Harding Memorial Primary School, 105 Cregagh Road, Belfast, County Antrim, BT6 8PZ

Harding Memorial Primary School

A symmetrical detached multi-bay two-storey redbrick school built around 1913, designed by W.J. Fennell. The building is quadrangular in plan with a central yard and faces east on the west side of Cregagh Road. A small Parish Hall stands to the north of the site.

The school features pitched and hipped natural slate roofs with roll-moulded terracotta ridge tiles. Cast-iron guttering, supported on shaped rafter feet, and cast-iron downpipes complete the roof detail. Plain timber barge boards fill the two front gables with applied timber framing.

The redbrick walling is laid in English garden wall bond with a projecting redbrick plinth course finished with moulded terracotta trim. Window openings throughout are generally segmental-headed with moulded brick surrounds. Original multi-pane timber sash windows are fitted with top-hung overlights.

The east-facing front elevation is symmetrical and six windows wide, with advanced gables flanking either end (three windows wide each). The six central window openings are flanked by redbrick buttresses with offsets. The two central windows and ground floor windows to each gable have sandstone lintels and sills with terracotta hood moulding. First floor windows feature terracotta sills and a continuous moulded terracotta string course at sill level. Above the central two openings is a rendered fascia panel inscribed "HARDING MEMORIAL PRIMARY SCHOOL".

The south gable elevation is three windows wide, detailed as the central front elevation, with an advanced square-plan tower topped by a pyramidal roof and iron weather-vane. A stone corbelled eaves course runs below the eaves.

The south elevation continues as a two-storey range with tripartite groupings of multi-pane timber casement windows and redbrick aprons at each level. These are flanked by double-height redbrick pilasters with rendered Doric capitals, a detail repeated on the north elevation.

The west range comprises a pair of attached redbrick blocks with boarded-up windows. The southern block is a double-height single-storey structure with hipped roof, deep moulded eaves course, and four tall window openings. The northern block is two-storey and detailed as above, abutted by a two-storey flat-roofed projection to the northeast.

A terrace spans both north and south ranges on the east elevation. The north range follows the detailing of the south range on its south elevation and is abutted by a two-storey lean-to corridor wing along its north elevation. This wing has timber casement windows to the upper level and replacement timber casement windows to the lower level, flanked by redbrick Doric pilasters. A further square-plan tower, detailed as the south tower, abuts the east end of this range and includes a segmental-headed entrance with a replacement timber glazed door and universal access ramp.

The school occupies a modest site on the west side of Cregagh Road, with its south elevation fronting onto a small lane and its north elevation onto Dromore Street. Bitumac playing areas extend to the rear and north. Iron railings on a low plinth wall, with matching pedestrian gates supported on octagonal-plan redbrick and sandstone piers, enclose the site to the street. The side elevations are enclosed by redbrick walling and modern fencing.