Gate lodge to Holy Family Primary School, Newington Avenue, Belfast, Co.Antrim., BT15 2HP

Gate Lodge to Holy Family Primary School, Newington Avenue, North Belfast

This is a detached, three-bay, one-and-a-half-storey red-brick Victorian gate lodge, built around 1894–95 as the caretaker's dwelling for the original Holy Family Roman Catholic Church — a chapel of ease — that once stood on this site. It is the sole surviving original building from that early church complex, and one of the relatively few surviving examples of a gate lodge associated with a 19th-century Roman Catholic church in Ireland.

Historical Background

The gate lodge was built at the same time as the chapel of ease itself, whose foundation stone was laid in October 1894. The church was opened on St Patrick's Day 1895, and was the first church in Ulster to be dedicated to the Holy Family, following Pope Leo XIII's institution of that feast in 1893. The chapel was built to serve the growing Roman Catholic population living in the terraced streets off the Antrim Road — particularly Catholic women in domestic service in the large houses of the area, who faced considerable difficulty attending Mass at the nearest churches: St Patrick's on Donegall Street and St Mary's in Greencastle. The Bishop of Down and Connor, Patrick MacAlister, was the driving force behind acquiring the site and building the new chapel.

The gate lodge was originally valued at £5 and 10 shillings, and its first recorded occupant was Thomas McCartan, the chapel's caretaker. By the 1911 census, the lodge was occupied by James McKeown and was recorded as a second-class dwelling of five rooms — a notably generous arrangement given its compact gabled form.

In 1911–12, the original chapel of ease was replaced by a permanent Gothic-style church designed by E. and J. Byrne, which increased the congregation's accommodation to 1,400 people. The original chapel was converted into a parochial hall, while the gate lodge continued to serve as the caretaker's residence. By the First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936–57), the lodge was occupied by a W. Lynas and had been revalued at £12. By the end of the Second Revaluation (1956–72), it was occupied by an F. Hagan, at the same valuation of £12.

In 1964, the original chapel — by then in use as a parochial hall — was demolished to make way for an assembly hall and meals centre for the adjoining Holy Family Primary School. E. and J. Byrne's Gothic church was itself demolished in 2005 to make way for the current modern church building, designed by O'Neill and Brady between 2005 and 2007 at a cost of £2.3 million. The gate lodge alone survived all of these changes. At the time of the Second Survey it was owned by the Diocese of Down and Connor. It is now used as a cross-community resource and informal learning facility for parents, and forms part of Holy Family Primary School.

Architectural Description

The building is set perpendicular to Newington Avenue, giving it a slightly projecting presence on the street that lends it a stronger visual impact than its modest size might otherwise suggest. It sits within the school grounds and is bounded by a yard wall to the north-west incorporating a square-headed archway, and a metal gateway to the south-east.

The roof is a pitched slate roof with terracotta ridge tiles and a cross finial to the apex. The painted timber bargeboards are supported by a brick-moulded eaves course on a dentilled cornice, with moulded brick kneelers to the verges. Rainwater goods are ogee-moulded cast-iron guttering with circular downpipes. The walling is red brick throughout with a projecting chamfered brick plinth. Window openings are segmental-arched with drip-moulds over and splayed painted stone sills; replacement timber casement windows have been fitted throughout except where otherwise noted.

The front elevation faces south-east and is of three bays, with a central entrance porch having a mono-pitch slate roof. The segmental-headed door opening has a stone step and is fitted with a replacement timber panelled door with a fanlight over. Decorative metal grilles are present to the openings. At ground-floor level an ovolo brick string course runs at impost level to the window openings, and there is a single-stage buttress to the south corner. The north-east corner of the ground floor is chamfered and features an ocular (circular) window with a painted chamfered surround and a gauged brick soldier-course header; above this the attic floor overhangs on a carved sandstone bracket. At attic level, decorative diamond-shaped terracotta panels are positioned centrally above the ground-floor windows.

The gable-fronted south-west elevation features an advancing two-storey single bay, with decorative diamond-shaped terracotta panels flanking a ground-floor segmental-arched opening, and a round-headed opening at attic level with a raised sill course. The north-west elevation has no openings, and a yard wall is attached here to define the boundary.

A single-storey entrance porch addition to the south-east and a flat-roofed single-storey extension to the north-east were added around 1990. The north-east extension has a rendered parapet, a segmental-headed door opening, and a round-arched window to the attic level above.

The interior has been opened up into a modern open-plan layout and retains few original historic features, though the building as a whole retains its overall character. The continued use of the lodge as part of Holy Family Primary School ensures its ongoing social significance.