GATE LODGE

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Free-standing single storey classical-style Ashlar Sandstone lodge, built 1839-1840, to the designs of local architect Samuel Jackman, with three-bay canted end elevations with the front elevation of three-bays with a paired Doric portico, square headed 1/1 timber sliding sash windows, large timber tuscan eaves with exposed rafter ends, hipped modern fibre-cement slate roof with concrete ridge tiles and central short sandstone chimney with three octagonal decorative sandstone pots.

Principal elevation facing North has plain portico supported by coupled Doric sandstone columns with original square-headed two-panelled timber double doors with rectangular fanlight and sandstone architrave surround, single 1/1 timber sliding sash window to either side recessed panel below, blind sandstone window to splayed corner bays.

East elevation facing onto main entrance to Brooke Park with canted bay with 1/1 sliding sash window to centre flanked by 'blind' recesses to the sides. Set behind cast iron gates and screen and eight sandstone piers and Infirmary Road beyond.

South elevation to rear facing onto adjoining housing terrace. No access possible at time of survey.

West elevation facing onto Brooke Park of similar style to East elevation with modern block wall abutting the end bay, door to small enclosed yard.

Setting:
At the head of Great James Street (west), at the entrance to Brooke Park with building entrance onto the driveway perpendicular to Infirmary Road. Building railings with bay to east side onto Infirmary Road.
To the north-west of the gate-lodge sits a statue of Sir Robert Alexander Ferguson mounted on a tapered stone shaft with moulded square base plinth; the shaft is inscribed as follows: 'This statue / was erected by / the Citzens of Derry / to the memory of Sir Robert Alexander Ferguson BART / of the Farm / Lieutenant Custos Rotulorum / of the County / and Colonel of the / Londonderry light Infantry Militia / who for 30 years represented / this city / in Parliament / Born 1796 / Died 1860'. It has been moved from its original location, which was the Diamond, where it was known as the 'Black Man'.

Materials:
Roof Fibre Cement
RWG Cast Iron
Walling Sandstone
Windows 1/1 timber sliding sash
Doors Panelled timber

Historical information

The single-storey gate lodge, located at the entrance to Brooke Park and opposite Christ Church (HB01/22/002), was constructed in 1840 and was originally built as the gate lodge to Gwyn’s Institution (now demolished). Gwyn’s Charitable Institution was established in 1833 to provide aid and education for male orphans in the city; the Institution was formed by John Gwyn Esq., a local grocer and linen merchant. Gwyn died in 1829 and left provision in his will for the formation of the charity which originally operated from premises on Shipquay Street. Hume states that the first offices did not provide adequate accommodation and efforts were made by the trustees to set up a more suitable building (Hume, pp 85-86).

Gwyn’s Charitable Institution was constructed on ten acres of land in Edenballymore, purchased (for £200) from the Lord Bishop of Derry & Raphoe. The construction of the Palladian building, consisting of a three-bay central block flanked by two-bay wings, cost approximately £7,000; the Institute opened in 1840 and continued to operate a charitable home and school for male (and later female) orphans in the city for over half a century (Simpson, pp 250-251). The Institute ceased operating as an orphanage by 1898 when the building and its surrounding land was acquired by the Londonderry Corporation for Brooke Park; the municipal park was laid out in 1901, utilising money left by the Brooke family of Brookhill (James Hood Brooke left £15,000 in his will upon his death in 1865). From 1901 the former orphanage was used as a museum and as a municipal library from 1924; the building continued to change uses throughout the 20th century and during the early years of the Troubles the building was utilised as a headquarters for the army stationed in the city. In 1973 the army vacated the site which was subsequently vandalised and burned leaving only an empty shell in the midst of the park throughout the 1970s; the building was finally demolished in 1986 (Rowan, p. 398; Calley, p. 73).

The gate lodge on Infirmary Road is the only building to survive from Gwyn’s Institution; the lodge was erected in the same year as the orphanage and was designed by Samuel Jackman, a local architect who held offices at the Diamond (Ulster Town Directories), and built by an unknown contractor by the name of Mr. Lynd. A number of later secondary sources attribute the design of the Institution and its gate lodge to Thomas Jackson, but the contemporary sources (including the Derry Sentinel and Simpson’s 1847 Annals of Derry) confirm that the buildings were designed by Jackman. The Natural Stone Database notes that Jackman employed Scottish Giffnock Sandstone, imported from quarries in Glasgow, in the masonry of the gate lodge (Stone Database; DIA).

