Walton House, Dominican College, 38 Fortwilliam Park, Belfast, Co. Antrim, BT15 4AQ

Walton House is a two-storey High Victorian mansion in the Italianate style, dating from around 1865 and attributed to the Glasgow-based architect James Hamilton. It now forms the historic heart of Dominican College, a secondary school occupying the north side of Fortwilliam Park, Belfast. The building is one of the few surviving grand mansions erected on the former Fortwilliam Estate after it was broken up and sold as individual plots for gentlemen's residences in the mid-19th century.

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

The house first appears in the Annual Revisions book covering 1862 to 1866, where it was recorded under its original name of Morven House. The valuer's notes suggest it was built towards the end of that period, most likely in 1865 or 1866. It was originally leased by Henry Kirk, a partner in Lowry, Valentine & Kirk, General Commission Merchants, who held the property until 1876. He was followed by Robert Thompson, a linen merchant with J. N. Richardson, Sons & Owden Ltd., who occupied the house until 1893. Sir William McCammond, a prominent local building contractor, magistrate, and Lord Mayor of Belfast from 1894 to 1895, then took possession and renamed the house Walton House, the name it retains today. He lived here until his death in 1898. The house subsequently passed to Humphrey Barron, a local magistrate and soap and candle manufacturer; the 1911 Census described his property as an extensive first-class dwelling of thirty rooms. By 1918 a Mr Charles Morrow was recorded as occupant.

In 1930 the Irish Dominican Sisters acquired Walton House and converted it into a convent school, reopening it as a grammar school, preparatory school, and secretarial college. The school was valued at £290 under the First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland in 1936. Attendance fell sharply during the Second World War as children were evacuated from North Belfast, but rose dramatically after the 1947 Education Act introduced free secondary education for all. To accommodate the increase in pupils, school blocks were added to the north side of the house in 1950 and 1953, and a chapel to the south was erected in the 1960s; both phases were designed by the architectural partnership Kilpatrick and Bready, formed around 1937. By the end of the Second Revaluation in 1972 the college's rateable value had risen to £3,640. The building was listed in 1987. Since then, the roof was re-slated in 1989, the exterior stonework was repaired throughout in 1995 to 1996, and around 2003 a two-storey modern block was constructed to the rear as part of a £13 million redevelopment, connecting the Victorian mansion to the rest of the school.

The architect James Hamilton is tentatively identified by Paul Larmour on the basis of shared design features — including a carved hand motif — between Walton House and the gateway at the Shore Road entrance to Fortwilliam Park, also attributed to Hamilton and also dating from around 1865.

EXTERIOR

The building has an asymmetrical plan with a four-storey tower at the centre. Walling throughout is in regular-coursed ashlar Giffnock sandstone — a Scottish stone — with a rusticated splayed plinth, moulded frieze and cornice. A plain string course separates the ground floor from the first floor, repeated in shallower form at first-floor cill level. Window openings, except where noted, have square-section pilasters with plain capitals supporting moulded round arches with projecting keystones, set within square-headed shallow niches. Windows are replacement double-hung 1-over-1 timber sash throughout unless otherwise noted.

The roof is hipped and covered in Bangor blue slates with lead roll hips and valleys. Two rectangular-section ashlar sandstone chimney stacks are positioned at the north and south ends, each with corbelled coping and assorted clay chimney pots. A moulded cornice supports cast-iron guttering discharging to rectangular-section downpipes via ornamental cast-iron hopper heads; some upper-level roofs have secret gutters instead.

PRINCIPAL (EAST) ELEVATION

The principal elevation faces east and is three bays wide. The central bay features a rusticated triple-arched open entrance porch approached by six wide stone steps with stone balustrading and square-section piers. Above the porch is a plain frieze with moulded cornicing, and raised parapets with Renaissance-style balustrading guard the edge of the first-floor balcony. Directly above the porch sits a recessed three-storey tower of square plan. This tower has a tripartite window at first-floor level and three plain smaller round-arched windows at second-floor level. At its summit an overhanging cornicione is topped by cast-iron railings detailed with intricate alternating bands of anthemion and palmette ornament. Above this rises an octagonal-plan lantern with a dentilled cornice, projecting eaves, and a hipped leaded roof; the lantern has square-headed window openings.

To the west of the principal elevation is a single-storey semicircular projecting bay with a bow window divided into five equal openings separated by circular Corinthian engaged columns. This bay has a plain frieze, an overhanging cornice, a raised parapet, and a Renaissance-style balustrade. A tripartite window is centred above it at first-floor level. To the east is a single-storey shallow rectilinear projection, also with an overhanging cornice, raised parapet, and Renaissance-style balustrade, and with tripartite window openings at both ground-floor and first-floor levels.

SOUTH ELEVATION

The two-storey south elevation has a projecting bay to the west and three recessed bays to the east. The west bay has a tripartite window at ground-floor level and paired windows at first-floor level. Blind windows occupy the second bay from the east end at both ground-floor and first-floor levels; the remaining openings have 2-over-2 sash windows.

NORTH ELEVATION

The north elevation mirrors the south elevation, with a projecting bay to the east and three recessed bays to the west. The east bay has a tripartite window at ground-floor level and paired windows at first-floor level. Blind windows occupy the second bay from the west end at both floors; the remaining openings have 2-over-2 sash windows.

WEST ELEVATION

The west elevation is abutted by the two-storey modern extension dating from 2005.

INTERIOR

Although the plan form has been slightly compromised by the modern building attached to the rear, the interior retains its original layout.

SETTING AND GROUNDS

The building sits within the extensively landscaped grounds of Dominican College, fronting Fortwilliam Park. The grounds are largely lawned with tarmacked driveways and concrete-paved pathways. The site is entered through decorated cast-iron gates with twisted and elaborately scrolled railings supported on smooth rendered square-plan pillars. A dwarf boundary wall flanks the gateway on both sides; it is curved on plan, roughcast rendered, and topped by cast-iron railings. This wall is terminated at each end by a rendered square-plan boundary pillar, one of which has a corbelled cap and a projecting round-arched flat panel.

Other structures on the site include a 1960s chapel of irregular plan with a sweeping curved roof bearing a striking resemblance to Le Corbusier's Ronchamp chapel; a two-storey gabled stone building known as St. Joseph's Building to the north-east end of the site; and several modern school buildings. The gate lodge at No. 40 Fortwilliam Park was originally built in association with Walton House.