Historic Building Details

HB Ref No:
HB01/18/001

Address :
Former St Columb's Convent Long Tower Primary School Long Tower Street Londonderry Co Londonderry BT48 6QQ

Townland:
Londonderry

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Survey 2:
B2

Date of Listing:
26/02/1979 00:00:00

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:
36/7

IG Ref:
C4302 1640

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Owner Category

Church - RC

Exterior Description And Setting

Two storey gabled school house of simple rectangular plan, rubble façade and brick dressings, built between 1813 and 1825 and apparently ‘remodelled’ in 1894. The building, which is no longer used and in relatively poor condition, is prominently set on the edge of a rise to the N of Long Tower Street, to the NW side of St Columba’s RC church. The front elevation faces roughly E and is (generally speaking) symmetrical. To far right on the ground floor is the main entrance which consists of a panelled double door with tall sidelights with timber frames with gothic ‘tracery’. Stone steps to doorway with painted stone [?sandstone] lintel with bevelled underside and simple label moulding. Above right of the doorway is an inscribed slate panel which reads: ‘St Columb’s National Schools. M & F Commenced A.D. 1813, completed 1825, remodelled 1894’. To the far left hand side of the ground floor level there is a larger squarish window with mullioned and transomed timber frame and lintel as before. A timber fire escape stair cuts across this window. To right of the window there is a shallow full-height gabled bay with window as before (also cut across by the fire escape). To right again is another similar window, as before, with another to right again, set within another shallow gabled bay. To the first floor there are four windows and a doorway. The three windows set outside of the bays are as ground floor but slightly shorter. To the right hand bay there is a large window with Tudor-like arched head and mullioned and transomed timber frame with gothic-like ‘tracery’ and a painted stone arch head with simple label moulding. The window to the left hand bay has been converted to a fire escape doorway with mainly glazed door inserted (braking through the sill in the process). To the S gable there is a large window to the ground floor, much as ground floor front but with a brick lintel. To the first floor are two much smaller windows with timber mullioned and transomed frames. To the N gable there is a single tall window set at an intermediate (stair) level. This has a sash frame (4/4). Above the window is a brick relieving arch just above which is a small shield shaped panel with ‘A.D. 1825’ inscribed thereon. Evidence to stonework shows there were once openings to the ground floor and basement level but these have been blocked up. Due to the steeply sloping ground the W elevation is three storey with the basement level exposed. The openings to this level (a series of segmental headed windows) have all been blocked with only a segmental headed doorway to far right -now with metal sheeted door- surviving. A tall rendered wall abuts this level just to right of centre. A large area of ivy growth covers much of the ground and section floor levels obscuring much of the façade. To the ground floor there appear to be four relatively small similar sized unevenly-spaced windows with dilapidated mullioned and transomed frames. To the first floor there are two slightly taller windows partly set within gabled half-dormers. The façade is in relatively flat rubble with brick in-out and dressings to openings. There are noticeable cracks in the N gable. The gabled roof is covered in asbestos tiles with decorative ridge tiles, however a significant portion of the W side of the roof is now covered in ivy growth. The roof has a slight overhang with plain barges. To the W eaves there rises two tall plain brick chimneystacks. The downspouts appear to be mixture of cast iron and plastic, the guttering appears to be metal. To the front (E) of the building there is brick ‘paving’. Close by to the SE is St Columba’s RC church. To the rear is a large sloping unkempt garden with the remains of outhouses and a dividing wall between the two basement dwellings. To the immediate S is a graveyard whilst to N is a flight of steps giving access to the dwellings and to the St.Columbs Wells area below. These steps are in granite and show the signs of the generations of feet which have walked upon them. They are flanked by either the gable of the building or by a high 2.5m rubble whinstone wall . A cental cast iron handrail with scroll ending is interupted at a 'landing'with tarmac at the door in the wall to the north dwelling. At the base they are flanked with cut sandstone gateposts topped with a capping of the same material. Rubble whinstone walls enclosing the base of the churchyard extend to each side.

Architects

Not Known

Historical Information

The panel above the main entrance states that this school was built between 1813 and 1825, with a date stone to the north gable appearing to confirm that the building was indeed completed in 1825. Like most schools (which were exempt from rating) little is recorded of the building in any of the valuations and nothing is recorded of any changes to the property at any point during the rest of the 19th century, however the abovementioned panel does state that the building was ‘remodelled’ in 1894. What this ‘remodelling’ entailed is difficult to say, however the style of the staircase suggests the interior was refurbished, the overhang to the roof suggests it may have been replaced- along with the chimneystacks to the west side; the fenestration may have been altered in some form as well, in particular the half-dormer windows to the rear and those to the south gable look somewhat too awkward to be original. The school, which joined the national system some time between the formation of the system in the early 1830s and 1856, continued in use until recently, but was most recently used as a nursery school. The building is currently (April 2003) unused due to the poor condition of the structure. The school sits within the grounds of St Columba's 'Long Tower' RC church, originally built in 1784-86 as the first post-Reformation Catholic church in the city and extended in 1810, the 1820s and 1908. St Columba's occupies the precincts of the medieval ‘Tempull Mor’ or ‘Great Church’ built in the 1160s, itself on the site of an earlier monastery said to have been founded by St Columcille / Columba in 546. The Tempull Mor served as the cathedral of the Diocese of Derry up until its destruction in the 1560s, however the stump of the medieval round or ‘Long’ Tower, survived until at least 1802. References- Primary sources 1 PRONI OS/9/21/1 OS plan of Londonderry, 1830 2 PRONI VAL/1B/547a-f First valuation, Templemore parish, 1832 3 PRONI VAL/1D/5/9/1-4 First valuation plan of Londonderry, c.1838 4 PRONI VAL/2B/5/16d Second valuation, Londonderry South Ward, 1856-57 5 PRONI VAL/2D/5/11a-b Second valuation plan of Londonderry, c.1857 6 PRONI VAL/12B/32/11a-zd Annual valuation revision books, c.1866-c.1895 7 PRONI OS/8/18/1/1-36 OS plan of Londonderry, 1873 8 PRONI VAL/12E/157/1 Valuation plan of Londonderry, 1873-1910 9 PRONI OS/9/21/4/1-7 OS plan of Londonderry, 1909 10 PRONI VAL/3C/6/11-12 First general revaluation of Northern Ireland, Londonderry South Ward, 1936-57 Secondary sources 1 Alistair Rowan, ‘North West Ulster’ (London, 1979), pp.385-6 2 James Stevens Curl, ‘The Londonderry Plantation 1609-1914’ (Phillimore & Co., Sussex, 1986)

Criteria for Listing

Architectural Interest

A. Style B. Proportion D. Plan Form H-. Alterations detracting from building J. Setting K. Group value

Historic Interest

X. Local Interest Y. Social, Cultural or Economic Importance

Evaluation

Two storey gabled school house of simple rectangular plan, rubble façade and brick dressings, built between 1813 and 1825 and apparently ‘remodelled’ in 1894. Though somewhat altered over the years, this remains one of the City of Londonderry’s oldest school buildings [?the oldest] and one which has an important relationship to the neighbouring church. The adjacent steps add to the special chracter of the building and its ecclesiastical setting

General Comments

None

Date of Survey

21 March 2003