Former St Joseph's Convent Chapel & School, Co Armagh, BT67 9JW

Former St Joseph's Convent Chapel, Lurgan, County Armagh

This is a Romanesque style convent chapel built in 1877–78 to designs by Belfast architects Mortimer Thompson and Timothy Hevey. It stands on an elevated site on Edward Street in Lurgan, just west of the main junction with Church Place and the town centre, in an area of predominantly mixed-use commercial buildings. The chapel is attached to the former St Joseph's Convent School complex and is two storeys in height, part double-height, with a painted stuccoed facade. It is rectangular in plan with a double-pitched roof and a semi-circular apse to the south. A square campanile with a pyramidal roof marks the main entrance at the north-west corner.

Exterior

The roof is covered in natural Welsh slate with a painted timber rooflight running along each side of the ridge. Rainwater goods are cast metal, painted. The walls are finished in smooth painted plaster, ruled and lined to the apse. Windows are painted or stained timber.

The north-west (front) elevation is composed of the tower to the left and the main gable of the church to the right. The tower is three stages high, with a plain deep plinth at ground level, moulded string courses at floor levels, and plain pilasters framing the corners. It is topped with a pyramidal Welsh slate roof, with a moulded cornice and corbels at the eaves supporting ogee guttering. At ground level, the main entrance doorway is reached via three steps — modern replacements with tiled treads and painted metal railings. The doorway is a round-headed arched opening, slightly recessed, with concentric arched moulding above, a moulded archivolt and keystone to the arches, and a moulded course at impost level. The door itself is varnished timber, double-leaf with timber panelling and a stained glass fanlight over. At first floor level the tower has a pair of centrally placed round-headed arched window openings with moulded archivolts and impost details matching the main doorway, a string course at sill level, and small pairs of moulded corbels below each window. The glazing is painted timber with plain and Georgian wired glass and opening vents at the base. The third stage of the tower features a blind arcade in stucco with a trio of arches detailed in the same style as the other openings.

The front gable of the church is two storeys high beneath its double-pitched roof. It is framed with plain pilasters at the sides, a plain deep plinth at ground level, and an open-bed style pediment moulding at the roofline. String courses at first floor and sill level match those on the adjacent tower. At ground level, the gable has a blind arcade of three arches: a round-headed arched opening within the central arch and circular openings in each of the flanking arches, all containing stained glass windows. There is decorative stucco work to the archivolts and at impost level. At first floor level is the main church window: a large, centrally placed round-headed arched opening with stained glass set in painted masonry, featuring geometrical tracery with a cruciform motif and five round-headed arched lights below. A plain crucifix is affixed to the gable wall above the window. The gable is parapeted at the roofline with a plaster finial at the apex.

The north-east side elevation of the tower is exposed where it abuts the former St Joseph's school building, now part of St Ronan's College. On this face, the tower reads as four stages, with a solid stone base at lower ground level continuous with the front steps. There is a single round-headed arched window centrally placed at ground level with stained glass, plainly detailed with a simple keystone and plain sill. The floors above have blind openings: a single arched opening at first floor and a blind arcade of three arches at second floor. Plaster detailing to the upper floors and roof matches the north-west elevation.

The south-west side elevation of the chapel abuts the former St Joseph's Convent, now Mount Zion House, a local charitable organisation.

The south-east (rear) elevation is formed by the two-storey semi-circular apse, finished in smooth painted plaster that is ruled and lined. The apse is lit by five windows: a small pair of round-headed arched windows centrally placed at ground level with stained glass and plain sills, and three similar but larger windows evenly spaced at first floor level. The apse walls abut Mount Zion House to the south-west and St Ronan's College to the north-east. The eaves are detailed with an ogee gutter and the apse roof is conical, covered in natural slate, with a cruciform metal finial at the apex. Rainwater goods are painted metal.

