MB Block, University Administration Building 3, University of Ulster, Magee Campus

MB Block, University of Ulster, Magee Campus, Northland Road, Londonderry

This detached, symmetrical, multi-bay, two-storey-with-attic red brick building was constructed around 1881 to designs by Young & Mackenzie, a Belfast-based architectural practice described by the Dictionary of Irish Architects as the most successful architectural practice in Belfast, who had become the leading architects for the Presbyterian Church in the north-east. It was originally built as a pair of semi-detached professors' houses and is now used as offices by the University of Ulster, the two houses having been connected internally and largely modernised, with some loss of historic fabric.

The building is almost identical to the adjacent MA Block and shares many brick, red sandstone and moulding details with the MC and MD Blocks that flank the main neo-Gothic college building on College Avenue. Dutch-style gabled dormers suggest a Queen Anne influence that saw popular revival during the High Victorian era, whilst the cogging brick courses, basket-arched lintels, tall profiled chimney stacks and leaded glass overlights reflect the desire for hand-crafted detailing associated with the emerging Arts and Crafts movement. The Natural Stone Database records that the sandstone dressings are Corsehill sandstone.

The building sits on an elevated site to the west of the Magee University Campus, facing south, adjacent to the MC Block to the east and the MA Block to the west. It is set to the north of a tarmacadam driveway that passes the front elevation and opens onto the Northland Road entrance to the campus.

Roofs and External Fabric

The roofs are hipped and covered in natural slate with terracotta ridge tiles, lead valleys and five profiled red brick chimney stacks with terracotta pots and corbelled-out capstones. Four timber-sheeted gabled dormers contain paired 2-over-1 timber sash windows and are finished with timber bargeboards. Moulded cast-iron guttering is carried on projecting sandstone eaves supported on two courses of angled (cogging) brickwork, with cast-iron downpipes below.

The walls are red brick laid in Flemish bond with red sandstone trim to a projecting plinth course and a sandstone and cogging brick string course between the floors. Windows are square-headed with flush red sandstone basket-arched lintels, sandstone sills and 4-over-1 timber sash windows with slender ogee horns; some historic glass survives.

Principal Elevations

The symmetrical south-facing front elevation is four bays wide with a full-height three-sided canted bay window at each end. Each bay window has a Dutch-style wall-head dormer with curvilinear coping and a ball finial. To the left of centre, window openings have been altered to accommodate a new Tudor-arched door opening, which reuses the leaded overlight from the west elevation. This door opens onto a concrete universal access ramp with steel handrails on a brick plinth wall.

The asymmetrical west side elevation has a projecting large brick chimney stack to the right, with an angled vertical projecting course rising above the eaves. To the left of this chimney stack is a red sandstone blank cartouche set within a red sandstone panel. The ground floor central window has a four-centred arched red sandstone doorcase, now filled with a 4-over-2 timber sash window, flanked by Tuscan pilasters on raised plinths with foliate carving to the capitals. These pilasters are surmounted by scrolled and fluted console brackets, also with foliate carving and swags, which in turn support a hood cornice; the spandrel panels are diamond fielded.

The east side elevation mirrors the west side elevation in arrangement, and retains a doorcase identical to the former opening on the west elevation, here fitted with a panelled and glazed timber door and a leaded stained glass overlight. This door likewise opens onto a concrete universal access ramp with steel handrails.

Rear Extension and Rear Elevation

The rear north elevation is abutted by a U-plan two-storey extension, built around 1992, which encloses a small central courtyard. Windows on this rear elevation are 6-over-2 timber sashes and do not align vertically between ground and first floor levels. Two small rooflights face north onto the courtyard slope of the roof. The projecting gabled returns to left and right have externally rebuilt corbelled chimney stacks with an angled vertical course above first floor level and red clay pots. The east and west faces of these returns, looking into the courtyard, retain 2-over-1 sliding sash windows at upper level, with modern aluminium fixed lights below.

Historical Background

Magee College was established following a bequest of over £20,000 by Martha Maria Magee upon her death in 1846, directed to the Presbyterian General Assembly to build a college in Ulster for men seeking a career in the Presbyterian ministry. After protracted debates over the site and construction delays, Londonderry was selected in 1853. An architectural competition was held which required plans for eight classrooms, a common hall and library for 500 people, a laboratory, a small museum room and eight professors' houses. The Gothic design of Dublin-based architect Edward P. Gribbon was selected, and the foundation stone was laid on 18th August 1856. However, due to budgetary constraints, the eight professors' houses were omitted from the original construction. The college was officially opened to students on 10th October 1865.

In its early years Magee College had few students — only eight were enrolled in 1874. In 1879 the college became one of the constituent colleges of the Royal University of Ireland, which increased enrolment, a trend furthered by the admission of women students from 1883. This connection with the Royal University and the generosity of the college's supporters led to a number of additions to the campus in the late 19th century. In 1881 the first of the long-planned professors' houses were finally constructed on what became known as College Avenue, including this pair designed by Young & Mackenzie. The firm had previously designed Londonderry's Fourth Presbyterian Church in 1877–79 and a second church on Clooney Terrace in the Waterside.

The Annual Revisions Town Plan of around 1873–1910 depicts the building as originally identical to the adjoining building along Northland Road, internally divided into two separate dwellings each occupied by a college professor, and valued at £90. In 1901 the building was occupied by the Reverend James McMaster (Vice President) and the Reverend Frances Petticrew (Professor of Theology). The 1901 census return described it as a pair of first-class dwellings comprising 28 rooms with two coal houses as sole outbuildings. By the First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936–57) the occupants were James McMaster and the Reverend McClean, and the rateable value had risen to £102.

During the Second World War, many Magee College buildings were requisitioned, and a number of the professors' houses were used as classrooms while remaining students were educated at the Model College on Northland Road. After the war the houses reverted to residential use, though by the 1950s not all remained occupied. In 1950, on the recommendation of the Acheson Report, some professors' houses were converted into student residences. By the Second Revaluation (1956–72) the buildings were being used as administration and teaching blocks as well as residential units. The building nearest Northland Road was converted into halls of residence in 1953 and remained in that use until at least the 1970s, before being converted into classrooms for the School of Psychology during the college's expansion from 1984. The two-storey red brick extension to the rear was added in 1992 as part of the university's extension scheme. The buildings along College Avenue were listed in 1976 and included in the Magee Conservation Area in 2006.

Despite the institutional appearance of the access ramps and handrails, the exterior remains well proportioned and is a good example of its type. MB Block shares group value with a wealth of 19th-century structures dispersed throughout the campus that contribute significant interest to the Magee Conservation Area.