The gate lodge was first recorded on the second edition Ordnance Survey map (1853) which depicted the building along its current layout indicating that no major discernible change has been made to the structure since the 1850s; the contemporary Griffith’s Valuation (1856) individually valued the gate at £7 describing it as a ‘porters lodge’ administered by the trustees of Gwyn’s Charitable Institution. Throughout the Annual Revisions (1862-1931) the value of the gate lodge was combined with that of the institute and by 1931 the total combined value of the two buildings stood at £257.

In 1978 the Department of the Environment included the gate lodge in the Clarendon Street Conservation Area, ‘an area of special architectural or historic interest, the character of which it is desirable to preserve or enhance’ (Londonderry Clarendon Street Conservation Area Booklet). The gate lodge, including its gates and screen, was subsequently listed in 1979.

Dean, writing in 1994, described the former gate lodge to Gwyn’s Charitable Institution as a ‘sandstone ashlar single-storey lodge on a T-plan with a central back return. The building has canted end elevations under half-umbrellos, some of the ‘openings’ blind. The front façade to the avenue is three bay with a Roman Doric portico of paired columns supporting a pediment with timber bargeboards. In the centre of the ridge a row of three octagonal stone pots. It is now run down, its sash windows lacking their Georgian glazing bars. Exposed to vandals’ (Dean, p. 117).

The gate lodge continues to lie vacant and in disrepair. A renovation of the building is currently planned as part of the proposed restoration and refurbishment of Brooke Park. The plans suggest that the former gate lodge could be converted into a Park Wardens Office or a Visitor Information area.

References

Primary Sources
1. PRONI OS/6/5/20/1 – First Edition Ordnance Survey Map (1830)
2. PRONI OS/6/5/20/2 – Second Edition Ordnance Survey Map (1853)
3. PRONI VAL/2/B/5/16G – Griffith’s Valuation (1856)
4. PRONI VAL/12/B/32/11B-ZA – Annual Revisions (1862-1897)
5. PRONI VAL/12/B/33/2C-2F – Annual Revisions (1898-1931)
6. Derry Sentinel (18 Sept 1839)
7. Simpson’s Annals of Derry (1847)
8. O’Hagan’s plan of Londonderry (1847)
9. Ulster Town Directories (1852-1918)
10. First Survey Record – HB01/22/001B
11. First Survey Image – HB01/22/001B

Secondary Sources
1. Byrne, A; McMahon, S., ‘Derry in old photographs’ Dublin: Gill & Macmillan, 2003.
2. Calley, D., ‘City of Derry: An historical gazetteer to the buildings of Londonderry’ Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 2013.
3. Dean, J. A. K., ‘The gate lodges of Ulster: A gazetteer’ Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1994.
4. Ferguson, W. S; Rowan, A. J; Tracey, J. J., ‘List of historic buildings, groups of buildings, areas of architectural importance in and near the city of Derry’ Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1970.
5. Hume, J., ‘Derry beyond the walls: Social and economic aspects of the growth of Derry 1825-1850’ Belfast: Ulster Historical Foundation, 2002.
6. Mitchell, B., ‘On the banks of the Foyle: Historic photographs of Victorian and Edwardian Derry’ Belfast: Friar’s Bush Press, 1989.
7. Rowan, A. J., ‘The Buildings of Ireland: North West Ulster’ London: Yale University Press, 2003.
8. ‘Londonderry Clarendon Street Conservation Area Booklet’ Department of the Environment, 1978.
9. ‘Design Guide for Clarendon Street Conservation Area’ Department of the Environment, 2012.
10. ‘Restoration and Refurbishment of Brooke Park, Derry’ Derry City Council, 2013.

Online Resources
1. Dictionary of Irish Architects - http://www.dia.ie
2. Natural Stone Database website - http://www.stonedatabase.com/

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
H-. Alterations detracting from building
J. Setting

Criteria for listing: historic interest

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

Evaluation

Classical-style Gate Lodge built 1839-40 of ashlar sandstone with symmetrical facades, built to the designs of Samuel Jackman, at the entrance to Brooke Park on Infirmary Road with three-bay canted elevations and paired Doric portico entrance. Finely detailed, the gate-lodge is the last surviving reminder of the Gwyn's Institution (now demolished) for which it was originally constructed. Situated adjacent to Christ Church (HB01.22.002) and directly opposite St Eugene's Cathedral (HB01.21.001), the gate lodge is amongst some of the most significant buildings within the Clarendon Street Conservation Area. The tall stone pillars, walling and ornate railings that align the boundary at the main road provide a dignified and noble entrance and the statue of Sir Robert Alexander Ferguson to the rear, although not in its original setting, adds considerable historic interest.