Lancaster Street School

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Detached school building set back on the west side of Lancaster Street. The original building of 1907, by Blackwood and Jury is primarily a two storey building with a three storey wing, in Arts and Crafts style; the 1932 addition designed by R.S. Wilshere is single storey.

Roof to the 1908 building is natural slate in three pitches, raised copings are stone; the 1932 building has a half hipped roof, clerestory windows over a flat roof behind a parapet to the north. Brick chimneys. Gutters and rainwater downpipes are metal, some downpipes and hoppers are original cast iron, some are replacements. Walls are red brick in English Garden Wall bonding with brick pilasters; cast concrete plinth, openings, moulded eaves and string courses. The windows are generally flat lintelled with Diocletian and Palladian windows to the first floor; all openings in the 1907 building have concrete mullions. Windows to the two storey building are original timber framed with lead glazed casements (some original glass); the windows to the single storey addition are generally timber replacements. The doors are replacements.

The front north elevation to the 1907 building has three gables, the one to the north projecting forward; the 1932 addition extends to the south set slightly forward from the 1907 building. The central gable houses the main entrance with a concrete surround: segmentally arched canopy with Art Nouveau carving to soffit, splayed reveals with four pane window to the left, replacement door has 3 pane leaded over light; on the first floor, centred over the entrance, is a Palladian window. The east gable is framed by brick piers, it has a large bi-partite Diocletian window with an exaggerated keystone; centred to the ground floor are two tripartite windows. The west gable has a central bipartite window to the third floor; the ground floor projects slightly with continuous cornice and houses a four sectioned window and recessed entrance door to the west. The 1908 building has four windows with a central door.

The side east elevation is four windows (tripartite) wide, where it is abutted by the 1932 building a door from the first floor gives access to a metal fire escape stair; the single storey gable is blank.

The rear south elevation of the 1907 building has three main gables, the one to the north is set far back with a two storey pitched wing and a single storey flat roofed extension in front. The ground floor of the main two gables has multi-paned windows (rendered surrounds) full width between the brick pilasters; the east gable has a Diocletian window matching that on the north elevation; the central gable has a tripartite window; the north gable has bipartite windows on each floor. The 1932 building has two large multi-paned screens incorporating doors.

The side north elevation has two bi-partite windows to ground floor and one to first floor.

Setting

Lancaster school sits back slightly from south side of Lancaster Street, facing down Thomas Street, a residential area of new houses; the small rear school yard backs on to commercial land. The front boundary is a new wall of red brick with metal vehicular gates.

Roof: natural slate
Walls: brick
Windows: leaded/timber
RWGs: cast iron.

Historical information

Lancaster Street Public Elementary School, a redbrick Edwardian schoolhouse, was constructed between 1906-07 to designs by Blackwood & Jury and was originally a Ladies Industrial School. An architectural partnership formed in c. 1901 by William Blackwood and Percy Morgan Jury, Blackwood & Jury practised under this name until 1973 making the Lancaster Street School one of the firm’s earlier contracts. The Irish Builder records that the Trustees of the Ladies Industrial School commissioned the erection of the schoolhouse and the adjoining matron’s residence which cost a total of £3,000 to construct; when completed, the schoolhouse was able to accommodate 115 pupils (Irish Builder, p. 928; Dictionary of Irish Architects).

The third edition of the Ordnance Survey map (1901-02) shows that the Ladies Industrial School replaced the much larger Lancastrian School that was constructed in 1811 (Belfast Street Directory – 1819). The completed school was originally valued at £115 in the Annual Revisions which noted that the school ground was leased from the Earl of Shaftsbury. In 1908 the matron of the girl’s school was a Ms. Margaret Roberts who resided in the adjoining teachers dwelling. The School Inspectors report recorded that during the tumultuous riots of 1922, the Lancaster Street School ‘suffered during the year on account of the civil disturbances in the neighbourhood;’ the junction between Lancaster Street and York Street was a common site of riots dating back to the 1880s (Hepburn). The school continued to operate as the Ladies Industrial School until 1932; by the cancellation of the Annual Revisions in 1930 the value of the school remained at £115.

