Cookstown Technical College, 19 Loy Street, Cookstown, Co Tyrone, BT80 8PZ

Cookstown Technical College is a tall, square parapet-roofed building of neo-Georgian style, built in 1929 to designs by Government architect Roland Ingleby Smith FRIBA. It consists of two storeys set upon a raised basement storey, constructed of rustic brick with artificial stone cornice, keystones, and other dressings. An ancillary two-storey rear block of plainer design in plain red brick, also original, adjoins it to the rear.

The building stands in the built-up area of Cookstown on rising ground, set well back from the main street within its own grounds, now arranged as a car park on tarmac.

The main east-facing elevation is symmetrical and seven windows wide to the first floor. The basement features channelled rustication with recessed rectangular panels to the parapet and below ground floor cill level. A projecting plinth and block cornice mark the basement; a cill course defines the ground floor; and a frieze with deep cornice runs beneath the parapet, all in artificial stone. The parapet itself contains recessed rectangular panels and rises to a hipped roof of Bangor blue slate, hidden from view at close quarters.

The centrepiece is a classical doorcase elevated to ground floor level, approached by a double flight of exterior steps with plain iron balustrading surmounted by miniature cast iron urn finials. The main entrance door is a pair of rectangular timber panelled doors with a rectangular fanlight containing a double row of intersecting semi-circular glazing bars, recessed within a stone surround with a segmental pediment supported by a pair of shaped stone brackets embellished with dentils. Bronze lettering above reads "Cookstown Technical College".

Windows to the first floor are rectangular timber vertically hung sliding sash with 6 over 6 panes and horns, set in flat-arched openings with keystones of artificial stone, surrounded by moulded wooden frames with exposed boxes. Ground floor windows are similarly sashed but feature 3 over 9 panes in segmental arched openings with keystones. The basement contains two further doorways, one to each side of the external staircase, each containing rectangular timber panelled doors. The external staircase itself incorporates a circular small-paned timber fixed light window in its concave curved front and a rectangular timber fixed light and opening vent in the recessed side.

The south and north elevations are of similar character to the front, though simpler, each containing one original ground floor window. An original cast iron downpipe and hopper survive on the south side. The rear west elevation of the original block is largely obscured by later additions and lacks the roof parapet, containing only one original timber sashed window to the first floor.

The rear extension is utilitarian in design, of two storeys with a hipped slated roof of plain red brick. Its modern windows are rectangular fixed lights and opening vents set in flat-arched openings. Modern moulded uPVC rainwater goods discharge into cast iron hoppers and downpipes; one hopper dated 1929 has been re-used from the obscured original rear. Modern rectangular timber glazed doors and screens occupy the doorways.

The front boundary is formed by original ironwork railings on a rendered brick plinth wall, with a main gateway hung with matching gates. These railings and gates are of plain square section with a slight flare towards the top of each vertical member, undoubtedly designed by the original architect. Side boundaries are formed by modern fences and railings.

The building served as a technical college until 2006 and was sold in 2007. The rear section, although constructed in different brick, is shown on the 1936-37 Ordnance Survey town plan and is considered part of the original building. The neo-Georgian style is nicely proportioned, refined in detail, and dignified in appearance, though the rear wing, whilst of original construction, is less sympathetically designed in material and has since received inappropriate modern windows.