Belfast School of Music

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A three-storey modernist school built 1934-36 to the designs of Reginald S. Wilshere; u-shaped floor plan with enclosed yard. Located on the south side of Donegall Pass; south of the city centre, east of Shaftsbury Square.

Flat roofed (synthetic rubber finish) with parapets; concrete coping stones. Cast-iron rainwater goods. Red-brick walling laid to English garden wall bond with moulded pre-cast concrete plinth. Steel-framed Crittall windows and timber famed casement windows with horizontal glazing bars; pre-cast concrete cills and surrounds; metal grilles to ground floor glazing. Timber door with chevron mouldings; pre-cast concrete step-moulded surrounds.

The principal elevation faces north and is symmetrically arranged. The front door is centrally located and flanked at either side by sexpartite windows divided by mullions with horizontal glazing bars. Geometrical horizontal ventilation grille over the front door. Projecting concrete Juliette balcony with alternating projecting brick course balustrade, surmounted by concrete coping. Three unbroken vertical narrow glazed strips over two floors, rising from behind the balcony. The glazing strips separated by two projected single-brick wide, plain pilasters; flanked by 2 ½ brick wide pilasters; all terminated with coping blocks. Modern signage located to the left. Single brick deep projection to the far left.

The east elevation is asymmetrically arranged. Each floor comprising the same fenestration arrangement comprising a single horizontal window to the left, with a single large Crittall window extending from left-of-centre to the far right; continuous cills and heads.

The rear elevation faces south and is asymmetrically arranged. Secondary door located centrally at ground floor with two diminutive windows to the left. Single large window to the right. Projecting balconies matching principal elevation located left of centre to first and second floor; single window to balcony and tripartite landing window to the left; large Crittall windows to the right (partially infilled to the first floor). Parapet steps up by approximately 1m to the left.

The west elevation encloses the courtyard to three sides. The west elevation is painted render and comprises uniformly arranged timber bi-partite casement windows with horizontal glazing bars; replacement door centred on ground floor; horizontal over lights between ground and first floor. The north and south faces are painted render with horizontal window strips to each floor; surmounted by access stairs to the roof terrace.

Setting:

The school sits prominently at the junction of Donegall Pass and Oak Street. Small paved area to the entrance bounded by metal railings, piers and gates. The west elevation is partially abutted by three storey housing. Opposite the school is a Victorian terrace (HB26/30/083 A-G) and the former School of Music annex block, beyond which is largely two and two-and-a-half-storey residential.

Roofing: Synthetic
Walling: Red brick
Windows: Metal & timber frame casement
RWG: Cast-iron

Historical information

The present building was constructed as the McQuiston Public Elementary School in 1934-6 to designs by R S Wilshere of Belfast Corporation Education Committee. The contractor was Thomas McKee and Sons. The new school building replaced the McQuiston National School, named after Presbyterian merchant and benefactor W J McQuiston, which had occupied the site from 1869. (www.dia.ie; Patton) The building first appears on the seventh edition OS map of 1938 and is entered into valuation records in 1937 at a valuation of £275. (First General Revaluation)

According to Larmour, Wilshere, who arrived in Belfast from Essex in 1926 to take up his post as architect to 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. On sites which were cramped, such as the Donegall Pass site, it was sometimes necessary to make provision for the playground on the roof. (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) In 1930 Wilshere was awarded the first RIBA Ulster Architecture Medal for his school at Strandtown. The McQuiston Memorial School has been seen as demonstrating the influence of Dudok on Wilshere’s work, with its weightiness and interplay of verticals and horizontals, combined with the use of large blank areas of brickwork. (Evans)

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 1950s the City of Belfast appointed a Music Adviser, Douglas Dawn, who inaugurated the City of Belfast Youth Orchestra in 1955. In 1965 the subsequent holder of the post of Music Adviser, Leonard Pugh opened the City of Belfast School of Music in the current building. The School of Music began with three full-time teachers and thirty part-time tutors who travelled to schools as well as providing individual tuition in the evenings. There are now 16 full-time teachers and two hundred part-time tutors who provide music tuition to around 3,000 young people. Among the many celebrated former pupils are Sir James Galway, Professor David Strange, Kenneth Montgomery, Angela Feeney, Barry Douglas, Kevin Mallon, Peter Corry and Katie Melua. (www.cbsm.org.uk) The School moved to new premises in Fortwilliam Park, North Belfast in 2009 and their former building at Donegall Pass is currently vacant.

References:

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/1/61 – Seventh Edition OS map (1938)
2. PRONI VAL/3/C/3/7 – First General Revaluation 1936-57

Secondary Sources

1. Collins, P “Conservation Statement Glenwood and Strandtown Schools- Reginald Sharman Wilshere Belfast Schools’ Architect”
2. Evans, D “An Introduction to Modern Ulster Architecture” Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1977
3. Larmour, Paul “Belfast – An Illustrated Architectural Guide” Belfast: Friar’s Bush press, 1987
4. Patton, M “Central Belfast: An Historical Gazetteer” Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1993
5. www.cbsm.org.uk – City of Belfast School of Music website
6. www.dia.ie – Dictionary of Irish Architects online

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
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 three-storey modernist former school built 1934-36 to the designs of architect Reginald S. Wilshere, located on Donegall Pass, opposite a Victorian terrace (HB26.30.083). Of high architectural interest, the buildings appearance is exemplified by the distinctive style and proportions of this time. The external fabric and character has remained substantially unaltered. Internally, the layout retains the general floor plan and partially intact early twentieth-century interior. Although no longer functioning as a School of Music, the school provided an important social role within the local area, having replaced an earlier national school. This school has group value with the other listed schools designed by Wilshere, a renowned designer of many of the Belfast schools erected during this period, including Nettlefield (HB26/06/011), Avoniel (HB26/06/010) and Blythestreet (HB26/29/037). Of significant social interest, the building is also of historical and architectural interest, both locally and in the wider context of Northern Ireland.