Loreto Convent, Brook Street, Omagh, Co Tyrone BT78 1DL

Loreto Convent, Brook Street, Omagh, County Tyrone

This is a fine, mainly mid-19th century institutional building in Gothic Revival style, which retains much of its original character and most of its original exterior features. Built between 1856 and 1859, apparently in stages, with the five bays to the north constructed first, followed by the circular stair tower and two bays to the south. The rear return wing also appears to have been added subsequently, as evidenced by original quoins visible on the north elevation. The date of the attached chapel is uncertain. Authorship of each phase is not definitively established, but both J. Neville and the firm of Hadfield and Goldie have been recorded as architects involved — possibly the former responsible for the original convent block and the latter for later additions. The building is now in use as a school.

The main building is a stone structure in Gothic Revival style, forming an L-shaped block of three storeys and a basement, with a circular stair tower to the front and a gabled chapel attached to the rear. The main entrance faces west.

WEST ELEVATION

The west elevation is arranged with five bays symmetrically disposed to the left of the circular stair tower, and two further bays to its right. The portion to the left contains a central elevated entrance reached by a double flight of exterior steps. There is a slight but perceptible difference in the quality of masonry between the five left-hand bays and the two right-hand bays and the tower itself, reflecting the two building phases. However, the detailing of the window openings and stringcourses is similar throughout, and the roof is now treated as a single unit.

The roof is covered in Bangor blue slates laid in regular courses, with dark-toned ridge tiles and ironwork finials at the extremities, though most of the original stiff-leaf foliated details are now missing. There is one chimney on the main ridge, smooth cement-rendered, with a battered cap and three original octagonal stoneware pots.

The walling to the left of the stair tower is of random rubble sandstone with squared sandstone quoins and roughly squared dressings to the window reveals. The basement storey has a slightly projecting face with a weathered stringcourse; the second storey has a moulded stringcourse and moulded cornice. The walling of the stair tower and the section to its right is of snecked sandstone rubble with squared sandstone dressings to the windows. Many of the stone dressings have been subsequently rendered and incised to simulate the markings of natural stonework.

The basement windows are timber sliding sash, vertically hung, semi-circular arched, three over three, with horns, with projecting sandstone cills and arched ironwork security bars. The windows to the elevated ground floor and first floor are similarly sashed but Gothic arched, set together in tall Gothic arched recesses. The second-floor windows are similarly sashed but rectangular, with the cornice forming their heads.

The central entrance bay contains similarly sashed windows, but that at second-floor level has a shouldered head set within a cusped Gothic arch with a moulded label, a plain circular motif in the tympanum, and a gablet with moulded coping above. The central entrance on the elevated ground floor comprises a stop-chamfered Gothic archway containing a pair of rectangular chamfered panelled doors with central timber colonnettes, set below a moulded cornice and a Gothic traceried fanlight. This doorway opens onto a short flight of concrete steps that divides into a double flight at the base, with chamfered plinths of sandstone and smooth cement render, and ornamentally treated cast iron railings. The front and sides of the exterior steps are of sandstone rubble: the front contains a Gothic arched lunette with cast iron traceried bars and smooth render to the voussoirs. The left-hand side of the upper flight contains a rectangular ledged timber door set in a squared chamfered dressed surround; the right-hand side contains a window matching those to the basement of the main block. Rainwater goods appear to be UPVC.

The circular stair tower has a slated conical roof, lead-dressed to the apex. Its windows are narrow lancets, timber sashed one over one with horns: Gothic arched at second-floor level; rectangular-headed at first-floor level but recessed within Gothic arched openings with decorative chamfering to the head; and rectangular-headed at elevated ground-floor level. All openings are chamfered. The base of the tower is of rectangular plan with a moulded cornice carrying stone weatherings. The front face and left-hand side contain rectangular timber windows, sashed one over one with horns, with ironwork security bars and recessed cills; the right-hand side contains a rectangular ledged timber door set in chamfered reveals. Decorative cast iron railings bound the plinth wall around the base of the stair tower.

NORTH ELEVATION

The north elevation shows the north end of the main front block, rising to four storeys as on the west front, with a long rear return wing extending to the left in the same plane. The ground slopes up to the left, so only one small basement opening is visible at the right-hand end of the rear return. The main front block to the right has a hipped slated roof; the walling matches the left-hand portion of the entrance front, with squared quoins visible to the basement and upper wall. Windows match those on the entrance front, with moulded UPVC gutters and UPVC downpipes. One chimney, smooth cement-rendered with a battered cap and three original octagonal stoneware pots, rises from a slightly projecting stone breast through the first and second storeys.

