Nettlefield Primary School, Radnor Street, Belfast, County Antrim, BT6 8BG

Nettlefield Primary School is a purpose-built primary school of 1933–36, designed by Reginald Sharman Wilshere (1888–1961), a Belfast-based English architect appointed as chief architect to the Belfast Education Committee in 1926. The school comprises single and two-storey blocks arranged around a quadrangle, together with a detached two-storey caretaker's house, and sits at the end of Radnor Street off the Woodstock Road in East Belfast. It is widely regarded as one of the finest examples of early modern school design in Ireland.

Background and Historical Context

The school was built to replace Grovefield and Short Strand Junior Schools, which had been deemed unsuitable. In the late 1920s the Belfast Education Committee — established under the 1923 Education Act — began planning a new school to accommodate the 600 pupils displaced by the closures. A site was purchased in 1930 for £2,300 on land previously occupied by Nettlefield Mansion, former home of the Lewis family, which had latterly operated as a Working Boys Home before its demolition (Belfast Telegraph, 19 August 1932). The estimated total building cost was £20,880, with the school building itself estimated at £13,729. The lowest tender, £17,395, was submitted by J. & R. W. Taggart, who were contracted as builders. Construction took place between 1934 and 1936, and the completed school provided eleven classrooms designed to accommodate 800 pupils — more than the 600 originally intended.

The school was opened on 9 September 1936 by Alderman James A. Duff, Chairman of the Finance Corporation. The Northern Whig described it as the eighteenth new school built by Belfast Corporation since it assumed responsibility for education in 1923, and considered it "probably the best constructed so far under the progressive policy of the Education Committee." The Irish Builder recorded that Wilshere's guiding principle was that "if the children of a district have no beauty in their daily surroundings, they need beauty all the more in their schools." His characteristic approach was to build large schools arranged around quadrangles, with corridors open to fresh air. Nettlefield is a particularly fine example of this approach. Larmour has suggested that Wilshere's schools, including Nettlefield and Avoniel Primary School, were "the first modern schools to be built anywhere in Ireland."

The school is also of cultural note as the primary school attended by footballer George Best (1946–2005) and by author Harry Patterson (born 1929), better known under his pseudonym Jack Higgins.

Exterior

The building is constructed in red brick laid to Flemish bond, with a moulded plinth course. The roofs are hipped and clad in Rosemary tiles, with parapet eaves largely repaired around 2000, overhanging eaves with plain timber soffits and fascia boards, cast-iron rainwater goods with decorative hopper-heads, and brick chimneys. Windows are generally timber casements with horizontal glazing bars and bronze ironmongery. The front entrance has a timber double-leaf door with a single large recessed panel and replacement ironmongery.

The principal elevation faces north and is asymmetrically composed, centred on a prominent entrance tower that rises above parapet level. This tower is of square plan with a flat roof and a single projected bay, symmetrically arranged. At ground floor level, double-leaf doors are centrally positioned with moulded surrounds and a cantilevered, step-moulded canopy with three tiers of diminishing projected planes separated by horizontal glazed strips. At first floor level there is a diminished window with a semi-octagonal canopy and a metal balcony over a brick corbel. Above this is a carved sandstone crest depicting a horse and seahorse embracing a coat of arms, with the inscription "NETTLEFIELD P.E. SCHOOL" (Public Elementary School) below. The upper portions of the east and west faces of the tower have three narrow vertical openings each, with a single casement window to the south face. The tower is surmounted by a timber lantern, reputed to have been designed to replicate a Scandinavian-style lighthouse.

To the right of the entrance tower is a flat-roofed double bay with single and quadripartite windows at ground and first floor levels respectively. To the left of the tower is a two-storey flat-roofed corridor that projects beyond the hipped roof. This corridor frontage comprises a uniform series of thirteen double-leaf doors with round-headed fanlights containing vertical glazing bars, flanked by a pair of single windows at ground floor level, with seven uniformly arranged quadripartite windows above at first floor level. At the far right of the principal façade, a single-storey entrance porch with a bipartite window over it adjoins the detached double-height assembly hall, which has a hipped roof with parapet. The east and west façades of the assembly hall feature arrowhead-projecting bay windows, though some windows on the east façade have been removed as a result of a modern single-storey extension. The north façade of the assembly hall includes a truncated version of the principal entrance, rising only to balcony level and projecting from an otherwise plain elevation.

The east elevation is asymmetrically arranged and single storey. A recessed portion to the right contains single and quadripartite windows and a double-leaf door with a single canopy. To the left, replacement doors and windows infill former openings, and the far left is abutted by a modern extension.

The south elevation is symmetrically arranged, hipped-roofed, and five bays wide. Each bay comprises a timber double-leaf door giving access to the playground, flanked by vertical timber casement windows with a continuous cill rising from six courses of brickwork, creating a largely glazed façade.

The west elevation is asymmetrically composed. A single-storey flat-roofed portion to the right has replacement windows and doors infilling former openings, with a modern extension abutting the far right. To the left is a projecting single-storey bay with tripartite louvered vents, beyond which is a further two-storey flat-roofed bay with a louvered door, a single canopy over, and a diminished balcony window at first floor level.

Quadrangle

The south elevation of the north block faces into the quadrangle and comprises five bays, with vertical casement windows at ground and first floor levels and centrally positioned double-leaf doors at ground floor. The far left portion is a flat-roofed two-storey section with a single door (now infilled) at ground floor and two bipartite windows at first floor, with a chimney to the left. The facades of the west and east blocks are single storey and were formerly open cloisters; these have been infilled with glazing and a central door, carried out around 1960. The south block façade projects at ground floor level as a flat-roofed corridor with similar infilling to that of the side blocks, and with clerestory glazing above.

Interior

The internal layout has remained unaltered, which is a significant element of the building's character. Some room uses have changed over time, but much of the original fabric and detailing survives.

Setting and Outbuildings

The school is surrounded by two-storey residential terraces. At the entrance stands a two-storey, hipped-roofed, L-shaped caretaker's house that matches the school in its detailing and retains some original internal plaster and joinery work of interest, though it has undergone some alterations and suffered water damage in 2010. To the south of the school are artificial sports pitches. To the east is a single-storey nursery building of around 1960. Modern access ramps have been added to the entrances, and a modern ramp with walling and railings has been added to the principal entrance and to the east elevation of the school. A lawn is provided to the front.