Cliftonville Primary School

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A two-storey school complex in Art deco style dating from 1937-38 to designs by the Belfast Corporation architect R. S. Wilshere and constructed by Thomas McKee & Sons builders. The complex is built around a central quadrangle with single storey flat-roofed extensions to NW and NE. Cliftonville primary school currently occupies the majority of the building with the Educational Welfare Offices and D.O.E. Road Safety Offices occupying the FF of the W wing. The school complex is located within its own grounds to the N of Cliftonville Road.

Hipped roof with red clay Roman tiles having raised parapets with concrete coping (to S elevation). Hipped roof with red clay tiles with projecting eaves (to E elevations of E and W wings). Flat roofs are felted with raised parapets and concrete coping. Square section chimneystacks with corbelled coping. Decorated cast iron hoppers discharging to cast iron circular downpipes. Rustic red brick walling laid to a variation of the Flemish bond with projecting courses at various heights. Square-headed window openings having timber casements with horizontal glazing bars (unless noted otherwise).

Principal elevation:
The principal elevation faces S and consists of a two-storey flat-roofed bay to W end, a double-height hipped roof bay immediately to E, a recessed three-storey flat-roofed tower and a single storey flat-roofed building with a curving elevation to E end.

Entrance to W end through a square headed door opening having a double leaf modern door and glazed side lights. Cantilevered concrete canopy above. Timber window with top lights to the W of the entrance door and to FF.

Eight-part horizontal band of tall windows to hipped roof bay.

Square-headed door opening to tower having a double-leaf timber panelled door and a concrete cantilevered canopy above. Pair of tall narrow windows extending from FF to SF, separated by curved brick pier.

Four part window to bay to E and four small narrow windows to next bay. The curving elevation, which continues to E, has a horizontal band of windows with horizontal glazing bars.

East elevation:
Single storey flat-roofed curving elevation to S end, single bay immediately to N and long two-storey E wing to N end. A single storey flat-roofed block connects the E wing with a double-height flat-roofed building to E and the later addition of a single-storey flat roofed three-bay extension to NE end.

Square-headed door opening having a double-leaf metal door to bay immediately to N of the curving elevation. Horizontal band of corner windows to next bay to N.

The E wing consists of a long hipped roof block with horizontal bands of curtain glazing with horizontal panes to GF and FF. This is flanked by two-storey flat-roofed bays to both N and S ends having a window opening to GF.

Tall band of windows to double-height building and three-bays of glazed walling to NE extension.

North elevation:
Although there was no access to the rear elevation facing N, it appears that there is a large double-height flat-roofed circular plan building to centre having a tall band of windows, flanked by single storey flat-roofed buildings with curving corners. They connect to single storey flat-roofed extensions to both E and W ends, most of which are later additions.

West elevation:
The W elevation consists of ae long two-storey hipped-roof W wing to N end abutted by single-storey flat-roofed modern extension to its W side. The W elevation of the W wing has full-height windows and glazed doors to GF, a series of oblong windows with decorative metalwork above and a long horizontal band of windows to FF. The elevation is now interrupted by two modern extensions.

The S end of the W elevation appears to be altered with replacement uPVC windows.

Setting:
The school complex is located within its own grounds to N side of Cliftonville Road on a site including a tarmaced parking to S and NW, a tarmaced yard to E and playing fields to N. The central quadrangle is lawned with tarmaced pathways along each side.

The site is enclosed by fencing to N and E, stepped red brick walling to W topped by concrete coping and painted metal railings; metal railings to S.
Gates to S and E consist of modern painted metal railings supported on square section red brick piers with projecting stone plinth and moulded stone coping. An opening to W walling suggests that there used to be another gate there, now blocked.

Materials
Roof: red clay tiles
RWG: cast iron/ some uPVC to W elevation
Walling: rustic red brick
Windows: timber casement windows /some replaced with uPVC casements

Historical information

Cliftonville Integrated Primary School, a two-storey school building located on the Cliftonville Road and arranged around a quadrangle, was constructed in 1937-38. Cliftonville Model Public Elementary School (as it was originally known) originally operated as a Model School. The first Model School in Belfast (a school that acted as a model for all the other schools in the district) was erected on Divis Street on 19th May 1857. The school was burned to the ground in 1922 during the sectarian violence that wracked the city in the aftermath of the partition of Ireland. Following partition, responsibility for the administration of education in Northern Ireland was passed to Local Authorities (by means of the 1923 Education Act). The Belfast Education Committee was established to administer existing schools, but also to implement the construction of new schools in Belfast. The committee relocated the Model School to Clifton Lodge on the Cliftonville Road. By the 1930s the building was unable to cope with increasing numbers of pupils and so it was decided to demolish the former dwelling and construct a new school on the same site.

