St Malachy's Convent

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A symmetrical three-store with attic three-bay redbrick Venetian Gothic-styled convent building, built c.1880 to designs by Alexander McAlister. The building is rectangular with full-height return, and is attached to a redbrick school building (see HB26/30/024B). The pair are located in St Malachy's parish in Belfast city centre, and St Malachy's Church (HB26/30/023A) is located nearby.

Pitched natural slate dormered roof with angled ridge tiles, cement skew tables and redbrick gable chimneystacks with corbelled stone caps. Ogee cast-iron gutters over exposed rafter tails. Walling is English garden wall bonded red brick, with sandstone platbands at window arch springing level and at cill level at each floor (principal and east elevations). Windows are paired Gothic arches having 1/1 timber sashes with horns, in chamfered sandstone surrounds.

Principal elevation faces south and has central breakfront rising to a steep pointed gable at attic level; gable topped by a Celtic cross finial with kneelers. Three paired openings to each floor , with exception of central entrance, comprising a timber panelled door (top three panels glazed) within painted brick and stucco Gothic surround; door is flanked by half-colonnettes with ornate foliate capitals; similar ornate stops to architrave; pointed arched transom light over mounded lintel supporting a statuette of St Malachy. Threshold has coloured tiles with central cross motif.

West gable is abutted by the National School (HB26/30/024B).

Rear elevation is enclosed by a yard, and abutted at ground floor by a one-and-a-half storey lean-to extension and later flat-roofed abutment. Irregular fenestration with wide margin paned lights to centre at each floor lighting stairwell. All windows with brick arched heads.

East gable is extended by the east elevation of the return, which is lit by a dormer at attic level. Ground floor has paired windows to right and a single window at left, all having stained and leaded glazing. Three windows to first floor, two to second, and a blind niche to gable apex.

Setting:
Corner sited within an urban streetscape comprising early nineteenth century terraces to north and east, and modern housing to south. Entrance is set back within a small garden enclosure planted with shrubs and paved, all bounded by a steel fence and accessed by a small pedestrain gate.

Roof: Natural slate
Walling: Red brick
Windows: 1/1 timber sash
RWG: Cast-iron

Historical information

The Irish Builder records that construction of the convent originally began in 1879 and was completed by 1880. The convent was designed by Alexander McAlister (1821-1897), one of the leading Catholic Architects in Victorian Belfast who also designed St. Malachy’s School on Oxford Street and St. Matthews Parish Church in Ballymacarrett (HB26/08/007); the builders contracted to carry out construction of the convent were J & J Guiler who operated out of offices on Great Victoria Street at that time (Irish Builder Vol 21. 1 September 1879, p. 274; Larmour, p. 47). The Belfast Street Directories record that the convent house was occupied by the Sisters of the Convent of Mercy and indicate that the adjoining National School (HB26/30/024A), also administered by the Sisters of Mercy, had been opened by 1880 (Belfast Street Directories).

By 1901 the convent had been renamed St. Joseph’s Convent of Mercy at which time Sister Mary Genevieve was recorded as the Mother Superior (Ulster Towns Directory – 1901). The Census Building Return of that year described the convent and adjoining schoolhouse as a 1st class building which consisted of 14 rooms, although by 1911 20 rooms were recorded. From 1907 to 1918 the Ulster Towns Directory recorded that the Sisters of Mercy in Sussex Place were led by Sister Mary Frances Kirwan who was their Mother Superior (Ulster Towns Directory – 1907; 1908; 1910; 1918).

The Annual Revisions initially valued the convent at £40 in 1879; this was maintained until 1905 when the value had increased to £65 (Cromac was first valued separately from the rest of Belfast in that year). The convent chapel was recorded separately from the rest of the building from c. 1905 when it was valued at £18; neither the value of the convent or its chapel was altered by the end of the Annual Revisions in 1930. The next valuation took place in 1935 under the first general revaluation of property in Northern Ireland at which time the value of the convent was recalculated at £130. The convent and the adjoining school luckily escaped major damage during the Belfast Blitz in the spring of 1941 (the Markets area sustained heavy damage during the Luftwaffe raid on the nearby shipyards). The convent was revalued a decade after the end of the Second World War in 1956 at which time its value had increased to £190; however, this was reduced under the 1957 Rent and Valuation Act to £152 at which it remained until the end of the second general revaluation in 1972.

Patton records that the Sisters of Mercy originated in Dublin and arrived in Belfast in 1854, establishing a girl’s school at No. 15 Hamilton Street in 1858. Construction of the adjoining National School was funded by Matthew Bowen, proprietor of the Royal Hotel in Donegall Place, after whom the National School gained its original name, the Bowen School for Young Ladies (Patton, p. 307). Larmour states that the redbrick schoolhouse was designed by Timothy Hevey (1846-1878) and opened in 1878; this schoolhouse was run by the Nun’s of the Convent until its closure (Larmour, p. 47; DIA).