The chapel is set on an elevated site. The main entrance is approached across a raised concrete terrace reached by external steps with sloping grassed banks to either side, stone walls, masonry treads, and modern railings. To the front of the complex is a tarmacadam car park. The site is enclosed to the north-west along Edward Street by a substantial boundary wall and railings: the wall is of coursed stone with cement mortar, and the railings — possibly later additions — are painted cast metal with plain uprights and cruciform motifs at intervals. There are vehicular accesses at each end of the site from Edward Street, including an arched gateway in painted metal to the east access with cast lettering in the arch reading 'Mount Zion House', which may also be a later addition. To the rear of the chapel is a simple lawned courtyard with tarmac pathways, bounded to the south-west by Mount Zion House (the former convent) and to the north-east by St Ronan's College (the former St Joseph's School). Some modern buildings forming part of the Mount Zion House complex stand to the south-east of the courtyard.

Interior

The chapel is intact internally and retains a richly decorated interior. The apse area is covered in mosaic, and there is a painted dome. Original sanctuary fittings survive, along with a panelled ceiling and a gallery. Some of this decorative scheme is believed to have been added in 1912 by architects Ashlin and Coleman.

Historical Background

Edward Street, which forms part of the original road between Lurgan and Portadown, was largely developed during the 1840s and 1850s. The south side of the street between what is now Arthur Street and Waring Street appears to have served largely as a brickfield during this period, presumably supplying building materials for nearby new construction.

In 1865, Charles Magee of Union Street, acting on behalf of the Roman Catholic parish, acquired a 99-year lease on part of the site — described at that point as 'garden and waste' — as the location for a new convent and school for a branch of the Newry Sisters of Mercy. The new building, begun in August 1865, was designed by James Rooney of Portadown, described at the time as 'a young man of no ordinary ability', and built at a cost of approximately £1,500 to £1,600. Completed in May 1866, it contained quarters for the nuns, three 'spacious and lofty' school rooms, a chapel, a community room, and a refectory. The schools opened in September 1866, serving both girls — in St Mary's Girls School — and boys — in St Joseph's Boys School.

In 1871, Lurgan became an independent foundation with Sister Mary Gertrude O'Hagan as the first superioress, and the following decade saw considerable building activity on the site. In 1876–77, the present chapel was added to the east side of the original convent. Built in what contemporary accounts described as 'the Italian order of architecture' to plans by Mortimer Thompson and Timothy Hevey of Belfast, with the 'roof, walls &c…finished in a high style of art', it cost approximately £2,000. All or most of the funds came from a bequest made by the deceased mother of the then Parish Priest, Reverend James McKenna, who himself officially blessed the chapel in December 1877. The contractors were Messrs Harkin, McCann and O'Hara of Lurgan. The 'Newry Reporter', reporting on the opening, commented that 'the building is, perhaps, one of the most handsomest in Ireland. The decorations and ornamental work are profuse and emblematic, and as works of art are well worth visiting.'

At approximately the same time as the chapel was completed, a new boys' school building was constructed to the east of it. This appears to have been at the planning stage by mid-1875, and was certainly standing by at least November 1878, when the 'Northern Whig' reported it had cost £2,000, of which £500 remained unpaid. Thompson and Hevey appear to have been responsible for this building as well.

Drawings of 1912 by architects Ashlin and Coleman, now held by the Irish Architectural Archive, show 'designs for decorative details — emblems of the Passion and decoration of the chapel', indicating that alterations to the interior were carried out around this time. The full extent of these changes is not entirely clear, as the surveyors were not able to consult these drawings, but it is possible that the mosaic finish to the walls of the apse dates from this campaign. A large red brick extension to the rear of the convent was under construction around the same time, with a further section added at some point between 1937 and 1954.

The nuns vacated the convent in 1995, and it was subsequently converted into a centre for community groups, now known as Mount Zion House. The chapel continues to serve its original purpose, now functioning as an Adoration Chapel for the local Roman Catholic Parish of St Peter and St Paul, Lurgan. The former school building also continues in educational use, though it was modernised and extended to the eastern end in around 1966 and is now part of the campus of the recently established St Ronan's College. A significant portion of the eastern half of the sloping forecourt between the complex and Edward Street was formerly occupied by terraced housing, with a row of later Victorian dwellings standing directly in front of the school section until around 1966.

The detached house immediately to the west of the site, originally known as Corso Lodge, was erected in 1869 for the Alexander family. It was used by the convent between approximately 1889 and 1895 as a boarding school, subsequently returned to private hands, and was later reacquired by the nuns, who converted it in 1993 to a counselling and advice centre.