Greenisland Primary School, Upper Station Road, Greenisland, Carrickfergus, Co.Antrim, BT38 8RA

Greenisland Primary School is a detached multi-bay single-storey modern brick primary school built in 1938, located on the east side of Upper Station Road in Greenisland. The school was officially opened on 24th June 1938 by the Minister of Education, Mr J.H. Robb K.C.M.P., at a cost of £7,640 and was designed to accommodate two hundred pupils. Most of the first pupils came from the old school at Trooperslane, which closed on the same day. The school was constructed following representations made in the early 1930s to Larne Regional Educational Committee by local figures including Senator Barclay, and Messrs J. Sloan, T. Carson, J. Wilson, N. Smith and J. Magee, to address the absence of schools in this residential area seven miles from Belfast.

The original 1938 building was almost entirely destroyed by fire in 1968, eradicating much of the original historic fabric, including the original hipped slated roofs over the principal entrance block. The school has since been refurbished and extended. A first extension was opened in 1957, providing four additional classrooms, an assembly hall, staff room and medical inspection room. A further classroom wing was added to the south in 1960.

The school is built to an irregular plan form. The west elevation facing Upper Station Road features a skewed entrance block built circa 1938, with a central entrance comprising replacement timber doors surmounted by a cantilevered timber flat-roof canopy, flanked by four windows on each side. A similarly detailed linking block with four windows connects the entrance block to the assembly hall to the north. The entrance block contains an external courtyard at centre with two covered open walkways with timber sheeted ceilings supported on brick piers and brick plinth walling with concrete coping. The area between the walkways has a felted surface which forms the roof of basement boiler house accommodation below. This courtyard is now enclosed at the east side by staff accommodation built circa 2000.

The double-height assembly hall, built in 1957, is detailed similarly to the entrance block and features a hipped natural slate roof with blue and black clay ridge tiles and a red-brick parapet with concealed gutters. The west elevation contains four double-height multi-pane timber casement windows within continuous concrete surrounds, flanked by double-leaf timber doors at each side in painted deep concrete reveals, each door surmounted by a square single-pane window within a concrete surround. The north elevation is abutted by a single-storey 1957 extension with flat roof.

The 1957 north and 1960 south classroom blocks are aligned east-west and are similarly detailed to the west entrance block, with felted flat roofs and concealed rainwater goods with overhanging timber eaves boards. Double-height multi-pane windows are contained within precast concrete surrounds and cills. The south block's south elevation contains fifteen windows; the north block's south elevation contains fourteen windows. Each block is abutted at the north by a slightly lower later extension containing ancillary accommodation. The rear elevation is abutted by a series of single-storey extensions containing ancillary accommodation, and the south elevation is abutted by a single-storey linking block connecting the assembly hall to the entrance block.

The walling throughout is stretcher bond red brick. Roofs are felted flat with the exception of the assembly hall which has a hipped natural slate roof. Concealed gutters are hidden behind brick parapet walls with projecting concrete eaves courses. Rainwater goods comprise cast-iron hoppers and goods with some replacement cast-metal fittings. Windows are largely original metal casement, though some use replacement uPVC. Some windows are contained within continuous concrete dressings while others are set in brick surrounds with voussoirs and projecting masonry cills.

Despite refurbishment throughout the school, a few original features remain, including original metal casement windows and parquet flooring. Parts of the school exhibit good proportions and detailing; however, the fire damage of 1968 and various later twentieth-century additions have compromised the original design. The school first appears on the seventh edition Ordnance Survey map of 1945–51, captioned 'Greenisland Primary School', showing the central portion with an eastern wing; other sections date from after 1945–51.