Killeen House

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Storey and a half rendered and painted Victorian house with projecting bays and barges. Natural slate roof. PVC windows copying former two pane sashes. Front elevation parallel to Killane Road faces south east. Well tended garden between house and boundary wall along road.

Asymmetrical composition of front elevation. Gable to south west projecting two metres with flat roofed canted bay to ground floor and single round head two pane PVC window above. Projecting barge returned at eaves forming an ‘open bed’ pediment detail. Entrance porch to north west side of projection. Flat roofed with cornice detail to head. Paired narrow round head windows to front. Panelled entrance door to north west side with segmental fanlight. Single window on remaining portion of front facade surmounted by a tall cornice aligning with porch and bay.

Gable end detail repeated on north west elevation: open bed, canted bay and round head window, though the width of the roof is narrow and the gable does not project beyond the wall of the return to the rear. Window with tall cornice to return (cill level higher than front). Single storey modern flat roofed kitchen extension projecting to the rear from the return.

The back of the building has two gables with a chimney surmounting that to the north east. Each has two undecorated windows at first floor one aligns below on the south west. The kitchen projects to the north east. A central bay at the staircase has two aligning window. The upper projects into the roof as a dormer.

The south west elevation has a rectangular bay to the north west with three narrow round head windows and a small pitched roof. To the south east is a single two pane window with a tall cornice above. On the roof centrally placed is a yellow brick chimney (a third brick chimney aligns with the porch to the front). The eaves as elsewhere are detailed as a cornice. Below, a slot extends to a basement with windows as those above.

To the north west and at an angle to the building is the two storey rendered and painted former stable block. It has a hipped slate roof with a dormer on the south gable facing the entrance road. On the east side at first floor are five square windows, below are various openings to the interior.

In the garden to the rear is a Victorian cast iron fountain in three tiers.

Historical information

Building constructed prior to 1885 c1860 (date of surviving photographs) see slides. Originally known as Killeen Cottage, it and the coach house were in un-rendered brick with sandstone details around the windows and projecting bold quoins. The Victorian fountain originally sat in the centre of the front lawn aligning with the projecting bay it was removed to its present position by the current owner. Mr Deans has occupied the house since 1981. Dr J C Calvert was owner from the early 1970s. His predecessor was a Mr John Thompson who rented the house to a Mr Garrison during the construction of Du Pont near Derry in the late 1950s. The boundary wall was added in a style in sympathy with the house in 1990 by the Dickson McDonald Partnership. Gate posts are original. Prior to this the boundary was a hedge. The kitchen extension was constructed during the 1970s. The early photographs show a two storey return with canted bay on this site. Building occupied by a Miss Boyle circa 1900.

References:

U A H S Buildings of North Derry - Girvan p. 20
Occupant - Mr Roy Deans
Early photographs in possession of owner (slides taken)
The Presbytery of Limavady - J E Mullan

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

A suburbanVictorian villa. Some of the interior detail is intact but the late Victorian character has been degraded by the flat roofed kitchen extension and the replacement of sash windows by plastic .