Public Library, (Former Lower Sullivan School), High Street, HOLYWOOD, CO. DOWN

Former Lower Sullivan School, now Public Library, High Street, Holywood, County Down. Built 1862 with additions of c.1870, 1877, and 1902.

This is a Venetian Gothic Revival polychromatic brick former national school, now in use as a public library and further education centre. It was built in two main stages: the original block in 1862 to plans by Lanyon, Lynn and Lanyon — the most likely individual designer being W.H. Lynn — with a clock tower and adjoining hall added in 1877; further additions followed at c.1870 and 1902. The 1902 additions were designed by Young and Mackenzie. The building is prominently situated to the south of High Street in the centre of Holywood town centre and is an integral part of the streetscape of the town's main thoroughfare.

ARCHITECTURAL OVERVIEW

The building is multi-bay and two storeys throughout the principal block, built in two stages, with later additions creating a complex plan. The roofs are pitched natural slate with fish-scale bands, terracotta ridge tiles, and raised stone verges. The towers have pyramidal roofs; the west tower has blue/black ridge tiles and a finial, while the taller clock tower carries a weathervane. The west return has a hipped natural slate roof with terracotta ridge tiles. Rainwater goods are cast-iron ogee profiles carried on sandstone eaves.

The walling is Flemish-bonded polychromatic brick in pale yellow with strips of red and black brick, with decorative diamond motifs to the north elevation. Sandstone string-courses and stone trim are used throughout. Brick buttresses with sandstone offsets run to all sides at ground floor level. Windows are a variety of pointed and cusped-headed timber-framed types — a mix of fixed lights and casements — with sandstone heads at ground floor (red sandstone in the 1877 section) and decorative polychromatic brickwork relieving arches at second floor; all have chamfered stone sills.

PRINCIPAL (NORTH) ELEVATION

The principal elevation faces north and comprises a gable with projecting tower to the left, the main block with an entrance tower, and a single-storey wing set back to the right. A stone string-course carries the inscription: "Holywood National Schools / Built by Robert Sullivan LLD 1862."

The main block reads from left to right as follows: an entrance bay accessed up a double flight of five stone steps, with a timber-sheeted door in a cusped arch surround and a slender window to the first floor; to the right are a pair of gabled bays — the left-hand gabled bay has a paired window to each floor, while the right-hand bay has two pairs of windows to the ground floor with triple cusped lancets and rosettes above. The entrance tower has a timber-sheeted door accessed by two stone steps, with double cusped lancets surmounted by a centred oval aperture to the first floor, and a decorative moulded, pierced, and carved frieze.

The 1877 addition to the east comprises a projecting three-stage clock tower with a gabled bay to the east corner. The clock tower has double lancets to both floors; the exposed sections to the west and east carry only the clock faces, while the south face has a blank roundel. A yellow brick box-band frieze runs to all sides. The gabled bay to the left of the clock tower has triple lancets to each floor, those at first floor level incorporating rosettes over Gothic tracery formations.

OTHER ELEVATIONS

The east elevation of the 1877 extension is blank. Behind it, the elevation of the main block is double-pile with paired windows to the first floor gables. The north gable is abutted at the front by the stair tower in the return angle with the clock tower to the north. The south gable is abutted at ground floor by a modern red-brick single-storey linking bay connecting to the 1902 return to the east.

The rear south elevation of the main block has two sets of paired square-headed windows to the right; to the left is a gabled bay with tripartite windows to both floors, abutted by a single-storey porch with a replacement timber door accessed by two concrete slab steps.

The exposed section of the 1877 return to the east is seven windows wide. A slightly recessed bay to the north, partially concealed, abuts the stair tower and the single-storey linking bay. The 1902 return is abutted to the south by a single-storey modern brick extension with paired timber doors. The gable contains a fire exit to the first floor.

