Historic Building Details

HB Ref No:
HB24/14/007

Address :
Comber Primary School Darragh Road Comber Co Down BT23 5BX

Townland:
Town Parks

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Survey 2:
Record Only

Date of Listing:

Date of De-listing:

Current Use:
School

Former Use
School

Conservation Area:
No

Industrial Archaeology:
No

Vernacular:
No

Thatched:
No

Monument:
No

Derelict:
No

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OS Map No:
148/10

IG Ref:
J4607 6946

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Owner Category

Education Board

Exterior Description And Setting

Comber Primary school is situated at the S end of the Darragh Road, on a rise to the N of the town centre. It is a large single storey modern style building constructed in 1938 to designs by W. Taggart. The facade is in brown brick with a Bangor blue slated hipped roof with overhang. The large windows were originally metal but have now been replaced by PVC, though the frame style may be in keeping with the original. There are two main wings to the N and to the S, both linked by three evenly spaced corridors. The S wing contains a central entrance bay consisting of a large semicircular arch with stepped parapet with concrete urns. This arch leads into a shallow porch within which is a wall (faced in a sandstone-like composite material), which contains the entrance doorway with sidelights, fanlights and flanking windows. At either end of the front wing are recessed bays each with a smaller semicircular arched entrance with timber panelled double doors (the entrance to the W originally to the girls’ school and that to the E originally leading to the boys’). To the W end of the front wing a large classroom block has been added in recent times (c.1985), which though slightly different in design (and in a red brick) does not jar to a great extent. The N wing has a large projecting assembly hall section to its N facade which has a hipped roof but which appears to have been extended slightly to the N with the addition of a flat roofed portion. Between the corridors linking both wings are paved ‘courtyards’, with shubbery, wooden ‘picnic’-like benches etc. To the front of the school is a slightly sloping lawn with tarmac yards to the rear. Wall and railings to S and E appear to be original.

Architects

Taggart, WDR

Historical Information

This school was built to designs by W. Taggart and opened in November 1938. The classroom extension to the west was added c.1985.

Criteria for Listing

Architectural Interest

Not listed

Historic Interest

Not listed

Evaluation

Large primary school in the modern style built in 1938 to designs by W. Taggart, with brown brick facade, hipped roof and distinctive semicircular entrance.

General Comments

Date of Survey

17 June 1998