Malvern Primary School

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A symmetrical red-brick modernist primary school built to designs by R.S Wilshere; located in the lower Shankill Estate, to the south side of Forster Street in North Belfast. Quadrangular plan with central courtyard and slightly projecting end bays to north; stairwell bays and two-storey red-brick flat-roof extension to south.

Hipped roman tiled roof with rounded tiles to ridges and hips; flat-roof and parapet to central bay (covering not visible); felt roof and red-brick chimneystack to flat-roof extension at south. Cast-iron ogee rainwater goods on projecting timber eaves with square hoppers to courtyard. Walling is English garden wall-bonded red-brick with moulded eaves course and concrete dressings; concrete string-course to sill level at ground floor and to first floor of central bay; cement render to internal courtyard walls. Windows are a variety of timber sash with horns, some in plain painted reveals with red-brick voussoirs, others (including all stairwell windows) in cement rendered moulded architraves with projecting sills and corniced canopies on scrolled corbel brackets; large multi-paned timber casements to east and west elevations, some arranged in groups of three with cement rendered surrounds, and all having moulded concrete apron panels between floors; all window openings to two-storey extension have projecting concrete sills. Round-headed arched openings to internal courtyard, having six-light timber casements with painted cement render apron panels.

The principal elevation faces north and is symmetrically arranged comprising flat-roof central bay flanked by end bays. Central bay is lower and has narrow multi-paned stairwell window to centre with carved roundel above bearing decorated shield; four square twelve-paned fixed timber windows to first floor and two 12/12 windows to ground floor. Entrance doors to ground floor left and right (accessed by two concrete steps and a concrete ramp respectively), each in pedimented cement rendered doorcases with moulded frame to openings, plain entablature and corniced pediment; wide replacement timber doors with two-paned transom light over left entrance door.

The east elevation has five sets of multi-paned windows arranged in groups of three and divided by brick piers. Far right bay has 6/9 sash window in architrave with corniced canopy, over three narrow 2/2 timber casements at ground floor. Stairwell window to far left bay has moulded apron panel.

The south elevation has central projection from stairwell bay (concealed) and is abutted by the two-storey flat-roof extension. East elevation of extension has three four-paned fixed timber windows to first floor left and right; ground floor with four small openings (inner ones boarded, outer ones have timber vents); modern metal service door in a cement rendered surround to left. West elevation of extension has eight small timber-framed windows at first floor and four boarded window openings at ground floor; to left is a round-headed modern metal entrance door with cement rendered archivolt.

The west elevation has central bay seven windows wide at each floor framed by shallow breakfronts rising above eaves line, having cement rendered eaves bands decorated with swags and tails motif and a narrow window to each floor. Left and right bays each have windows arranged in groups of three (as at east). Stairwell window to far right bay.

Setting:

Situated in the Lower Shankill Estate surrounded by twentieth-century terraced housing and south of the Crumlin Road Court House (HB26/35/006). Enclosed by modern metal railings. Playground to west.

Roof: Hipped Roman tiles
Walling: English garden wall-bonded with concrete dressings
Windows: Variety of timber sash with horns and multi-paned timber casements
RWG: Cast-iron

Historical information

Malvern Primary School (formerly Hemsworth Square school) was built c1932 to designs by Reginald Sharman Wilshere by contractors J Carson & Sons of Belfast (www.dia.ie). The school, initially known as Forster Street Public Elementary School, was valued at £500 in 1935 and is first shown on the seventh edition OS map of 1938.

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 Hemsworth Square school was built on a long, narrow site, replacing rows of terraced housing, and is designed with a quadrangle in the centre allowing for light and ventilation in the classrooms.

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, some being found ‘a direct menace to health and physical development of the children’ and many new schools were required. (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).

Valuer’s notes of the 1930s give a plan of the building showing the 11 classrooms arranged around a central yard. The building remains much as originally intended and could accommodate 578 pupils. When first built, roads ran round the building on three sides and the children made use of a public playground laid out opposite. In recent years, Forster Street has been closed off, giving the children a playground adjacent to the school.

In 1983 Hemsworth Square Primary School was amalgamated with nearby Riddel Memorial to form Malvern Primary School and continues to offer primary education to the local community (www.belb.org.uk)
References

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/1/61/2- First Edition OS Map (1832-33)
2. PRONI OS/6/1/61/3- Second Edition OS Map (1858)
3. PRONI OS/6/1/61/4- Third Edition OS Map (1901-2)
4. PRONI OS/6/1/61/6- Fourth Edition OS Map (1931)
5. PRONI OS/6/1/61/7 – Seventh Edition OS map of 1938
6. PRONI VAL/3/C/3/5- First General Revaluation (1935-57)
7. PRONI VAL/3/D/3/1/B/95 First General Revaluation (1935-57

Secondary Sources

1. Collins, P “Conservation Statement Glenwood and Strandtown Schools- Reginald Sharman Wilshere Belfast Schools’ Architect”
2. Larmour, P “Belfast, An Illustrated Architectural Guide” Belfast: Friar’s Bush Press, 1987
3. www.dia.ie – Dictionary of Irish Architects online
4. www.belb.org.uk

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
H-. Alterations detracting from building
J. Setting

Criteria for listing: historic interest

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

Evaluation

A symmetrical red-brick modernist primary school built c1932 to designs by R S Wilshere. The building is of significant architectural interest as a model of early twentieth-century ideas in planning and facilities in school design, expressing design principles concerned with light, ventilation and circulation. Much historic fabric and detailing survive along with the original floor plan, which is a significant part of the character of the buildings.Also of note is the use of classical elements, which is unusual in these buildings. Of interest also as an example of the work of a prominent local architect, one of many new school buildings designed for the expanding City, and as part of the development of public education in the early/mid Twentieth century.