St. Louis Convent, Middletown, Co Armagh

St Louis Convent is a red brick, multi-gabled late Victorian and Edwardian building with bargeboards, dormers, and a steep slated roof. An attached chapel is built in the same style. To the south are attached outbuildings, beyond which lie gardens containing decorative gate piers, a small cemetery, and a small corrugated iron gabled shed. A short distance to the north, the convent complex also includes a large range built in a similar but simpler architectural style that once housed the Orphanage and Industrial School, and the original Primary School. This northern range is not included in the detailed survey of the convent.

Front Façade

The main part of the building faces east-north-east and comprises a three-and-a-half storey, three-bay gabled block with a two-bay three-storey projecting gable extension. A lower two-storey two-bay range links this extension with the chapel to the south.

The front façade has long rectangular windows, all except the dormers grouped in pairs. All windows have relieving arches in the same form of brick as the walls, except the ground floor windows of the projecting gable, whose relieving arches are of lighter yellow brick. All formerly had sliding sash frames, one over one, but these have now all been replaced with uPVC one over one top opening frames.

The whole front façade, including the canted east end of the chapel chancel, has narrow horizontal sandstone plat-bands. There are six of these on the main block, running level with the window sills and just below the ashlar window lintels. Just above the ashlar lintels of each floor also runs projecting moulded string courses of a darker sandstone, while a large moulded cornice, also of a darker sandstone, runs beneath the eaves. At the north-west end of the façade is a brick early gothic style two-tier buttress, while iron gutters beneath the eaves connect to four cast iron downpipes, all painted red.

The three-bay gabled block has three dormered roof windows or lucarnes, all with wooden decorated bargeboards and dropped pendants matching the barges and dropped pendant of the large gabled projection on the south-east side. The steeply pitched roof of natural slate above is surmounted at the gable ends of the three-bay block by substantial plain brick chimney stacks. A smaller brick chimney stack crowns the gable end of the lower gabled extension on the south side.

Centrally placed in the three-bay main block is a projecting brick porch with sandstone quoins, all flush with the brickwork, and with a Tudor-arched ashlar moulded door opening. A hood moulding over this door continues around the sides of the porch and over each of the long rectangular window openings in each of the porch side walls. The porch has an ashlar projecting plinth and is surmounted by a sandstone castellated parapet with a centrally positioned mini-gabled centrepiece supporting a stone carved cross.

On the two-storey extension there is another projecting porch, also of brick with projecting plinth and ashlar carved parapet. It has a straight-headed door with moulded ashlar surround on one side, flanked by a long rectangular window with plain ashlar surround on the other. The door is approached up a small flight of five stone steps, flanked by a low brick balustrade with stone coping.

North End Gable of Main Block

The north end gable has decorated bargeboards similar to those used on the front elevation. The wall of the attic is composed of exposed brick; the wall below is rendered. There is only one window on the first and second floors, both at the west end. These have uPVC frames, one over one hoppers. A 1960s lean-to wooden extension on the west end of the ground floor accommodates a door and short passage entrance to the kitchen area.

Rear or West Elevation

Except for the church and two-storey adjacent extension, all with brick walling, the remaining part of the rear façade has cement rendered walls, including the two-storey kitchen wing. Windows have uPVC one over one top opening frames, except for one ground floor window of the kitchen wing, which retains an original six over six sliding sash frame, a surviving relic of the early Victorian house.

The roof of the main block has three dormers matching those on the front, except these have plain wooden bargeboards, as has the large gable of the south extension. There are also three small roof lights on the main block and a projecting fire escape down the north side of the wall. The kitchen wing has a double hipped roof and a tall brick chimney stack.

A lean-to arcade, added to allow access to the church circa 1902–04, has a pitched roof of natural slate and continuous glazed walling of casement windows with centrally placed double doors giving access to the gardens.

Chapel

The chapel has brick walls which, like the front façade, are articulated by sandstone plat-bands. The chancel or sanctuary at the east end has a canted apse with a hipped slated roof and three gothic window openings, all with ashlar surrounds with cusped trefoil mouldings. All have hood mouldings which terminate in decorative carved ball-flower bosses. The iron gutters of the cornice are supported by decorative stone brackets or modillions, and these are also continued on the long side of the church.

There are five regularly spaced lancet windows down the long south side of the church. None have cusped mouldings, but all have ashlar surrounds and hood mouldings with decorative ball-flower terminals. The chapel has a projecting plinth with ashlar coping and four early gothic style buttresses.

The west gable end of the chapel has a large mid-gothic style reticulated stone tracery window (the Great Window) incorporating surmounting circular openings and no cusping. On ground floor level below the Great Window are two rectangular openings, each with a stone mullion, and with ashlar surrounds. The projecting gables of the church roof have stone coping and decorative ashlar kneelers. The roof itself has natural stone slates with decorative tile ridge cresting, while the west gable is crowned by a pedimented brick bell-cote surmounted by a small stone crucifix.

The north side of the chapel has a two-storey lean-to brick extension with slated roof, accommodating the gallery staircase and entrance porch. This has a large doorway with stone surround at the west end, a Tudor-arched window above, and two pairs of long rectangular windows on the north side, one on each floor.

Outbuildings

Rear Range to Convent Block: A long two-storey early Victorian gabled and rendered range is located immediately behind the convent and runs parallel with it. It contains two coach houses facing the convent, one with a segmental arch and original ledged and braced double doors. The range also contains former stables, accommodation for the former groom (chimney removed), and former grain storage areas on the first floor. At right angles to the rear of this range on the south side is a three-bay two-storey building with a steep slated roof and whitened brick walls. It contains a coach house and grain storage area over, with no chimney.

Corrugated Iron Shed: A small but striking single-storey gabled shed is located upslope from the former coach house range. It is clad in red painted corrugated iron and was probably built in the 1920s.

Gate Piers: The gardens to the rear of the convent are accessed through a good quality decorative iron gate flanked by ashlar piers with cusped gothic panels on each face and distinctive ogee-shaped capstones. Unusually, the piers are placed diagonally to the gate. The piers are linked on each side to a low wall with simple iron railing.

Gardens: The sloping ground behind the convent is occupied by a simple garden with lawns, miniature trees, shrubs, and concrete paths. The base wall of a former rectangular glasshouse lies on the north edge of the garden.

Cemetery: A small grass plot at the top of the garden is enclosed by low walling and entered from the south side from the garden by a simple but attractive iron gate.

Annex Building

The former industrial school and orphanage, opened in 1881, is located a short distance north-east of the convent on an east-west axis. It is built in the same red brick style with ashlar plat-bands and decorated bargeboards, but all in a much simpler style. At the west end it comprises a two-storey four-bay gabled range with a steep slated roof, a full-height canted bay at the east end of the front, three dormers at the front, and four at the rear.

A low narrow two-storey range, with an adjoining pair of tall stone-cut Tudor arches serving as the building's entrance, links the west range to a double-pile three-bay multi-gabled two-storey range with steep roofs at the east end. A lower two-storey gabled range with dormers is attached to the north-east of this building.

All windows of this building complex have been replaced with uPVC top opening frames, while all original interior features of the entire building have been removed and modernised.