Bridge Community Centre, 50 Railway Street, Lisburn, Co Antrim, BT28 1XP

Bridge Community Centre on Railway Street, Lisburn is a former Temperance Institute built in 1890, designed in a free Italianate style by the Belfast architects Young and MacKenzie. It is a handsome and prominent building that retains most of its original exterior features, a number of its original interior features, and its original character. Its continuity of at least part of its original functions over more than a century gives it considerable local historical interest and undoubted social importance.

MAIN BUILDING — EXTERIOR

The main building is two storeys with a basement and attics, constructed in red brick with stucco dressings. The main entrance faces west.

The west elevation is asymmetrical, five openings wide, arranged as three bays: a slightly recessed central bay, a triplet of windows to the right at each main storey, and a single window to the left at each main storey. The left-hand extremity extends to a canted corner bay one window wide. The roof is gabled and hipped to the corner bay, covered in Bangor blue slates laid in regular courses. A moulded cast iron gutter runs along the right-hand end with a circular cast iron downpipe. Two dormer windows sit in the main roof slope and a third sits at the corner hip; all are gabled with triangular pediments and contain rectangular timber sliding sash windows, 1 over 1 vertically hung with horns, set in timber surrounds. The dormer on the canted corner bay has a keyblock. Dormer roofs and cheeks are slated to match the main roof. Two red brick chimneys have moulded stucco cornices; one on the south gable retains some original stoneware pots, the other has red pots.

The basement is marked by a high projecting channel-rusticated stucco plinth. Above this, a projecting moulded sandstone stringcourse runs at first-floor cill level, with a projecting sandstone eaves course above. Stucco quoins appear at the extremities and corners of projecting bays, and all openings have raised moulded stucco dressings.

The central entrance consists of a pair of original rectangular panelled double doors set in what appear to be later marble-dressed reveals, surmounted by a moulded stucco semi-circular arch with a plain semi-circular fanlight. A deep timber frieze above the door bears the inscription "Bridge Community Centre". A faceted keystone to the arch rises into a stuccoed cartouche with an open segmental pediment containing a datestone inscribed "1890". Two steps lead to the door: the lower is concrete, the upper granite. Windows throughout are timber sliding sashes as described for the dormers, all rectangular except for the right-hand triplet at first-floor level, which have semi-circular arched upper sashes. First-floor window surrounds are moulded with keystones; ground-floor surrounds are similar but also surmounted by cornices or a pediment, with projecting stone cills. Basement windows are deep-set without surrounds and have been replaced in modern PVC, with modern steel bars affixed.

The north elevation is of similar storey heights and materials to the west, also five openings wide in one plane, extending at the right-hand extremity to an angled corner bay. The roof is similar, with one chimney (with red pots) on the left-hand gable and two dormers in the main roof, detailed as on the west elevation, both with keyblocks. The gutter and downpipe are similar to those on the west elevation. Ground-floor, first-floor and dormer windows are timber sliding sashes as before, all rectangular; basement windows are PVC as on the west elevation. The left-hand opening at ground-floor level is a doorway with a semi-circular arch and a raised stucco surround rising from the rusticated plinth, with a moulded label and keystone; it contains an original rectangular panelled two-leaf door. To the left of this doorway, a marble drinking fountain is set into the wall, with a bowed basin and projecting surround; it is inscribed with the monogram "AJS" and the tap is now missing.

The rear elevation is plainer and more utilitarian in character than the street-front elevations. The roof is gabled and hipped, covered in Bangor blue slates in regular courses, with one chimney (with red pots) and three original flush rooflights. A later modern monopitch roof covers a fire-escape door that leads onto a steel fire-escape stairway. The walls are of plain red brick with stucco quoins at the right-hand extremity and short returns of moulded stringcourses from the north elevation, plus two shallow buttresses to the main walling. Cast iron gutters and downpipes are present alongside modern PVC soil pipes and a downpipe. First-floor windows are rectangular timber sliding sashes, 1 over 1 with horns, set in plain reveals with brick flat-arch heads. The fire-escape doors — one at attic level and one at first-floor level — are modern glazed flush timber, set in felt-dressed timber structures; the stairway dog-legs around the projecting ground-floor toilet block to reach the rear yard.

At the right-hand end of the rear wall at ground level, a doorway leads to the basement area; it contains a modern diagonally-sheeted timber door in plain reveals with a modern projecting segmental arched hood, surmounted by a plain rectangular window in a flat-arched brick reveal. The door opens onto a concrete step partly enclosed by a low curving rubble stone retaining wall to the tarmac driveway that descends to the rear yard. A short red brick pier projects from the right-hand extremity of the rear wall, forming part of an open gateway to the rear driveway.

