The Holywood Rudolf Steiner School, 34 Croft Rd, Holywood, County Down, BT18 0PR

The Holywood Rudolf Steiner School

A two-storey, three-bay former house known as Highlands, built circa 1880 and located to the east of Croft Road, Holywood. The building is now in use as a school following its purchase by the Holywood Steiner School in 1976 and official opening in June 1977.

The house is L-shaped on plan, facing southwest. A later two-storey extension and stair tower were added circa 1900 to the southeast. A further perpendicular wing, also to the southeast, was added circa 1920. A modern single-storey flat-roof toilet block has been added to the rear, dating from circa 1970.

The roof is hipped with natural slate and a finial to the top of the tower. Three chimneystacks to the ridgeline have tall clay pots. Cast-iron ogee rainwater goods sit on projecting eaves, with corbelled eaves to the tower. The walling comprises painted roughcast render to the first floor, with a moulded eaves band and moulded string course at mid-level. The ground floor has band rusticated smooth render with a chamfered plinth.

Windows are a variety of 1/1 timber-framed sliding sash and metal casements, though many have been altered and enlarged. The principal southwest elevation is three openings wide. To the right at ground floor is a canted bay. To the centre is a two-storey raised-and-pointed panelled timber door accessed by three stone steps and surmounted by a fanlight with decoratively glazed sidelights. An ashlar sandstone portico with a barrelled moulded canopy is supported by sandstone pilasters and two columns on plinths, connected by a decorative cast-iron bar.

The northwest elevation has two canted bays to the ground floor and a break-front to the centre. The first floor is five openings wide, with a round-headed 1/1 window in a smooth rendered surround with keystone surmounted by a corbelled canopy to the centre. The northeast elevation has two windows to the first floor (the right-hand window is a diminutive replacement) and a canted bay to the right at ground with timber doors accessed by three masonry steps. A tripartite timber mullioned window is positioned to the left. The southeast elevation has windows to ground and first floor at the left and to the first floor at the right, abutted to the centre by the later ranges.

The 1900 addition is adjoined by a three-stage stair tower at the south-east corner, forming a re-entrant angle with the perpendicular 1920s range. The ground floor is fronted by a single storey porch addition surmounted by a steel railing. The stair tower has a large multi-paned timber window to the first stage, surmounted by a diminutive window to the second stage. The 1920s range has a jettied first floor on corbel brackets with a modern window to the southwest. It retains multi-paned metal-framed casement windows to the southeast elevation only, with other openings being uPVC.

The house was first shown on the third edition Ordnance Survey map of 1900–02, captioned 'The Highlands'. It first entered valuation records in 1880 as a newly-built vacant property on land leased from John O'Reilly Blackwood of Ballymenoch, valued at £50. The first occupier, noted in 1884, was Gilbert Vance, who belonged to the firm John R Vance & Co, muslin manufacturers with a weaving factory in Rosemary Street, Belfast. By 1893, James A Barrett, Holywood's Clerk of Petty Sessions, was occupying the house. Robert Duncan, a coal merchant with offices in King's Chambers, Belfast, was the next occupier from 1897. Census returns of 1901 and 1911 indicate he was unmarried and lived in the house with his brother and two sisters. By 1918 his sister Leah was the occupier, and in 1919 it was taken over by Henry George Maxwell, a linen factory manager from Armagh. By 1926 Maurice W Heyn was in residence; he was the son of Frederick Heyn, owner of the shipping firm known as the Head Line. Maurice Heyn remained in the house until at least 1930.

The Duncan family extended the house in at least two phases. An addition to the southeast incorporating a stair tower is shown on the third edition map of 1900–02. A further extension, abutting the earlier addition to the southwest, is shown on the fourth edition of 1919–31.

The Croft Road area of Holywood began to be developed in the second half of the nineteenth century. The Griffith's Valuation map of the early 1860s shows the area divided into small parcels of land suitable for sale as building plots. Building ground in the North Down area was attractive to increasing numbers of mercantile and professional classes seeking to base themselves outside Belfast.

The school's curriculum is based on the principles of the Austrian philosopher and educationalist Rudolf Steiner (1861–1925), in which intellectual progress is given equal importance with physical, emotional, spiritual and artistic development. Initially Highlands was found to have too much space for the school's needs and part of the house was used as living accommodation. However, within a short space of time extra buildings began to be added to the site, starting with a kindergarten in 1979. More permanent classrooms were added between 1987 and 1993.

The building is set on a large mature site with pedestrian access from Croft Road via a timber-sheeted gate and vehicular access via Ballymenoch Road to the east, with a gravelled driveway and car park. The road boundary to the south is bounded by a rubble stone boundary wall and hedgerow. The original vehicular access has rubble stone gate piers and modern timber gates. To the northwest is a modern single-storey structure; to the southeast is a large two-storey modern building. The site is enclosed to all sides by mature trees.

Extensive alterations have compromised the building's architectural and historic interest.