Music Centre, aka Ballymoney Performing Arts Centre, 23 Charles Street, Ballymoney, BT53 6DX, Co Antrim

Former Technical School, now known as the Ballymoney Music Centre or Ballymoney Performing Arts Centre, 23 Charles Street, Ballymoney

This is a two-storey Edwardian red-brick former technical school, built in 1905–06 to designs by Belfast architect James A. Hanna (father of Denis O'D. Hanna) and extended in 1914 to designs by the firm Hobart & Heron. It sits just north of Ballymoney town centre on Charles Street, facing south-west, next to mixed-use commercial buildings and 20th-century houses. The building retains most of its original external fabric and displays many classical features typical of the period.

Historical background

Sometime before spring 1905, Ballymoney Rural and Urban District Councils decided to build a school for technical instruction and secured a 999-year lease of the Charles Street site from Lord Antrim at a nominal rent. Work began in mid-1905 under local contractor Albert McMaster, with plumbing and gas-fitting carried out by Messrs Jameson & Son, also of Ballymoney. The school was officially opened on 21 November 1906 by the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, the Earl of Aberdeen. In its original form the building contained a science laboratory, a manual workshop, a domestic economy room, a drawing classroom, and additional rooms for class teaching, all well equipped and furnished.

In its first form the building was essentially cruciform in plan, with the front elevation dominated by the north-westernmost projecting gable and two smaller matching gabled projections to either side elevation, of which only the north-western one survives today.

By early 1914, the Ballymoney Rural and Urban District Joint Technical Committee had decided to extend the premises. This work, carried out to designs by Hobart & Heron, was complete by the end of that year. A valuer's office notebook from that period records total building costs of £3,030, with furnishing amounting to a further £1,500. The extension added a large south-eastern wing fronted by a new gabled projection designed to match the original, though it is of slightly lesser quality in terms of materials and workmanship. This extension almost doubled the size of the building and changed the plan from a T-shape to a rectangular form with a pair of symmetrical projecting gables to the main south-west elevation. Although the symmetry of Hanna's original composition was altered, the building as extended retains its overall proportions and ornamentation well.

At the time of the 1914 extension, although the local authority technical school occupied most of the building, six upper-floor rooms were rented by Ballymoney Intermediate School, a private institution that became Ballymoney High School in 1924 and later Dalriada School; it appears to have remained in the building until 1937.

The building is marked as a Technical School on Ordnance Survey maps of 1921–31 and 1951, though by at least late 1950 the institution had become known as Ballymoney Technical College. By the time the college moved to new purpose-built premises along Coleraine Road — opened around 1968 and now the Northern Regional College — the rear outbuildings had reached their present extent and a single-storey block had been added to the northern corner of the main building. At some point before 1975 the old building became the Ballymoney Music Centre, a role it retained until the 2000s. The Centre closed around 2008 and the building is believed to have remained vacant since then.

Exterior

The building is rectangular in plan with a pitched roof, a pair of large projecting gables to the main south-west elevation, and single-storey flat-roofed projections to the south-west corner and the rear. All walls are generally smooth red clay brick with no plinth at the base and a brick string course at first-floor level. The brick is laid in stretcher bond on the original 1905–06 sections and in English garden wall bond on the 1914 extensions. Window openings are a mixture of square-headed and round-headed types, some with reconstituted stone surrounds, and all window sills are reconstituted stone. There is a cast metal box-profile gutter on brick dentils at the eaves, most downpipes are cast metal, the roof is asbestos slate with plain ridge tiles, and there is one tall two-stage red-brick chimney to the left-hand side of the roof, with a moulded reconstituted stone capping and clay pots; a second similar chimney was probably removed during the 1914 extension and remodelling works.

South-west (front) elevation

The front elevation consists of two large symmetrical two-storey gabled projections with an entrance bay between them and a small flat-roofed porch projection at the north-west corner. Each gable has one large square-headed sexpartite window at ground level with a reconstituted stone head of rounded profile and squared reveals. At first-floor level there is a large Palladian-style window flanked by two round-headed arched windows; the Palladian window has a reconstituted stone surround with moulded architraves and keystone details, while the arched windows have plain brick soldier-course headers. Each gable is parapeted with roll-top terracotta coping and corbelled brick kneelers, and is decorated at the apex with a pair of brick pilasters on foliate terracotta and reconstituted stone corbels, brick pinnacles, and a terracotta panel with foliate terracotta tiles. The side walls of both gabled projections are plain red-brick.

