Seaview Primary School

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A two-storey red brick complex in modern style with Art Deco detailing dating from 1932 to designs by the Belfast Corporation Education Committee architect R.S. Wilshere and constructed by the local building firm J. & R.W. Taggart. Originally an L-shaped plan consisting of the N and E wings, the complex has now developed to consist of two-storey hipped roof and single storey flat roof buildings arranged around a quadrangle.
Seaview Primary School is located at the corner of Seabourne Parade and Seaview Drive. The former gate lodge to the school (HB26.46.025 B) is situated to the SW corner of the site facing Seabourne parade.

Hipped natural slate roof with angled black-clay hip tiles and raised parapet to N and E wings. Flat roofs with raised parapets and felt roof covering. Rustic red brick walling laid to English garden-wall bond on projecting plinth. Cast iron decorated hoppers discharging to circular downpipes. Square-headed window openings with painted concrete cills and surrounds having replacement uPVC casement windows (unless otherwise noted).

Principal elevation:
The symmetrical principal elevation faces E and consists of a two-storey hipped roof five-bay wide building flanked by single-storey flat-roofed buildings to N and S ends. Round arched door opening formed in five concentric brick headers to central bay with unequal double-leaf timber doors, with chevron detail, and vertical paned fanlight is flanked by square-headed windows. Six tall narrow windows to central bay at FF and to all remaining structural bays at GF and FF levels. Stack bonded brick mullions between slender window openings. Cast iron hoppers and downpipes between each bay. The single storey buildings have square-headed double leaf timber doors opening onto concrete steps and six window openings. FF elevation of two storey flat roof gable of side wings visible to N and S sides of E elevation, having six windows with banded surround.

South elevation:
The S elevation consists of a single storey flat-roofed bay to E end, two-storey flat-roofed bay immediately to W and a two-storey hipped-roof ten-bay wide building; a further two storey flat-roofed bay to W and a single storey flat-roofed five-bay wide building to W end. Six grouped windows to E bay. Windows with continuous cills and lintels to all 10 bays of hipped roof brick. A square-headed door opening to next bay having a double-leaf timber door with cantilevered concrete canopy opening onto a paved platform with ramp and steps. Tall window to stairwell above. Five windows with continuous cills and lintels to single-storey building to W; these are the original Crittal windows.

West elevation:
The W elevation consists of a two-storey hipped roof five-bay wide building to centre, flanked by symmetrical single-storey flat roofed three-bay wide buildings and single storey flat-roofed single bays to E and S ends. The central building has a single storey three-sided five-bay outshot with square-headed door openings to canted side bays having modern flush doors. Porthole window with painted concrete surround adjacent to outshot on both sides. Large paned windows to FF. Square-headed door opening to centre of the three-bay building to each side, having double-leaf flush doors. Large opening to buildings to S and N ends. Four windows to N end and roller shutter surface mounted to external wall over four windows to S side.

North elevation:
The N elevation consists of a single storey flat-roofed bay to E end, a two-storey hipped roof seven-bay wide building in the middle and a single storey flat-roofed eight-bay wide part to W end. Six grouped windows to E bay. Round-arched door opening to central bay of the two-storey building having a square-headed timber door with fanlight and side-lights. The door is flanked by round-arched window openings having recessed red brick aprons. Shallow brick piers flank the set of five arches, with the latter formed in four concentric rows of brick headers. Nineteen windows to FF grouped in a ribbon formation with painted concrete surround. E and W ends have small windows to GF with decorative metal grilles. Five-part corner window to FF to W corner.

Setting:
The complex is surrounded by tarmaced pathways, lawned and tarmaced playing fields to E and tarmaced parking to N and W. The site is enclosed by dwarf red brick walling with concrete coping topped by simple metal railings of square section. Red brick walling to S, topped by tall metal fence. Painted metal gates in Art-Deco style. Double gates to E and W supported on red brick piers with moulded stone coping. Double gates to NW and S supported on square-section metal piers. Plain single gate to SE and W.

The quadrangle is divided into two parts, both paved.

Seaview Primary School is located within its own grounds to the corner of Seabourne Parade and Seaview Drive with a generous expanse of lawn to the E frontage. The former gate lodge to the school (HB26.46.025 B) is situated to the SW corner of the site facing Seabourne parade.

Materials
Roof: Natural slate
RWG: Cast iron
Walling: Rustic red brick
Windows: uPVC casements with some original steel windows to rear/sides

Historical information

Seaview Primary School, a public elementary and nursery school located at the corner of Seabourne Parade and Seaview Drive, was constructed in 1932-34. Following the establishment of the Belfast Education Committee (formed after the Partition of Ireland by the 1923 Education Act) a large number of new modern public elementary schools were established throughout Belfast replacing the inadequate church and national schools that previously predominated. In 1932 the Belfast Education Committee applied for a loan of £19,323 to meet the cost of erecting a new public elementary school on the site of the former Seaview House. Following the demolition of the house in the early-20th century, housing was developed on the site of its former grounds from 1927-28. This housing project was known as the Seaview Villa Colony. The fourth edition Ordnance Survey map (1931) records that the current lattice of terraced streets and houses had been largely completed by the early 1930s. The development of a new housing district and the growth of the local population necessitated the construction of a new public elementary school which was designed by the committee’s architect Reginald Sharman Wilshere.

