Former Model Primary School, Catherine Street, Newry, Co Down, BT35 6JG

Former Model Primary School, Catherine Street, Newry

This is a mid-19th century school complex set on the west side of Catherine Street, positioned above street level and reached by a winding driveway. It was erected as a District Model National School by the Commissioners of National Education, designed by Frederick Darley, who served as architect to the Commissioners, and opened in 1849 at a cost of £6,671. Together with the Model School at Ballymena, it was the first school of its type in Ulster — the earliest in Ireland being in Dublin, dating from 1835. Along with Ballymena, it therefore holds particular importance as a building type. Although it has been unsympathetically altered and has lost much of its original integrity and clarity of plan form, sufficient remains to understand the building's layout, and its robust Tudor-style detailing maintains its character and presence. The composition remains worthy of special protection.

The complex consists of two mid-19th century blocks in a plain Tudor style, together with a large 1960s extension. The east elevation, which forms the principal façade facing Catherine Street, is made up of a main block flanked to the north and south by wings. The main block is one-and-a-half storeys high and runs north to south, with single-storey wings running west to east abutting each gable. To the west, or rear, gable of the right-hand block there is a large post-war two-storey classroom complex.

The main block has a pitched natural slate roof with raised coped gables. The front right corner coping runs to a kneeler, which has a decorative gabled end with a roll-top finish; the kneeler projects to three courses below, where there is a moulded corbel. To the rear pitch there are two cast-iron skylights and two box dormers. To the front pitch there are three gabled dormers, each rising from wall head level and constructed in coursed boasted granite blocks. All gables are coped and have moulded corbels to the kneestones above. The eaves are overhanging with exposed rafter tails supporting semicircular metal rainwater goods, with discharge pipes positioned between each dormer.

The façade wall is of granite rubble repointed with flush joints, with a chamfered, boasted ashlar granite base course with fielded and punched dressing. Over the ground-floor openings, flat-headed relieving arches of radiating granite voussoirs are provided. The main entrance is at ground-floor level to the left. Two granite steps with canted corners rise to the door, which is framed and tongue-and-groove sheeted, Tudor-headed, and fitted with decorative iron strap-hinges. It is set within a Tudor-headed opening formed by a single dressed stone, chamfered with fielded and punched dressings, with a chamfered cut-stone reveal and stepped ashlar jambs. Above the door is a squared, stopped hood-mould with decorative chamfered recessed panels to the spandrels. Between the door head and the first-floor window cill is a granite plaque with quartered corners, supported on moulded granite corbels, incised with the words "NEWRY / MODEL P. E. SCHOOL".

There are three windows to the ground floor; the left-hand window is centred on the façade below the central one of three equally spaced first-floor dormers. At ground-floor level these are paired three-paned casements with single fixed lights above, in painted timber, and do not appear to be original. Those at first-floor level are similar but slightly smaller in height and width. All windows have post-and-block, chamfered, fielded and punched granite post jambs, lintels, and cills.

Projecting forward to the right of the central block is the north wing. It is single-storey and rectangular in plan, with a pitched natural slate roof running west to east. Its coped gable faces the façade and projects beyond the face of the main block. To the rear the roof is hipped and tied into the roof of the wing's right return. The advanced left cheek of this block is detailed to match the façade, with a single window similar to those at ground-floor level in the main block, though taller. The front gable has moulded corbelled kneestones and a gabled apex stone, and its wall is detailed to match the main block with a similar base course, though the ground falls away to expose a course of random rubble below the base course. To the centre of the gable is a large rectangular window containing three three-paned painted timber casements — the central one fixed and each flanking one opening — each with a double transom light above. These are set within a dressed granite chamfered opening as elsewhere on the main block, but with a hood-mould, above which is a relief lintel with radiating voussoirs. Above this, in the gable, is a square granite panel with a recessed chamfered margin, carved with a ribbed geometric Tudor design and inset with a plain shield. To the right of this gable is the west cheek of the wing's front return, which has uncoursed rubble walls with a base course as elsewhere, and two windows detailed as those at ground-floor level on the main block. Flush to the left of this return is the plain granite wall of an outhouse, with a modern timber and glass door at the junction.

The south wing, to the left of the main block, is a single-storey hall sharing the eaves line of the main block, rectangular in plan. Its pitched natural slate roof runs west to east, with a gable to the façade projecting beyond the main block face, and a lower gable link-roof abutting the left gable of the main block. The eaves and verge have modern boxed detailing supporting half-round metal gutters and a downpipe. The façade wall is of granite rubble brought to courses, with a base course matching the main block, and with corners in punched and fielded post-and-block granite work. There are three windows at first-floor level on the left; that to the right is centred on the roof ridge. All are narrow, fixed, three-paned painted timber lights, with dressings to openings as on the main block façade. The advanced section of the right cheek has a single similar window at first-floor level. This block is modern and the stonework to the façade appears to have been reused from the former south wing, which was demolished.

