Ardhowen Theatre, 97 Dublin Road, Enniskillen Co Fermanagh, BT74 6FZ

Ardhowen Theatre is a civic theatre building located on the banks of the River Erne, approximately one mile south of Enniskillen town centre, directly west of Castle Coole. The complex comprises an original Edwardian house built circa 1901-10, a modern theatre auditorium extension constructed in 1984-6, and a former coach house to the rear, all integrated around a rear courtyard on a mature, tree-lined site.

The original three-bay Edwardian house is two and a half storeys with a Welsh natural slate hipped roof in a u-shaped plan around a flat-roofed centre. The roof features dormer windows with hipped roofs and leaded cheeks, and three painted rendered chimney stacks with moulded cornice caps. Original cast iron rainwater goods on overhanging sheeted eaves were restored in January 2022. The walls are painted roughcast render with smooth soldiered quoins. Window surrounds, ground floor bay windows, and entrance porch are distinguished by painted smooth render.

The principal south elevation has two canted bays on the ground floor, each containing three windows with a round-headed central window and square-headed windows on either cant, plus a projecting moulded stringcourse, cill and plinth. A flat-roofed porch with two square painted rendered columns with moulded pedestals and capitals spans over both bays and the entrance, with three concrete steps leading to the front door. The central door is double-leafed timber panelled with a plain glass fanlight. The first floor has paired windows above each bay with a taller central door with single-glazed panel. At roof level are three twelve-paned side-hung timber dormer windows, repaired December 2021-January 2022. Windows are generally 1/1 timber sliding sashes in square-headed openings, with variations on the principal elevation including camber-headed openings at first floor and round-headed openings in the ground floor bays. All windows are single-glazed.

The east elevation has two dormer and first-floor windows aligned vertically matching the principal elevation. One remaining ground-floor timber window, exposed on the left side, has three one-over-one sliding sashes within a painted moulded surround with moulded cornice above. A single-storey flat-roofed studio extension with a chamfered east corner abuts this elevation, featuring five pairs of camber-headed window openings containing timber one-over-one sliding sashes and a parapet roof rising above a moulded cornice and projecting masonry cill.

The rear north elevation is asymmetrical. The u-shaped roof plan is expressed through to the ground in a two-storey projection on the western side, with a single central dormer window above first and ground floor windows in asymmetrical placement. This projection forms a return in plan, with the ground floor infilled beneath a slated mono-pitch roof to create a porch containing two eight-over-one timber sliding-sash windows and a sheeted timber door with eight glazed upper panes. Above the porch is an asymmetrical composition with paired timber casements in a moulded surround and a taller timber one-over-one sliding sash window on the right side. The rear elevation gives onto a rear courtyard and the former coach house, which is walled and roofed identically to the main house and has been extended with a boiler house in matching style.

The modern theatre auditorium extension extends westward from the original house. Its principal south elevation is a two-storey wall of curtain glazing with vertical glazed panels set between aluminium vertical members of accentuated thinness on a supporting steel frame, with a minimal seamless silicone joint at mid-height emphasising verticality. At second floor ceiling level the glazing cants back and terminates in a flat roof over the entrance link, but above the main auditorium it transitions to a hipped slate roof continuing to rise and terminating in a flat roof with a ridge line similar in height to the Edwardian house. The steel eaves line runs consistently level with the eaves of the original house. The glazing continuity is breached singularly by a masonry entrance portico, storey and a half high, finished in painted render and detailed consistently with the earlier house. Two slate-clad ventilators protrude dormer-like from the slate-clad roof. The auditorium block is canted on both corners and sits forward from the Edwardian house and entrance link.

The west elevation is monolithically clad with vertically-hung natural Penryn Welsh slate, with the slate seamlessly transitioning from the walls into the roof pitch. The only interruptions are a contrasting green ground floor auditorium escape door, a first floor escape door, and a steel spiral staircase. The rear north elevation is also fully clad with Penryn Welsh slate. At roof level, black painted windows extend sculptorally outward from the wall at forty-five degrees to form a fire lantern. The rear elevation sits below a steep bank rising northward containing a path offering views over the theatre roof towards the River Erne.

Both the former Edwardian house (now used for administration and ancillary functions) and the theatre extension now serve the theatre complex, with the former coach house integrated into the complex to house backstage facilities and plant. The front entrances of both the original house and theatre extension face south towards the River Erne and overlook the Ardhowen Jetty. The mature grounds slope down towards the water, while ground rises steeply to the north at the rear.