History

Formerly the First Derry National School, Verbal's home is an iconic, listed building on a corner site of the Walls of Derry/Londonderry.

Adjacent to the Double Bastion near Bishop Gate, it is located at an interface with the Fountain on one side and the Bogside on the other.

Early years

The First Derry National School was built to a design by W E Pinkerton and opened in 1894.

The building is in the popular Queen Anne revival style. High roofs, Dutch gables, tall chimney stacks, and mullioned windows are set in an asymmetrical red-brick composition.

Verbal Arts Centre before

The main entrance is from Stable Lane which once skirted the walled garden of the former Bishop’s Palace.

In 1995, three local primary schools merged, including First Derry, and relocated to the Fountain.

The building was bought by the Verbal Arts Centre, which was established in 1992 as an educational charity to promote literature in all its forms.

Restoration

The original building was restored and extended in 2000 by the award winning Hall Black Douglas Architects. Their approach was to quietly transform the existing Victorian building into a unique space for work life and wellbeing, using a narrative thread of dark to light, rising through the levels of the building.

The current reception hall was originally the school's partially covered playground.

At first floor level the two former classrooms survive almost intact and are separated by the original, fully operational sliding doors.

Art Works

Commissioned works by leading artists in Ireland provide a visual counterpoint to each floor.

Please click here for a gallery of our art works

Latest

Children In Need: Reading Rooms – Partner feedback: The Strand Foyer APEX

Verbal worked in partnership with APEX – The Strand Foyer in 2015, delivering Reading Rooms with young residents. Here is what support worker Michael had to say about the programme.
Children In Need: Reading Rooms – Partner feedback: Kinship Care 2015

Verbal worked in partnership with Kinship Care in 2015, delivering Reading Rooms with young people in care. Here is what Leanne from the Kinship Care Support Service had to say about the programme.
Children in Need: Reading Rooms Case Study with young people

Verbal worked in partnership with local organisations in 2015, delivering Reading Rooms with young people in care. We asked young people what their experience of the programme was.
Verbal’s Collaboration with the Northern Ireland Public Health Research Network (NIPHRN)

Verbal are collaborating with NIPHRN and the Northern Ireland Ambulance Service to develop a Shared Reading programme to support ambulance control room staff.