A Belfast-based English planner, Wilshere (1888-1961) was appointed architect to the Belfast Corporation Education Committee in 1926 and designed 26 new schools in the city before the outbreak of the Second World War. The Irish Builder wrote 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.’ In 1932 the Belfast Newsletter included a quote by Wilshere who stated that ‘every one of [my schools] has something distinctive about it architecturally, though all follow the same line in planning, and in that respect are in conformity with the best modern practice.’ Wilshire’s typical technique was to construct large schools along quadrangles with corridors open to the air and Larmour states that ‘these were the first modern schools to be built anywhere in Ireland. In regards appearance they range from the Neo-Georgian to the outright modernistic’ (Irish Builder, pp 1089-1091; Larmour, p.84).

The First Survey of the school records that Seaview Public Elementary School was designed by Wilshere in February 1932. The school at Seaview is a typical Wilshere design and was described in its Listing File in the following terms: 'An extensive two-storey building in rustic brick with reconstituted stone dressings with hipped slated roofs behind parapets. Designed in a modern style that shows Dutch influence (Wilshere was influenced by the work of Dutch modernist architect Willem Marinus Dudok (1884-1974). It exhibits such characteristic features as long horizontal strips of windows, corner glazing, broad round-arched openings and chevron motifs in metal window grills and wooden door panelling. The various sets of gates display Art Deco patterning in flat ironwork. The school is a stylist display of modern brickwork and makes a fine architectural centrepiece for the housing estate in which it is set’ (Listing File).
The school was constructed by J. & R. W. Taggart, a local building firm. The fifth edition Ordnance Survey map (1938) records that only the north and eastern blocks of the current school had been constructed in in 1932-34 (along with the adjoining two-storey caretaker’s house – see HB26/46/025B). The main entrance to the school was located on the eastern side of the school and it was not until 1953 that the two-storey Nursery block on the west and south sides was erected. Under the First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936-57) the total rateable value of the uncompleted school was set at £480. This was increased to £880 in 1953 after the Nursery block had been constructed. By the end of the Second Revaluation (1956-72) the rateable value of the school had been increased to £1,536.

Seaview Primary School was listed in 1994. The NIEA HB Records note that the height of the iron railings curtailing the school were raised in 2004 whilst a two-storey modern extension within the courtyard of the school was added in 2008 to provide a lift for pupils. In 2010 the front elevation of the school was altered when a number of its timber frame windows were replaced. In 2011 the interior of the school was remodelled (NIEA HB Records).

Resources

Primary Sources
1. PRONI OS/6/1/61/3 – Third Edition Ordnance Survey Map (1901-02)
2. PRONI OS/6/1/61/4 – Fourth Edition Ordnance Survey Map (1931)
3. PRONI OS/6/1/61/5 – Fifth Edition Ordnance Survey Map (1938)
4. PRONI VAL/3/C/3/12- First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936-72)
5. PRONI VAL/4/B/7/13 - Second General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1956-72)
6. PRONI ED/13/1/1128 – Application by the Belfast Education Authority (1932)
7. Belfast Newsletter (25 Apr 1932; 13 Aug 1932)
8. Ulster Town Directories (1918-1943)
9. First Survey Record – HB26/46/025 (1991)
10. Listing File – HB26/46/025
11. NIEA HB Records – HB26/46/025

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

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
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
Y. Social, Cultural or Economic Importance
X. Local Interest
R. Age
S. Authenticity
T. Historic Importance

Evaluation

Two-storey red brick complex with Art Deco detailing dating from 1932 to designs by the Belfast Corporation Education Committee architect R.S. Wilshere as one of a number of new and modern public elementary schools developed throughout Belfast following the establishment of the Belfast Education Committee by the 1923 Education Act. The school, constructed by the local building firm J. & R.W. Taggart, was originally an L-shaped plan consisting of the N and E wings. The complex has now developed to consist of two-storey hipped roof and single storey flat roof buildings arranged around a quadrangle that retains the intended emphasis on well-being and a connection to the outdoors. It is a skilful essay in modernism with clear reference to Dudok and the Amsterdam School in the modern brick detailing applied to spandrels, mullions, apron panels and arched headers. The use of horizontal ribbon and vertical slit windows in simple repetition alongside the occasional corner window demonstrate Wilshere's proficiency at applying proportion and symmetry to provide a coherent building. Despite the addition of later extensions and the enclosure of cloistered openings, the building has retained its balance of well-lit spaces employed alongside an economical use of materials and careful use of Art Deco motifs. The retention of most original fabric both internally and externally make this building a fine and accomplished example of its type.
The former gate lodge to the school (HB26.46.025 B), with which it has group value, is situated to the SW corner of the site facing Seabourne parade. It also has group value with the other listed Wilshere schools in Belfast. The Art Deco gate screens to all four entrances are intact and the dwarf boundary wall with simpler railings over are retained to the N and E boundaries - all add to the school's interest.