The rear return wing to the left is nine bays long, with a modern high-level link block projecting from it and connecting to a modern block to the north. The rear return wing is of three storeys with a partial basement at the right-hand end. The top floor is level with the main front block, but the two lower storeys sit at a lower level than the corresponding storeys of the main front block. The dressings to the ground floor and first floor of the wing to the right of the high-level link are nearly all rendered, but those from the link to the left-hand end are of dressed sandstone.

The ground-storey windows are Gothic arched, containing rectangular timber sliding sashes, three over three with horns, surmounted by arched three-pane top vents; the three leftmost ground-floor windows have iron security bars. The fourth ground-floor opening from the left is a doorway, Gothic arched, containing a pair of rectangular timber panelled doors. First-floor windows are similarly Gothic arched but without top vents. Second-floor windows are rectangular sashed, six over three, with horns, the cornice serving as their heads and the stringcourse as their cills.

One chimney to the rear of the main front block is smooth rendered as before with original pots. Two chimneys on the front wall plane of the wing are of ashlar sandstone with moulded battered caps, each with two original stoneware pots.

REAR ELEVATIONS OF THE MAIN BLOCKS

The east gable of the rear return wing is a blank wall of snecked sandstone, with a wide chimney breast projecting at the top storey on stepped corbels. The south face of the rear return wing is three storeys as elsewhere, but the wall is rendered. Windows match those on the north face, with the addition of rectangular-headed windows at first-floor level, and smooth rendered reveals. There is a fire escape stairway at the right-hand end; a modern high-level link block in concrete brickwork projects to the left of the fire escape stairway, with a high-level modern timber-boarded addition to the left of that within the rear yard, all partly obscuring the original south face of the rear return. Within the rear yard, the rear elevation of the main front entrance block has a slated roof as before, rendered walls, and windows that are mainly rectangular timber sashed three over three with horns, supplemented by later UPVC windows; UPVC rainwater goods are fitted throughout, and there is a later lean-to addition at basement level.

SOUTH ELEVATION

The south elevation is four storeys and four bays wide, with a hipped roof matching the entrance front. The walling matches the right-hand portion of the entrance front, with UPVC rainwater goods. Windows match those on the entrance front, except there are no iron bars to the third basement window from the left.

The first bay from the left has no windows to the upper floors. Instead, a slightly projecting chimney breast of sandstone rises through the first and second storeys, surmounted by a smooth rendered chimney stack with a battered cap and two original stoneware pots. At the base, the chimney breast is cusped-arched with a label moulding, carved head stops, and a foliated finial, framing a niche that contains a sculptured figure of Christ supported on a foliated sandstone corbel.

Extending to the right of the main block is a gabled chapel with a slated roof with terracotta ridge tiles, snecked sandstone walling with weathered buttresses, cast iron gutters on shaped stone corbels, and a cast iron downpipe. The chapel is two storeys high over a basement; one basement window matches those in the main block. The chapel windows are coupled lancets with cusped heads set below relieving arches.

Projecting forward at the right-hand end of the chapel is a single-storey sacristy with a roof of Bangor blue slates in regular courses, terracotta ridge tiles, and terracotta finials. There are moulded cornices to the parapet walls. Windows are small rectangular timber sashes, one over one with horns, to the front and right-hand side; the left-hand side has rectangular leaded windows flanking a leaded oculus. A rectangular ledged timber doorway to the front is set in chamfered reveals and reached by a short flight of stone steps. The east gable of the chapel contains a three-light Gothic traceried window with carved head label stops, and an ornamental ironwork cross finial to the apex of the gable. The north side of the chapel is detailed similarly to the south side, except the ground-floor area is obscured by a later modern flat-roofed corridor in concrete brickwork.

SETTING

The building stands in its own extensive grounds, now largely occupied by 20th century school buildings, with a tarmac driveway and tarmac areas in the immediate vicinity, grassed areas beyond, and mature trees and shrubs throughout. Immediately to the west, on a lawn facing the main entrance, is a white-painted metal statue on a sandstone pedestal with devotional inscriptions. A short distance to the north is a 19th century burial vault with only its entrance gable exposed. To the south-west is an open burial ground bounded by a hedge, with no memorials of particular architectural interest. To the north is the main driveway and main entrance gateway, comprising three piers of sandstone rubble with squared sandstone dressings and shallow pyramidal caps, containing a pair of large iron vehicular gates and a smaller pedestrian gate, none of special architectural interest. The boundary walling is of sandstone rubble with some cement-rendered coping.