey flat roof block comprising toilets and the rear entrance, projecting southwesterly from the left hand side; bipartite first floor window over.

View of rear elevation is completely obscured due to the close proximity of the adjacent shed.

The right elevation (east facing), comprises three bays matching the principal elevation. Single storey additional hall to the right projecting eastwards with full glazed south elevation; red-brick stretcher bond. Single narrow two-storey bay to the left with double-height window; further abutted by a single-storey block at the re-entrant to the east and front elevation; quadripartite windows to the east and south face.

Quadrangle: The internal elevation to the north block comprising various double-height fenestration arrangements. The west block has been raised by a storey, comprising a double-height canted bay; replacement steel framed glazed doors to the ground floor. The south block bays comprise sept-partite first floor windows with replacement steel framed windows and doors to the ground floor. The west block matches the south block and is abutted at ground floor right by a single-storey flat roof extension with large square single-pane window openings. Single-storey flat-roof octagonal administration block located in the centre of the quadrangle; connected to the main school via corridors adjoining the north and south; grouped windows to each façade. Central raised timber lantern.

Setting:

The overall
setting is two-storey residential terraces. The entrance gates have been replaced although the original piers and walls are retained. The Belfast to Dublin railway line runs parallel to the west. To the north is Linfield industrial estate and Weavers Court. Car park to front with playground to the west bounded by palisade fence.

Roofing: Asphalt
Walling: Red brick
Windows: Timber casement
RWG: Cast-iron

Historical information

Blythe Street Public Elementary School (as it was then known) was completed between 1929 and 1932 on a site in Blythe Street to designs by Reginald Sharman Wilshere. The building first appears on the 1931 edition of the ordnance survey, captioned ‘School’.

The school was built on a site to the rear of Linfield Weaving Factory, established in 1833. Together with the Blackstaff Spinning and Weaving Factory further to the north, the mills provided employment and encouraged development in the area, and terraces of working class housing sprang up during the second half of the nineteenth century. The Irish Builder first announced the building of the school in February 1929 and commented, ‘Like those already built, [it has] been planned on modern lines; the schools built in other parts of Ireland are still antiquated in design’. The tender of J & RW Taggart for £25,800 was accepted in August of the same year. (Irish Builder)

The school is first written into valuation records in 1932 as a school, yard and grounds, then known as Blythe Street Public Elementary School, occupied by the Belfast Regional Education Committee and leased from the Ulster Spinning Company Ltd. The school buildings are valued at £511. The First General Revaluation raises the valuation to £780 and describes the building as a ‘good, modern school...built of a good quality brick and slate’. The school had central heating and was built for 1008 pupils with 829 on the roll in 1934. By 1954 the school was known as ‘Linfield’ and had been designated an ‘intermediate’, or secondary, school for 850 pupils. In 1955 the valuation was raised again to £1,070. (First General Revaluation)

According to Larmour, Wilshere, who arrived in Belfast from Essex in 1926 to take up his post as architect to the recently-created Belfast Education Committee, was responsible for transforming school design in the city. ‘Between the wars he was to build a total of 26 schools in which air, light and sunshine were provided in abundance, and spaciousness and cheerfulness were to be the dominant characteristics…These were the first modern schools to be built anywhere in Ireland’ (Larmour)

Features which are now considered standard were innovations at the time, such as a single class-room for each class, a large assembly hall and dedicated rooms for science, cookery and art. Much attention was given to ventilation which was achieved by cross-ventilation and open air corridors and great care was taken with lighting arrangements. (Larmour)

The revolution in school design that was inaugurated by Wilshere should be seen in the context of the very poor state of Belfast’s schools at the time. A school building and renovation programme had been set in train by the Northern Ireland education reforms of the 1920s and Wilshere was faced with the challenging task of implementing this programme. Most of the old National Schools were no longer fit for purpose and many new schools were required. A 1924 survey of elementary schools by Belfast Education Committee found only 6 satisfactory out of 194. The Committee was appalled and commented that ‘the great majority of the remainder would not be tolerated in any other part of the United Kingdom. There are about forty of these schools which are a direct menace to the health and physical development of the children and it is almost doubtful whether the children attending them would not be better in the street.” (quoted in Collins) The programme of new building that was then initiated saw Wilshere and his team designing 26 new schools and extensions to many others. (Collins)

Wilshere believed in the aesthetics of design and the transforming effect this could have on the children enrolled at his schools. The Irish Builder commented that, ‘Mr Wilshere’s own idea...is that if the children of a district have no beauty in their daily surroundings, they need beauty all the more in their schools’ (quoted in Collins) Blythefield is characteristic of Wilshere’s designs which , where space allowed, were built around quadrangles with corridors open to the air. In 1930 Wilshere was awarded the first RIBA Ulster Architecture Medal for his school at Strandtown. (www.dia.ie)

During the Second World War, Wilshere supervised the repair of bomb-damaged schools and housing. He then oversaw a second wave of school building in the wake of the 1947 Education Act, bringing the total number of schools designed by him to 39. (Collins) In the 1970s the school was again redesignated a primary school, ‘Blythefield Primary School’, and continues to provide primary education to the Sandy Row area of Belfast. (Hansard; McNeilly)

References:

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/1/61/1 – First Edition OS Map 1832-3
2. PRONI OS/6/1/61/3 – Third Edition OS Map 1858
3. PRONI OS/6/1/61/4 – Fourth Edition OS Map 1901-2
4. PRONI OS/6/1/61/6 – Sixth Edition OS Map 1931
5. PRONI VAL/12/B/43/P/1-8 – Annual Revisions (1897-1930)
6. Irish Builder, Vol 56, 3rd February 1912, p.68 (illus)
7. Belfast Street Directory (1895)
8. Hansard 29 January 1985 vol 72 cc134-41W

Secondary Sources

1. Brett, C.E.B., Gillespie, R. and Maguire W.A. “Georgian Belfast, 1750-1850, Maps Buildings and Trades” Dublin and Belfast: Royal Irish Academy and Belfast Natural History and Philosophical Society, 2004
2. Collins, P “Conservation Statement Glenwood and Strandtown Schools- Reginald Sharman Wilshere Belfast Schools’ Architect”
3. Evans, D “An Introduction to Modern Ulster Architecture” Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1977
4. McNeilly, N “Exactly Fifty Years: the Belfast Education Authority and its work, 1923-73” Belfast: Blackstaff Press, 1974
5. Patton, M “Central Belfast: An Historical Gazetteer” Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1993
6. www.dia.ie – Dictionary of Irish Architects online

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
H-. Alterations detracting from building
I. Quality and survival of Interior
J. Setting
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

R. Age
S. Authenticity
T. Historic Importance
V. Authorship
W. Northern Ireland/International Interest
Y. Social, Cultural or Economic Importance

Evaluation

A modern art-deco-style two-storey quadrangle primary school built to the designs of Education Architect Reginald S. Wilshere in 1929. Erected during a period of educational reform, the building is one of many schools designed by the architect during this period, which revolutionised the former National School style with an emphasis on space & light. The external appearance of the building is characterized by the distinct style and proportions of the architecture of its time defined by strong symmetry and geometric emphasis. Although the setting has been altered by additions to the internal courtyard and a single storey hall to east, they are clear, of their time and do not significantly detract from the overall character of the building. Internally the layout has remained largely unaltered and much of the original fabric and detailing survives. The school has group value with Nettlefield (HB26/06/011), Avoniel (HB26/06/010) and McQuiston (HB26/30/089) and other listed Belfast schools to designs by the renowned Education Architect. Of significant historical and architectural interest, the school makes an important contribution within the local area, and is of social interest to the local community.