VERBAL ARTS 2

The existing site, formerly the Bishop’s Palace and gardens (gardens now a car park); walling is laid in ‘English Garden Wall bond’ with stone dressings. It goes back to the 6th century when the city was first founded and this site is the place where the monks set up and the warrior monk Cholmcille build his 6th century ‘Dubreiglés’ (Black Abbey.) The 400 year old city walls bound the site on two sides and the B1 listed Verbal Arts centre is built into the inner corner of the walls of Derry/Londonderry.

Formerly the First Derry National School, the Verbal Arts Centre was built in 1894 in the Queen Anne revival style using handcrafted brick. The verbal Arts centre is one of the more imaginative new uses of a buildings at risk. The Grade B1 listed within the Walled City Conservation Area was restored in 2000 by architects Hall Black Douglas as an education & arts facility and is now known as the Verbal Arts Centre (who now own and manage the building). Works included the restoration of the exterior & formal first floor spaces; substantial remodelling of the enclosed playground area to form a new reception area and an extension. The new centre provides performance and exhibition areas; a debating chamber; a library; an archive and a writer’s residence.

The new centre provides performance and exhibition areas; a debating chamber; a library; an archive and a writer’s residence. Our concept and building design forms as a series of “archaeological layers” or floors each depicting the dark days of the past, of peace and days of hope for the future. The scheme follows the principles of the Verbal Arts 1 scheme as collectively each floor layer is encompassed under a hand (the roof) and linked through vertical circulation and sky decks which are contained in glazed void spaces which acknowledge the listed elements of the existing building.