Moving clockwise from the south-east corner: the south elevation is made up of the left cheek of the south wing, which is modern, dash-rendered, and has five large high metal-framed windows and a pair of timber doors set in a concrete porch.

The west elevation consists, from right to left, of the rear gable of the south wing, the rear elevation of the main block, and the advanced rear of the north bay. The rear gable of the south wing is entirely modern, dash-rendered, and of no interest. Its advanced left cheek projects beyond the main block and is also dashed and devoid of openings, with a three-storey boiler house and chimney abutting it, likewise of no interest. The rear elevation of the main block is smooth-rendered with two box dormers rising from wall-head level. A single-storey flat-roofed corridor abuts the ground floor, with dash-rendered walls connecting the north and south wings. Just above the corridor roof, on the rear wall, are three three-paned windows. The corridor roof is concrete, with a rendered wall, a sheet-metal door, and a modern fixed timber window. Advanced to the left of this elevation is the rear of the north wing, which has a window with three three-paned casements opening in the same manner as the main block windows, and two single three-paned windows. Abutting the gable of the north wing is the modern post-war school extension.

The north elevation consists of a front return and a rear return abutting the north wall of the north wing. The rear return is as tall as the north block, with its roof tied fully into the main roof. The front return is lower, its roof tied into the main roof. All roofs are natural-slated and pitched with overhanging eaves and exposed rafter tails. The wall between the two returns is of rubble stone to match the façade, with a base course, and contains three windows as those at ground-floor level on the main block. The front return has a coped gable with corbelled moulded kneestones. Its west elevation forms part of the façade as previously described. The gable is of rubble stone, rendered at ground-floor level where it is abutted by an outhouse. There is a modern tongue-and-groove sheeted door at ground-floor right where the outhouse abuts.

The outhouse is of rubble stone to the main elevation; to the rear playground it has cast-iron posts supporting the roof. It appears to have originally been an open shelter and has since been infilled with a cement-rendered wall containing two metal-framed windows. The rear cheek is detailed as the front and faces onto a small playground.

The rear return is larger than the front return. Its gable is coped and has a gabled apex stone and corbelled moulded kneestones. The front cheek of the return has a small lean-to porch to the left at the junction with the north block. The porch has a natural slate roof and rubble walls with a base course, a pair of narrow timber and glass panelled doors to the front, and a fixed six-paned timber window to the right cheek. The remaining wall is dash-rendered with four windows, each having a square central pane with fixed top and bottom transoms. The gable to the north is of rubble stone with a base course, and contains a large rectangular window with a Tudor panel, all detailed as on the façade of the right-hand block. This window appears to be original; two timber mullions and a transom divide it into six pairs of two-paned timber casements. Above the window is a rectangular plaque matching that on the façade of the right-hand wing.

The rear elevation of the return is flush with the rear elevation of the north block. The wall is abutted to the left of centre by a gabled return, and to the right by the two-storey modern classroom block. A single-storey outbuilding abuts the wall to the left, and the exposed wall above it is of random rubble. The remaining wall between the return and the modern classrooms is abutted by a single-storey flat-roofed corridor block; the wall exposed above this is smooth-rendered with two three-paned metal windows. The corridor block itself has a single three-paned metal window. The return has a pitched natural slate roof at eaves level matching the main block but with a lower ridge. Its gable is smooth-rendered but retains kneestones and is coped, and has a single large metal nine-paned window. The right cheek has three equally spaced pairs of one-over-one sliding sash windows with horns. The left cheek — over and around an abutting outbuilding — is of granite rubble with a single one-over-one sliding sash window. The two-storey classroom block continues to the rear in a T-shaped plan and is entirely of no interest.

Darley's original plan, reproduced in Wylie's work on Ulster Model Schools, is broadly similar to the actual layout shown on the large-scale Ordnance Survey town plan of 1861, which shows the infants', male, and female units together with a library and other smaller rooms. The 1863 Valuation Book records that the master resided on the premises and was paid annually for boarding pupil teachers, who after one year received £6 per annum in addition to their board and accommodation. These pupil teachers, known as monitors and monitresses, subsequently went to Dublin to complete their training. The building was rebuilt and extended around 1963, at which time the original south wing was demolished and replaced. The primary school vacated the building in 1995.

To the front there is a lawn and a sweeping drive from Catherine Street. The Catherine Street boundary is formed by a rectangular granite retaining wall with modern spiked railings, pyramidal coped piers, and large modern gates. Car parking is provided to the rear. The outhouses to the façade are of granite to their main elevations and are considered appropriate to the setting.