The entrance bay at ground level has a door opening to the left and a window to the right, with window heads similar to those of the gables. The window is bipartite with two opening lights at the top. The door is segmental arch-headed, in boarded painted timber with its original knob, and has a tripartite glazed overlight. To the right of the doorway is a single brick pilaster on a foliate terracotta and reconstituted stone corbel, similar to those on the gables. At first-floor level are three evenly spaced square-headed openings with brick soldier heads, the windows having opening lights at the top.

The porch at the north-west corner has a door to the right similar to the main entrance door, and a tripartite window to the left similar to the ground-floor gable windows. It has a parapeted roof above, stepped over the doorway and framed by a decorative brick pilaster similar to those on the gables. There is a decorative cast metal downpipe with hopper to the left of the window. Prior to listing, the ground-floor window bay to the right-hand side had been partially boarded up.

North-east (rear) elevation

The rear elevation has a large two-storey gable to the right-hand side, a large two-storey projecting gable to the left-hand side, and a narrow two-storey bay in the middle. Both gables have plain clipped verges; the right-hand gable has sprocketed eaves. There are two single-storey flat-roofed toilet blocks: a large one connected to the north corner and a smaller one attached to the north-west face of the left-hand gabled projection.

The right-hand gable has a large square-headed tripartite central window with a plain reconstituted stone surround flanked by two square-headed openings at first-floor level. At ground level there is a smaller square-headed opening in the centre flanked by two larger segmental arch-headed windows; the central window has a reconstituted stone surround and the arched windows have brick soldier heads. Windows are generally of painted timber single-glazed construction with top opening lights, though they were boarded with timber at the time of survey.

The left-hand projecting gable is similar to the right but has only a central window at first-floor level and two openings at ground level — a square-headed door to the right and a segmental arch-headed window set off-centre — both boarded at survey.

The central narrow bay has two openings at first-floor level: one long vertical stair window and one standard window, both square-headed with soldier-course heads. There are also two small windows of similar detail at a lower level above the roof of the toilet block; all windows in this bay were boarded at survey and the lower ones were partially obscured from view.

The toilet blocks generally have plain square-headed windows, also boarded at the time of survey. The larger block has reconstituted stone window heads and fascia; the smaller block has brick heads and a painted timber fascia. To the right-hand side of the small toilet block there is a set of external steps with a painted metal guarding rail leading to a basement door.

North-west (side) elevation

This elevation consists of a two-storey projecting gable to the left-hand side with the side wall of the single-storey porch projection attached to the right. The gable has one tripartite window at ground level and a Palladian-style window at first floor. Gable copings and kneelers are similar in detail to the south-west elevation, but there are no decorative brick and terracotta wall details. Windows are similar in detail to those on the south-west elevation, though the ground-floor windows were boarded at the time of survey.

South-east (side) elevation

This is a two-storey elevation with a gable at the centre. The gabled section has a Palladian-style window at first floor with similar detail to the south-east gable. At ground floor there are six evenly spaced square-headed openings with brick soldier heads — a door to the left and five windows — with a continuous brick hood mould and string course above the openings; all were boarded with timber at the time of survey. There is one tall red-brick chimney with a moulded reconstituted stone capping and six clay pots.

Materials summary

Roof: asbestos slate. Rainwater goods: generally cast metal, with some replacement uPVC. Walls: smooth red clay brick and reconstituted stone; stretcher bond to the original 1905–06 building, some English garden wall bond to the later extensions. Windows: generally single-glazed painted timber; some casements with hoppers and some sliding sash (to be confirmed).

Setting and grounds

The school is set back slightly from the street within its own landscaped grounds, surfaced in tarmacadam with mature trees along the south-west boundary. The listing extends to include the original entrance gates, railings, piers, and low walling on the south-east boundary to Charles Street. The piers and walling are red-brick with reconstituted stone mouldings and caps to the piers and moulded brick coping on the walls. The railings are decorative wrought iron, with replacement timber fencing on top of the low walling. Along the north-east boundary there is a linear range of single-storey outbuildings: one with concrete block walling and a corrugated asbestos roof, and one with boarded timber walling and an asbestos slate roof.