Royal Belfast Academical Institution, College Square East, Belfast, Co Antrim, BT1 6DL

Royal Belfast Academical Institution

This is a detached, symmetrical, multi-bay three-storey school building in Georgian style, built in 1810 to the designs of Sir John Soane. The main block is rectangular on plan, faced in handmade red brick laid in Flemish bond with a plain projecting sandstone plinth course. It is set well back from College Square East behind a large front lawn, terminating the vista of Wellington Place.

The front elevation is 23 windows wide. The central 13 bays form a shallow breakfront defined by four pairs of Giant Doric order pilasters in painted sandstone ashlar. To the ground floor are gauged brick round-headed window openings set within round-headed recesses, containing 6/6 timber sash windows with spoked upper sashes. The first floor has 6/6 timber sash windows with a continuous moulded sill course; the second floor has 6/3 windows. All sash windows are without horns and have been recently re-glazed with cylinder glass.

The centrepiece is a tripartite Doric portico in antis with two columns and responding engaged Doric piers supporting a full plain entablature. Above the central entrance is a large painted masonry panel bearing raised lettering reading "ACADEMICAL INSTITUTION. / MDCCCX". The central door opening contains double-leaf timber doors with raised-and-fielded panels, flanked by scrolled console brackets supporting a cornice. Either side are round-headed window openings with architrave surrounds and spoked upper sashes. At the re-entrant angles are two secondary door openings with single-leaf panelled doors, all opening into the portico. The first floor central window is set within an arched moulded surround.

The roof is natural slate, hipped to either end with clay ridge tiles and leaded hip ridges. It sits behind a sandstone ashlar parapet with moulded cornice and plain sandstone frieze. Four rendered profiled chimneystacks with clay pots rise to the ridge. Circular cast-iron hoppers break through the parapet with replacement metal downpipes.

The south side elevation is largely blank, with two irregularly placed windows to the ground and first floors. The rear elevation is 11 windows wide and detailed as per the front elevation without pilasters, though with a shallow breakfront to the central entrance bay. This breakfront is built in machine-made brown brick with round-headed window openings to each level, a shallow door surround with concrete lintel and glazed hardwood doors, flanked by bronze memorial plaques commemorating the Great War and the Second World War.

Later additions include a three-storey red brick wing abutting the rear elevation to the south, built around 1915, and a four-storey wing abutting the rear elevation to the north, built around 1960. Connecting the 1960s north wing to the rear elevation is a single-bay five-storey red brick block housing a staircase, also built around 1915. A single-storey extension was built around 2000 abutting the north side elevation. The south wing is constructed in machine-made red brick with gauged brick segmental-headed window openings having red sandstone sills. It has UPVC windows to the south elevation, 6/6 timber sash windows to the west and north elevations, and two square-headed door openings to the south elevation with red sandstone architrave surrounds and latticed overpanels. The north side elevation includes a steel walkway connecting the principal block to the north block.

A detached multi-bay three-storey brick block fronting onto College Square North was built around 1835. It is six windows wide, detailed as per the principal block with original timber sash windows throughout.

The building sits within extensive grounds to the east of College Square North. The front is enclosed to the street by a low brick wall and decorative iron railings erected around 1950. There is a large paved rear yard. The front elevation is partially obscured by the former Municipal Technical Institute.