Cliftonville Model Public Elementary School was designed in February 1936 by Reginald Sharman Wilshere (1888-1961), a Belfast-based English architect who had been appointed by the Belfast Education Committee as its chief designer in 1926 and designed 26 schools before the outbreak of the Second World War, The Irish Builder stated that ‘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.’ Wilshere’s technique was to construct large schools along quadrangles with corridors opened to fresh air. Cliftonville Model Public Elementary School was one of Wilshere’s most accomplished modern designs. The First Survey (1993) described the school on the Cliftonville Road as ‘a two-storeyed building in rustic brick laid out around a central quadrangle, designed in a modern style and exhibiting such characteristic details as long horizontal bands of windows with horizontal glazing bars, Art Deco motifs in metal window grilles, and terrace railings and tall slit windows to the entrance tower … this school is a fine example of this architect’s mature work, entirely modern in layout and design’ (First Survey).

Each of Wilshere’s schools incorporates unique aesthetic features. Larmour states that ‘they range from the neo-Georgian to the outright modernistic … there are also hints of modern German, Scandinavian and Dutch work. Most are built in brick with dressings of artificial stone, and roofs covered with Roman tiles, whilst classrooms were frequently finished in varying shades of colour.’ Wilshere’s design for the entrance tower to the school was influenced by the work of Dutch Modernist Architect Willem M. Dudok (1884-1974). Cliftonville Model Public Elementary School’s most interesting feature is the design of its art and housewifery rooms which were semi-circular in plan. Wilshere intended that the semi-circular design of these classrooms would suit ‘demonstrations in one case and the grouping of pupils around a model in the other case. Practically the whole of the circular wall of the art room is a window facing north in order to give a shadowless light for drawing’ (First Survey).

The foundation stone of the new school was laid on 18th June 1937 with Thomas McKee & Sons contacted as the builders. The completed school was opened on 19th October 1938 and was valued at £910 under the First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936-57). The fifth edition Ordnance Survey map (1920-38) depicted the school along its current layout although the eastern wing was not constructed until the mid-20th century. Cliftonville Model Public Elementary School continued to operate as Belfast’s Model School until the 1950s. In 1954 Belfast Model School was split into separate boy’s and girl’s schools under the terms of the 1947 Education Act (Northern Ireland). The two schools were relocated to new schoolhouses on the Ballysillan Road (boy’s school) and off the Oldpark Road (girl’s school). In 1957 the former Model School on the Cliftonville Road was merged with the Antrim Road Baptists, Lynn Memorial, Percy Street and Duncairn Schools to form Cliftonville Infant and Junior Schools. The value of the school was increased to £2,300 as a result of the changes. In 1982 the Infant and Junior Schools were amalgamated to form Cliftonville Primary School. Cliftonville Primary School was listed in 1994 and was granted integrated status in 2008 when it became known as Cliftonville Integrated School.

Resources

Primary Sources
1. PRONI OS/6/1/60/4 – Fourth Edition Ordnance Survey Map (1920-31)
2. PRONI OS/6/1/60/5 – Fifth Edition Ordnance Survey Map (1920-38)
3. PRONI VAL/3/C/3/3- First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936-72)
4. PRONI VAL/4/B/7/5 - Second General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1956-72)
5. Ulster Town Directories (1918-1943)
6. First Survey Record – HB26/42/034 (1993)
7. NIEA HB Records – HB26/42/034

Secondary Sources
1. Larmour, P., ‘Belfast: An illustrated architectural guide’ Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1987.

Online Resources
1. Dictionary of Irish Architects - http://www.dia.ie
2. Cliftonville Integrated Primary School website - http://www.cliftonvilleps.co.uk/history.html

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

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

Criteria for listing: historic interest

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

Evaluation

Cliftonville Integrated Primary School, located on the Cliftonville Road and arranged around a quadrangle, was constructed in 1937-38. Cliftonville Model Public Elementary School (as it was originally known) originally operated as a Model School. The first Model School in Belfast (a school that acted as a model for all the other schools in the district) was erected on Divis Street on 19th May 1857, but was burned to the ground in 1922 during the sectarian violence that wrecked the city in the aftermath of the partition of Ireland. This school, an Art-deco style, two-storey, redbrick complex dating from 1937-38 to designs by the Belfast Corporation Education Committee architect R. Wilshere and constructed by the local building firm Thomas McKee & Sons builders. The complex is built around a central quadrangle with single storey flat-roofed extensions to NW and NE. Despite some loss of original fabric and later additions which compromise the school’s architectural character, it is a fine example of Wilshere’s design, demonstrating his ingenious layout and unique architectural style. It has group value with the other listed Wilshere designed schools in Belfast.