SEELB Multi-purpose Centre, Downshire Road, Newry, Co Down, BT34 1EE

SEELB Multi-purpose Centre, Downshire Road, Newry

This is a Victorian red brick school building with decorative blue engineering brick, terracotta and brick special detailing, facing west onto Downshire Road. The building is distinguished by steeply pitched, multi-gabled roofs with natural slate covering, overhanging moulded barge boards and exposed rafter tails. Cast iron half-round rainwater goods run throughout. Three red brick chimneys feature canted linked flues and brick special cornices.

The principal façade is asymmetrically composed with entrance bays flanking each end, large but unequal central bays, and a three-bay central section. The principal floor is raised above footpath level and accessed by a walkway to entrances at each side. A grassed area in the middle slopes down to a lower level, bounded by a brick retaining wall with chamfered granite plinth to the street and sturdy cast iron railings. Octagonal brick piers on square bases with pyramidal stone caps stand at either end of the façade, matching identical piers on the adjoining Masonic Hall. A lower garden area extends to the south side.

The right side of the front façade is the former principal's residence, entered through a porch at principal floor level. The porch has a flat roof with a steeply pitched slated pinnacle topped by a cast iron finial abutting the rising wall behind. The street-facing wall contains a semi-elliptical arched opening with a pair of raised and fielded panel painted doors and fanlight. To the left is a large three-storey gable with a two-storey canted bay window, featuring two windows to the front and one to each side on both floors. Above the bay, the main gable contains two windows, with a small lancet in the gable apex. All windows are painted timber 1/1 sliding sashes with granite cills and roll moulded, stop-end chamfered brick specials to the jambs. The canted bay is finished with a parapet bearing four terracotta relief panels. Blue engineering brick special courses run above and below windows to the gable above.

The return wall of the bay to the south has a window at principal level beside the entrance porch and a modern casement in an enlarged window opening above, under a side gable. Above and to the left of the porch is a small segmental-headed 1/1 sliding sash with a half gable above, abutting the chimney gable of the south wing. This chimney has three canted brick stacks on a raised plinth with engineering brick detailing. A second similar chimney stands on the north side wall of the bay.

The middle section of the façade comprises a two-storey block with three gabled bays, separated by two brick buttresses with ramped tops. At lower floor level are three openings: the left bay has double doors in painted timber (not original), whilst the middle and right bays contain pairs of segmental-headed 1/1 sliding sashes. All have splayed and stooled granite cills, with a blue engineering brick string course at cill level. First-floor windows are segmental-headed 3/3 fixed lights with side-opening casements in the outer right window, all set within Gothic-headed brick recesses filled with herringbone brick and a central terracotta plaque above. Cills match the lower floor, and blue engineering brick detailing appears below each cill. A painted timber signboard sits below the middle window.

The left bay projects to match the right bay but rises only two storeys without a canted bay window. It contains segmental-headed 4/4 windows to the middle of each floor. The upper window is set in a Gothic arched panel detailed as those in the middle section. The right cheek has a 1/1 sash in a segmental-headed opening to the ground floor. A flagpole crowns the gable. This bay has been extended in width as part of a north wing addition to form a door opening in the wider gable behind, set back from the front façade, with a segmental-headed opening containing a flush door and plain fanlight.

To the left elevation on the north side extends a long two-storey wing in red brick with natural slate roof but simpler detailing. It comprises four gables at the left, each with windows (one now fitted with a modern escape door and fire escape), and six window bays at the right, lighting a corridor with classrooms opening off. All windows have segmental-headed openings with opening casements and granite cills. A modern return with plant room stands to the rear.

To the right elevation on the south side, the original building features a side wing with gable and lower rear return, forming the south side of a central courtyard behind the façade block. The rear wall of the front building forms the west side of this court with a modern door set in a broad arch at lower level, an arched window above, and a gabled return to the side. The modern brown brick Windsor Hill Primary School stands to the rear.