Former Irish Society School Beresford Place, Coleraine, Co. Londonderry, BT52 1HB

Former Irish Society School, Beresford Place, Coleraine

This is a Victorian red-brick former school in the Gothic style, built in 1869 to designs by the architectural partnership of Turner & Williamson, extended around 1935, and sensitively converted into townhouses around 2000. It stands on a large site at the junction of Nursery Avenue and Beresford Road in Coleraine town centre. Although the interior has been substantially altered through conversion, the building retains much of its original fabric, and replacement materials are of appropriate style and quality. It is a good example of Victorian Gothic architecture and of the work of a prominent local architectural firm, making an important contribution to the architectural character of Coleraine and carrying considerable significance for the social history of the town.

Historical Background

The Irish Society — formally known as The Honourable The Irish Society — maintained a school in Coleraine from the early 17th century. The earliest recorded schoolhouse was established in 1705 at Kingsgate Street, though records indicate that a free school had been held in a room in Coleraine's Court House as early as 1679, when one William Moute was recorded as keeping school there free of charge. The Kingsgate Street schoolhouse was moved to Beresford Place and rebuilt at the sole expense of the Society in 1821. That building measured 90 feet by 50 feet, consisted of two large classrooms and apartments for the male and female teachers, and is depicted on a map of Beresford Place dated 1834 as a large irregular structure of two main wings — one of which was used in the 1830s as a residence by John Claudius Beresford Esq., the Society's agent. It was valued at £65 in Griffith's Valuation.

This earlier schoolhouse and agent's residence was demolished around 1867 to make way for the present building. Tenders were invited in April 1867 and the contract was awarded to Turner & Williamson, a partnership between Thomas Turner (died 1891) and Richard Williamson (died 1874). Williamson served as appointed County Surveyor of Derry, while Turner predominantly carried out work for the firm in Belfast and Glasgow. The Dictionary of Irish Architects notes that it seems likely Williamson was responsible for most of the works the partnership executed in County Derry. The builders were Robert Ferguson & Son, and construction cost approximately £5,000. The school — formally called The Honourable The Irish Society's Free Male, Female and Infant Schools — opened in autumn 1869 and was valued at £146 on completion.

The building described by Rowan as "picturesque and chunky Irish Gothic: irregular gables, bay-windows, fish-tail slates, sculpted sandstone panels and octagonal bell-turret" stood in its original form — comprising the main block and the north and south wings facing Beresford Place — until the early 20th century. Improvement work was carried out in 1914, and an additional classroom was constructed in 1922. The most significant enlargement took place between 1933 and 1935, when extensions were added to the north and south wings. These were designed by the Coleraine-based firm W. & M. Given; Maxwell Given died during the works, which were completed by his partner Malcolm McQuigg (1904–1974). Construction was carried out by William Currie & Sons. The expanded school was reopened in 1935, with James Craig (Viscount Craigavon, the first Prime Minister of Northern Ireland) presiding over the official opening ceremony at the invitation of the Irish Society. The newly extended building was valued at £190 under the First General Revaluation of property in Northern Ireland in 1935.

The Irish Society directly financed the school's operation until 1948, after which administration passed to the local Londonderry County Education Authority under the Northern Ireland Education Act of 1947 — though the Society retained the right to nominate members to the Board of Governors and continued its visitations to the Annual Prize Day. By the end of the second revaluation in 1972, the school's rateable value had risen to £900. The building was listed in 1977, but the school closed in February 1979 after almost 160 years at the Beresford Place site. Pupils moved to a new site at Rugby Avenue, provided by the North Eastern Education and Library Board, which continues to operate as The Irish Society's School. The school celebrated its tercentenary in 2005. The former school buildings were sympathetically converted to private apartments and townhouses around 2000 and remain in residential use.

Architectural Description

The building has an irregular plan comprising a double-pile, one-and-a-half-storey rectangular main block connected by single-storey linking blocks to perpendicular north and south wings. The north wing incorporates the former headmaster's house and features an octagonal bell turret to the north and a square entrance porch to the south. Both the north and south wings are abutted to the east by the early 20th-century classroom extensions of around 1935, designed by W. & M. Given. A further gabled classroom addition of around 1935 lies to the south of the north wing.

Roofs are generally pitched natural slate with fish-scale banding, blue-black angled ridge tiles, and timber lanterns to the main block and south wing; the lanterns have slated bases and steep pyramidal lead roofs. Verges are raised sandstone, some with stone finials and/or trefoil kneelers. Tall red-brick chimneystacks rise from the gables, most with tall clay pots. The north wing extension has a red-brick bellcote (without bell) to the gable. Cast-iron ogee rainwater goods are carried on projecting sandstone eaves, with cast-iron hoppers and square downpipes.

