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

A Venetian Gothic-Revival multi-bay two-storey former national school, now functioning as a public library. The building was constructed in two principal stages: the main block in 1862 to plans by Lanyon, Lynn and Lanyon (with a datestone recording this date), followed by the addition of a clock tower and adjoining hall in 1877. Further additions date from around 1870 and 1902. The building is located to the south of High Street in the centre of Holywood.

The main block of 1862 is square on plan with a square tower, abutted by an entrance porch and single-storey wing dating from around 1870. To the east stands the clock tower, stair tower and adjoining hall of 1877, in turn abutted by a two-storey gabled return of 1908 designed by Young and Mackenzie. The pitched natural slate roof features fish-scale bands and terracotta ridge tiles with raised stone verges. The towers have pyramidical roofs; the west tower carries blue and black ridge tiles and a finial, whilst the taller clock tower is topped with a weathervane. The west return has a hipped natural slate roof with terracotta ridge tiles. Cast-iron ogee rainwater goods sit on sandstone eaves.

The walls are constructed in Flemish-bonded polychromatic brick in pale yellow with strips of red and black. The north elevation displays decorative diamond motifs, with sandstone string-course and stone trim throughout. Brick buttresses with sandstone offsets reinforce all sides at ground-floor level.

The windows are varied in design, featuring pointed and cusped-headed timber frames combining fixed lights and casements. Ground-floor windows have sandstone heads (red sandstone in the 1877 section), whilst second-floor windows are adorned with decorative polychromatic brickwork relieving arches. All windows have chamfered stone sills.

The principal elevation faces north, comprising a gable and projecting tower to the left, the main block with entrance tower, and a single-storey wing set back to the right. A string-course carries the inscription "Holywood National Schools / Built by Robert Sullivan LLD 1862". The entrance bay is accessed up a double flight of five stone steps, with a timber-sheeted door in a cusped arch surround and a slender first-floor window. To the right are two gabled bays; the left gabled bay has a paired window to each floor, whilst the right bay contains two pairs of ground-floor windows with triple cusped lancets with rosettes overhead. The entrance tower has a timber-sheeted door accessed by two stone steps, with double cusped lancets to the first floor surmounted by a centred oval aperture 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 displays double lancets to both floors on its exposed sections to west and east; only the south face has a blank roundel. A yellow brick box-band frieze runs to all sides. The gabled bay to the left has triple lancets to each floor, the first-floor lancets featuring rosettes over Gothic tracery formations. The east elevation of the 1877 extension is blank. Behind it, the main block's elevation is double-pile with paired first-floor windows in gables. The north gable is abutted at front by the stair tower in the return angle with the clock tower to its 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 displays 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 return to the east is seven windows wide; a slightly recessed bay to the north (1877) is partially concealed, abutted by the stair tower and single-storey linking bay. The 1902 return is abutted to the south by a single-storey modern brick extension with paired timber doors and a first-floor fire exit within its gable.

The single-storey wing to the left, dating from around 1870, is exposed to both east and west, its gable being blank. The exposed sections to east and west span three sets of paired windows; these are square-headed with ashlar sandstone lintels and sills. The west section includes a gabled bay (dating from 1862) containing paired windows and a central projecting porch opening to the north with a diminutive window to the west. Trefoil moulding adorns the gable, and skylights pierce the roof. The west elevation of the main block is abutted to the right by an entrance porch with 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 at ground floor and a first-floor window as described in the north elevation.

The building is prominently situated in the centre of Main Street in Holywood town centre and forms an integral part of the streetscape. It is surrounded to the west and south by red-brick terraced housing, with a tarmacadam car-park to the south accessed from Downshire Road to the west via modern cast-iron gates. The building is enclosed to the south and west by a high basalt rubble-stone wall.