In 1932 the former Industrial School was converted into a Public Elementary School by Reginald Sharman Wilshere (1888-1961), a Belfast based English architect who was appointed architect to the Belfast Corporation Education Committee in 1926 and designed 26 new schools for the Corporation 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.’ As part of Wilshere’s conversion, the single-storey south-east extension was added to the building (Irish Builder, p. 696; Dictionary of Irish Architects).

Under the First General Revaluation of property in Northern Ireland the value of the newly converted Public Elementary School had been increased to £190. The school survived the heavy bombardment of Belfast’s city centre and dock area during the Second World War and in the 1950s the schoolhouse was increased in value to £340 at which it remained by the end of the second revaluation in 1972. The current edition of the Ordnance Survey maps (1959-60), records that in c. 1960 the main school building was also utilised as a Government Office, whilst the adjoining single-storey extension was used as a nursery school.

Patton states that Lancaster Street was developed in the early 19th century, although none of the current buildings on the street date from that period. The first schoolhouse on the current site was the Lancastrian School established in 1811 at a cost of £1,954 ‘to provide education on the principles laid down by the Quaker Joseph Lancaster;’ the former school accommodated over 1,200 pupils and stood at the site until being demolished in c. 1900 to make way for the erection of the Ladies Industrial School in 1906-07. As an industrial school, the Lancaster Street schoolhouse educated young ladies in household skills such as ‘plain sewing, mending, darning, knitting, washing, ironing and housemaids work.’ The former Ladies Industrial School was listed in 1993; in the same year Patton described the schoolhouse in the following terms: ‘Gabled Laganvale redbrick building with cast concrete dressings to mullioned windows, with Diocletian and Palladian windows near the entry, and gables with merlon apexes.’ The First Survey Image (1987) shows that the original rubble stone wall and entrance arch, which Patton suggests may have dated from the earlier Lancastrian School, has been demolished and replaced with modern iron railings and gates (Patton, pp 210-11).

The former Ladies Industrial School continues in educational use and is currently occupied by Bunscoil Mhic Reachtain, an Irish Language School; the site has been continuously utilised as a site for local education for over 200 years whilst the current building is also notable as the sole surviving structure on Lancaster Street to predate the Thomas Street redevelopment of the late-20th century.

References

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/12/B/43/C/17-44 – Annual Revisions 1897-1930
5. PRONI VAL/3/B/3/14 – First General Revaluation of Northern Ireland 1935
6. PRONI VAL/4/B/7/42 – Second General Revaluation of Northern Ireland 1956-72
7. PRONI ED/14/G/9 – School Inspector’s Report c. 1922
8. Irish Builder, Vol. 48 (17 Nov 1906); Vol. 74 (30 Jul 1932)
9. Belfast Street Directories (1819-1918)
10. First Survey Image – HB26/50/229 (1987)
11. First Survey Record – HB26/50/229 (1992)
12. Ordnance Survey map 130-13NE (1959-60)

Secondary Sources

1. Hepburn, A. C., ‘A past apart: Studies in the history of Catholic Belfast 1850-1950’ Belfast: Ulster Historical Foundation, 1996.
2. Larmour, P., ‘Belfast: An illustrated architectural guide’ Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1987.
3. Patton, M., ‘Central Belfast: An historical gazetteer’ Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1993

Online Resources

1. Dictionary of Irish Architects - http://www.dia.ie
2. School Website - http://www.bunscoilmhicreachtain.com/

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
H-. Alterations detracting from building
H+. Alterations enhancing the building
I. Quality and survival of Interior
J. Setting

Criteria for listing: historic interest

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

Evaluation

A detached school building on the south side of Lancaster Street built in 1907 to designs by Blackwood and Jury, with the 1932 extension designed by R.S. Wilshere. This building replaced the original 1811 Lancastrian School and is a significant example of the industrial heritage of Belfast. Much historic fabric and detailing survive and the style is unusual. The building has a strong form in a free Arts and Crafts style with some Art Nouveau decoration. The history of the site is noteworthy and it is a good example of the type and of the work of architects of note.

General comments

R, S & T to be added when available