The walling of the original building is Flemish-bonded red-brick with sandstone dressings, incorporating a chamfered sandstone plinth with quoins, a string course at mid-height, an eaves band, and red-brick buttresses with sandstone offsets. The two-storey north wing has an ashlar sandstone string course between floors. Parts of the rear elevation are painted smooth render. The later extensions are English garden wall-bonded red-brick with sandstone dressings. Windows throughout are replacement one-over-one timber sash with horns and projecting sandstone sills; all openings have blocked ashlar sandstone surrounds, and original doorcases have shouldered heads. The extensions are lit by large multi-paned replacement timber windows with margin panes.

The principal elevation faces west. It comprises the original double-pile rectangular block at the centre, abutted at north and south gables by the rectangular linking blocks. The main block is three openings wide, divided by buttresses, each bay with two modern aluminium rooflights to the lower pitch. The left and central bays have paired four-light windows. The right bay has two identical modern timber-sheeted doors with double transom lights over, accessed by a modern brick pavior ramp. To the north, the right gable is abutted by the linking block; the left gable has a projecting chimneystack. The east (rear) elevation has modern panelled-and-glazed timber doors and large multi-paned timber window openings. The south gable is abutted by the single-storey linking block.

The north linking block has paired windows and a projecting gabled porch to the west, with a timber-sheeted entrance door. The lintel carries a carved inscription reading "INFANTS SCHOOL". Above the door is a carved sandstone roundel with a shield set into a quatrefoil recess, bearing a cross and red hand of Ulster motif, framed by an inscribed band reading "ROSE: GOVERNOR: TRUSCOTT: DEP: GOVERNOR". The east elevation of the linking block has a modern window and a modern half-panelled timber door. The south linking block has three replacement timber windows to both its east and west elevations.

The perpendicular north wing is hipped at its west end with leaded hips. All upper windows are four-centre arched. The wing has wall-head dormer windows and carved sandstone panels to three sides. At the re-entrant angle with the linking block is an entrance porch with a pierced sandstone balustrade, a small window at the right cheek, and a timber-sheeted door surmounted by a plain square sandstone plaque. A canted west bay is lit at ground floor by three sash windows. The north elevation is abutted to the left by a three-storey square broached entrance tower that is flush with a gabled bay to its left and rises to an octagonal belfry with cusped sandstone openings surmounted by a slated roof. The third stage has timber oculi; the second stage has a diminutive window to the west and a glazed trefoil to the north; at ground floor, a timber-sheeted door (matching that at the west) is accessed by a modern brick pavior step and is surmounted by an oversized transom with breeze block infill. The gabled block to the left has a sandstone trefoil and platband to the apex, with a window at first floor over paired windows. An exposed section to the east has a one-over-one window at ground floor right.

The perpendicular south wing has a tracery window to its west gable comprising two cusped lancets with a six-point star above, all with replacement leaded and coloured glass. The window has an extended sill terminating in decorative carved sandstone blocks and is surmounted by a hood mould with plain stops; a carved sandstone trefoil rises to the apex. The north elevation has three modern rooflights and a lean-to abutment at ground floor level, with a projecting gabled porch to the right. The entrance here is similarly arranged to those described above, surmounted by an inscribed lintel reading "BOYS SCHOOL" and a matching roundel. The east gable is abutted by the later extension of around 1935. The south elevation is divided by buttresses into six bays, all with modern aluminium rooflights, and large multi-paned timber windows with margin panes throughout; the central and right bays each have a modern timber-sheeted entrance door.

The extensions to the north and south wings of around 1935 are styled consistently with the original building, with flat-roof projections to inner elevations and regularly arranged large multi-paned timber windows. The gabled one-and-a-half-storey classroom addition to the south elevation of the north block faces south. Its gabled left bay projects slightly, with a carved sandstone trefoil to the apex of the gable and large multi-paned timber windows with a timber-sheeted door to the right. The right bay has a gabled dormer window containing a multi-paned timber window with margin panes.

Setting

The building sits on a large site at the junction of Nursery Avenue and Beresford Road in Coleraine town centre, to the north of Terrace Row Presbyterian Church and facing a large supermarket to the west. To the east of the site is a two- and three-storey red-brick and pale stone modern apartment complex. The site has been tarmacadamed to provide residents' parking, accessed from Nursery Avenue to the south. The boundary is defined by an English garden wall-bonded red-brick wall with saddleback stone coping, and square piers with pointed caps at pedestrian access points.