The single-storey wing to the left (c.1870) is exposed on both sides; its gable is blank. The exposed sections to east and west are three sets of paired windows wide, with square-headed windows having ashlar sandstone lintels and sills. The west section has a gabled bay to the left (dating from 1862) containing paired windows and a central projecting porch opening to the north, with a diminutive window to the west, trefoil moulding to the gable, and skylights to the roof.

The west elevation of the main block is abutted to the right by the entrance porch, which has a timber-sheeted door opening to the north; above the catslide roof of the porch is a diminutive window. The tower to the left has a deeply recessed cusped arch window to the ground floor, with the first floor window as described on the north elevation.

HISTORICAL CONTEXT

The school was completed in April 1862 at a cost of £2,000, donated entirely by Dr Robert Sullivan (1800–1868), after whom it is named. Sullivan was born in Holywood, the son of a publican, and went on to become one of the most celebrated educationalists of his era. He was educated at the Royal Belfast Academical Institution and Trinity College Dublin. When the national education system was introduced in Ireland, he was appointed an inspector of schools in 1832, and in 1838 became Professor of English Literature at the teacher training college for national schools in Dublin. From 1840 to 1868 he served as professor and superintendent of training and model schools. He was the author of numerous school textbooks used in both England and Ireland, his most important being A Dictionary of the English Language. His best-selling Spelling Book Superseded sold over two million copies.

The contractor for the original building was John Ross of Great George's Street, Belfast. In Griffith's Valuation (1856–64) the building appears as "National School Ho (in progress) and yard," with the notation "in progress" deleted during the lifetime of the valuation and a new valuation of £60 assigned. The building is also shown on the valuation town plan dating from c.1860.

A single-storey infants' school wing was added to the rear at c.1870, following an inspector's report that accommodation for infants was inadequate; this addition is not reflected in the valuation records. According to contemporary accounts, the single-storey wing served as the infants' school, the lower floor was used by boys, and the upper floor by girls — each floor fitted with eight desks accommodating 56 pupils, with three "sittings" taught daily, providing instruction for 168 pupils per floor.

The clock tower and adjoining hall were added in 1877, also at a cost of £2,000, funded from a bequest left by Dr Sullivan. Following this expansion, the original portion became the Lower Sullivan School, for younger pupils, and the newer portion the Upper Sullivan School, corresponding broadly to today's distinction between primary and secondary education. The school first appears on the third edition Ordnance Survey map of 1900–02, captioned "Sullivan School."

In 1902, new laboratories in connection with the Technical Instruction Department were opened. These were designed by Young and Mackenzie, with William Millar as contractor and a cost of approximately £600. They are shown abutting the rear of the upper school on the valuation town plan dating from 1898 to 1916. The upper school was not valued until 1903, when the valuer recorded its plan and dimensions and assigned a value of £35, estimating the construction cost at £1,900. By 1911, the upper school had made an application for exemption as a charitable institution; the valuer noted at that time that there were 23 free places, 17 at one-third rates, and 7 at full rates.

In 1939, the Sullivan Upper School relocated to a new site on the Belfast Road, and its former premises were taken over as a Technical College. The Lower Sullivan School remained in the building until 1954, when a new primary school was built adjacent to the parish church. The building served as a further education centre between 1970 and 1975 and then fell into disuse. Repairs were carried out in 1983–84 by Heritage Repairs Ltd. Full restoration was completed in 1995 by the Southern Education and Library Board, under the supervision of its chief architect, S.K. Savage. The restoration involved the removal of the boundary railings and the remodelling of the interior. The building has been in use as a public library and further education centre since that time.

Among those with historical associations to the building are the naturalist Robert Lloyd Praeger and his sister Sophia Rosamund Praeger, the sculptor and illustrator, both of whom attended the school.

SETTING

Prominently situated in the centre of Holywood town centre, the building is integral to the streetscape of the main thoroughfare. It is surrounded to the west and south by red-brick terraced housing. To the south there is a tarmacadam car park with access from Downshire Road to the west, via modern cast-iron gates. The site is enclosed to the south and west by a high basalt rubble-stone wall.