Sister Marie Duddy records that the Sisters of Mercy resided in a rented house in Alfred Street prior to the construction of the convent house; the foundation stone of the convent was laid in July of 1879; the convent opened on 19th March 1880 and was named St. Joseph’s in honour of the saint whose feast day it was. In an interesting aside the Architect, Alexander McAlister, was a devout Catholic and two of his daughters later joined the convent of the Sisters of Mercy although it is not known whether they were based at Sussex Place. The Sisters of Mercy continued to occupy the site until the late 1960s, however by that time their numbers had declined to the stage that only two nuns resided in the building in 1969. In that year a decision was made to close the convent for a trial period during the summer when the school was not used; the remaining nuns were relocated to a convent on the Crumlin Road but they continued to teach in the schoolhouse, travelling to the markets area on a daily basis. The Sisters of Mercy were not to return to the convent in Sussex Place;an outbreak of civil unrest resulted in a decline in the numbers of children attending St. Joseph’s School and it was not until 1983 that the convent was reoccupied by the Good Shepherd Sisters (Duddy).

Larmour’s illustrated guide of Belfast includes an illustration of both the convent and the adjoining school which shows that the front garden of the convent was originally enclosed behind a brick wall, however this was removed sometime before the First Survey of the buildings in 1988. In 2008 the Ulster Architectural Heritage Society included St. Malachy’s School and Convent in a list of buildings at risk in Belfast, noting that the pair ‘forms part of an important grouping in the Linen Conservation Area, helping to retain a distinctive sense of place.’ The writer noted that the former National School had been acquired in 2006 by the Belfast Buildings Preservation Trust who carried out holding repairs on the declining school, and recorded that the Trust intended to restore the building for new uses; since that time the school has been utilised as a boxing club, however the convent continues to lie vacant (Buildings at Risk, p. 49).

References

Primary Sources
1. PRONI OS/6/1/61/2 – Second Edition Ordnance Survey Map 1858
2. PRONI OS/6/1/61/3 – Fourth Edition Ordnance Survey Map 1901-02
3. PRONI OS/6/1/61/4 – Fourth Edition Ordnance Survey Map 1931
4. PRONI OS/6/1/61/5 – Fifth Edition Ordnance Survey Map 1938
5. PRONI VAL/12/B/43/A/1 - Annual Revisions 1863-1881
6. PRONI VAL/12/B/43/A/24 - Annual Revisions 1882-1896
7. PRONI VAL/12/B/43/A/35 - Annual Revisions 1897-1905
8. PRONI VAL/12/B/43/P/4 - Annual Revisions 1906-1915
9. PRONI VAL/12/B/43/P/8 - Annual Revisions 1915-1930
10. PRONI VAL/3/B/3/22 – First General Revaluation of Northern Ireland 1935
11. PRONI VAL/4/B/7/52 – Second General Revaluation of Northern Ireland 1956-1972
12. Irish Builder Vol. 21, 1 September 1879
13. Ulster Towns Directory (1880; 1901; 1907; 1908; 1910; 1918)
14. Census of Ireland (1901; 1911)

Secondary Sources
1. ‘Buildings at Risk: Vol. 8’ Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 2008
2. Brett, C. E. B; McKinstry, TR. J., ‘Survey and recommendations for the Joy Street and Hamilton Street District of Belfast’ Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1971.
3. Duddy, M., ‘The call of the north: A history of the Sisters of Mercy’ Belfast: Ulster Historical Foundation, 2010.
4. Larmour, P., ‘Belfast: An illustrated architectural guide’ Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1987.
5. Patton, M., ‘Central Belfast: An historical gazetteer’ Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1993.
6. First Survey Record – HB26/30/024 (1988)

Online Resources
1. Dictionary of Irish Architects - http://www.dia.ie

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
J. Setting
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

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

Evaluation

A symmetrical three-storey three-bay former convent building with attached schoolhouse (see HB26/30/024B), built c.1880 to designs by Alexander McAlister, two years after the National School. The building retains a large proportion of original fabric, having had no change of use since the building ceased to function as a religious house in recent years. In relatively plain Venetian Gothic style, enlivened by modest stone detailing, the building is prominently located on a corner site. It is a significant building, adding to the ecclesiastical character of this part of Belfast city, which is dominated by the nearby St Malachy's church. Of social importance as a former religious house, and representing social and cultural interest in the Markets area. It has group value with the adjacent former National School (HB26.30.024B).

General comments

The building has no street number. Renumbered from HB26/30/024.