Projecting from the ground floor of the main rear wall is an original toilet block with a basement storey. Its roof is a hipped pavilion type, covered in Bangor blue slates in regular courses with red ridge tiles, and includes a timber louvred ventilating dormer to the south side with a slated gabled roof, and a three-light flush rooflight to the south side. The walls of the toilet block are red brick with a timber eaves board and PVC gutters and downpipes alongside a cast iron downpipe. Windows are rectangular timber sliding sashes, vertically hung, 4 over 4 with horns, set in plain reveals with brick flat-arched heads and projecting sandstone cills; the basement has later timber fixed lights. The area between the toilet block and the main block is covered with a lean-to corrugated fibreglass roof.

To the south side of the toilet block is a flat-roofed passageway with a canted corner next to the main block: red brick walls, flat felt-covered roof, and one window in the canted plane, timber sashed 1 over 1 as before. Projecting from the rear wall of the toilet block at basement level is a modern flat-roofed garage of preformed metal panels with timber-sheeted double doors; within the garage, part of the rear wall of the toilets is exposed, including three windows that have been replaced in modern PVC.

At basement level on the south side of the toilet block is an open basement well enclosed by the rear wall of the main block, the wall of the rear return, the brick wall of a single-storey garage range in the rear yard, and a stone and brick retaining wall to the adjoining property to the south. The enclosing walls are painted white and the ground surface is paved. Windows to the rear of the main block and to the rear return have been replaced in modern PVC. The south elevation of the main block, visible above the abutting building and to its rear, is a plain red brick gable.

SETTING

The building occupies a corner site within the built-up area of the town, with two elevations facing directly onto main roads and opening directly onto the pavement. It is adjoined on the south side by a neighbouring building on Railway Street but is open on the east side onto Magheralave Road. Beyond the east end of the building is a gateway leading into the rear yard, with a boundary wall beyond the gate pier; the boundary wall to the roadway is of red brick in a curving plane with a red ridge tile coping. The rear yard slopes downward to the east and is surfaced throughout in tarmac. Along the south boundary of the rear yard runs a range of single-storey lean-to-roofed red brick garages of no special interest. Along the east boundary stands a two-storey gymnasium, with three lean-to-roofed rendered garages of no special interest at its north end.

GYMNASIUM

The gymnasium is a plain gabled rectangular red brick building of double-storey height. Its roof is covered in Bangor blue slates in regular courses; the walls are red brick with projecting brick eaves courses; one chimney on the south gable is rendered; and the end gables are blind. Windows in the west wall are rectangular timber sliding sashes, 2 over 2 with horns, set in plain reveals with projecting sandstone cills: three large tall windows sit at the left-hand end, with two small first-floor windows to the right. At ground-floor level, the left-hand end has an original timber-sheeted door; at the right-hand end, a later roofed open porch sits between the gymnasium and the adjacent garages and contains a modern door with a modern timber fixed light and a top-hung vent to its left.

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

The building was constructed as a Temperance Institute for the Lisburn Temperance Union in 1889–90 to the designs of Young and MacKenzie, architects of Belfast; the builders were D. and P. MacHenry. The site was donated by Sir Richard Wallace. The foundation stone was laid by Mrs J.D. Barbour on 24 June 1889 and the building was opened in 1890. The cost of construction was met largely by J.N. Nicholson of Lissue House, Rev. J.A. Stewart, and Messrs W. Barbour and Sons. The drinking fountain set into the wall facing Magheralave Road was added in 1891 at the expense of Rev. J.A. Stewart, whose monogram "AJS" it bears.

The building's original purpose was to provide a centre with reading and recreation rooms to counteract the attraction and influence of public houses; the Lisburn Temperance Union had been formed on 21 February 1887. The original accommodation comprised a café and kitchen, reading and recreation rooms, committee rooms, and a gymnasium in a separate building to the rear. Stabling facilities were added to the rear in 1893, but by 1934 they were let as garages and by 1977 they had been sold. The gymnasium was reconstructed in 1919 to provide a caretaker's house and billiard rooms, and was remodelled in 1965 when the Sea Cadets took over and constructed decks and rooms to replicate those of a ship.

The Institute was requisitioned by the army during the Second World War from approximately 1939 to 1944, then taken over by the Ministry of Finance until 1950, before reverting to its original function. It was subsequently purchased by Lisburn Borough Council in 1979, who re-opened it as the Bridge Community Centre on 12 May 1981, continuing part of the building's original functions.