BREEZEMOUNT HOUSE

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A symmetrical three-bay two-storey-with-attic detached house, currently in use as a Bed and Breakfast; built 1861 and situated on an elevated site to the west side of Castlerock Road in Coleraine town centre. Rectangular main block with offset rectangular block to rear; single-storey canted bays to south and east; abutted to rear by a two-storey stairwell bay (lower) and modern single-storey brick extension (of no interest); modern conservatory (of no interest) to north.

Hipped natural slate roof with leaded hips and ridges; rendered chimneystacks with moulded caps. Cast-iron ogee rainwater goods on heavily overhanging timber eaves with brackets; cast-iron downpipes and hoppers. Walling is painted smooth render on a contrasting plinth with straight-channelled quoins at ground floor and moulded corner panels at first floor; platband below eaves; cornice to tops of canted bays extending to moulded string-course at first floor sill level. Windows are replacement uPVC in moulded architraves with projecting painted sills; Venetian-style three-light windows to first floor and segmental-headed window with keyblock to first floor centre.

The principal elevation faces east and is symmetrically arranged about a central breakfront with Ionic portico. Left and right bays each have Venetian-style windows at first floor over canted bay windows. Portico accessed by a set of five sandstone steps, and comprising pilasters and two Ionic columns with entasis, supporting a plain entablature. Bolection-moulded four-panel timber door with brass door furniture is flanked by sidelights with replacement glazing.

The south elevation has two windows at each floor to main block; rear block projects slightly at left and has Venetian-style window and camber-headed window at first floor, over canted bay and square window at ground floor.

The west (rear) elevation has a window to first and ground floor right; abutted at centre by the two-storey stairwell bay which has round-headed stairwell window at right and two window openings at left. Stairwell bay is abutted at north by a flat-roof single-storey service block with timber-sheeted door and at west by the modern brick extension.

The north elevation is as detailed at south; rear block at right is set back, having two windows at first floor and modern uPVC conservatory at ground floor.

Setting:

Situated on an elevated site to the west side of Castlerock Road. Accessed by a tarmacadamed entrance to west, shared with twentieth-century housing, built on land formerly belonging to Breezemount House. Entrance at Castlerock Road has painted render entrance walls on a plinth with saddleback coping, rising to square piers with moulded panels and corniced moulded caps topped by ball finial on a plinth (surviving to right pier only). Secondary entrance to south side of house has square painted rendered piers with raised caps topped by ball finials. Tarmacadamed forecourt to front of house and parking area to north. Rear yard, accessed to north via a segmental-headed archway, is laid with modern brick pavior; little remains of former outbuildings, which have been much modified or replaced and include a modern two-storey painted smooth render accommodation block; accessed at first floor to west via a uPVC entrance door and a set of concrete steps. Site is bounded to Captain Street Upper at southwest by a roughcast rendered wall with coping; at south side of house walls terminate in square piers with pointed caps and modern timber-sheeted gates. Bounded to north and east by tall random rubble walls with freestone coping.

Roof: Natural slate
Walling: Painted smooth render
Windows: uPVC
RWG: Cast-iron

Historical information

Breezemount House, a two-storey Victorian dwelling situated on the Castlerock Road, was constructed in 1861. The second edition of the Ordnance Survey map for Coleraine records that the property had not been erected by 1849-50; the building had also not been constructed by Griffith’s Valuation (1856). However, between 1859 and 1865 the Annual Revisions noted that Breezemount House had been completed on land leased by the Worshipful Company of Clothmakers; at that time the house was valued at £48 and was leased by the company to a Mr. Stewart Hunter. A grocer who had premises on Bridge Street, Hunter was the first occupant of Breezemount House and resided at the site until his death in 1897; Hunter was also a local magistrate and was an importer of tea which he sold from his Bridge Street shop (Ulster Town Directory – 1861-1880).

There was no change to either the value or the layout of Breezemount House by 1897 when Hunter died leaving his properties and effects of £4,776 to his sons-in-law, however they did not occupy the house and in 1898 a Mr. Daniel McLaughlin purchased the lease (PRONI Wills). The 1901 Census records that McLaughlin (45, Roman Catholic) was employed as a solicitor and resided at Breezemount with his wife Mary (42) and their five children; the census building return described Breezemount House as a 1st class dwelling that consisted of 12 rooms and possessed a number of out offices including a stable, a coach house, piggery, a store and a coal house. These out offices were located in a rectangular-shaped outbuilding that had been constructed to the north-west of the dwelling in c. 1904 (first depicted on the third edition of the Ordnance Survey map in that year).

There was no alteration to the value of Breezemount House from its construction in 1861 until the cancellation of the Annual Revisions in 1931; it was not until the First General Revaluation of property in Northern Ireland in 1935 that the rating of the house was adjusted to £60. Daniel McLaughlin continued to reside at Breezemount until his death in 1941 when the house passed to his son Charles McLaughlin, who was also employed as a solicitor (PRONI Wills). Breezemount House could not be identified with certainty in the valuation books of the second revaluation (1956-72), however the contemporary Ordnance Survey map of 1967 records that there had been no discernible alteration to the layout of the house since the early-20th century, although the outbuilding that lay along the Captain Street Upper had been constructed by that year.

Mullin states that Breezemount House was constructed for Stewart Hunter in 1861; establishing his business in Coleraine in 1846, Hunter was described as a wholesale tea dealer and general grocer who expanding his store on Bridge Street in c. 1874. Upon his death Hunter’s residence was sold by his sons-in-law to Daniel Hunter who resided there until his own death in 1941 (Mullin, 165). Girvan described Breezemount House as ‘a two-storey three-bay house with irregular side facades, rendered, with Ionic porch, flanked by single-storey canted bays; Georgian glazing bars; shallow hipped roof;’ when Girvan was writing in 1972 Breezemount House was no longer utilised as a single private dwelling but had been converted into a number of residential flats (Girvan, p. 26). Breezemount House was listed in 1977 and in c. 2001 the former flats were acquired by the current owner who converted the property into a B&B; the subsequent renovation and restoration resulted in the modification of the original outbuildings (portions of which have been replaced with modern additions), however the main dwelling has been well maintained and retains its original Victorian character.

References

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/5/7/1 – First Edition Ordnance Survey map 1830
2. PRONI OS/6/5/7/2 – Second Edition Ordnance Survey map 1849-50
3. PRONI OS/6/5/7/3 – Third Edition Ordnance Survey map 1904
4. PRONI OS/6/5/7/4 – Fourth Edition Ordnance Survey map 1923
5. PRONI OS/6/5/7/5 – Fifth Edition Ordnance Survey map 1949
6. PRONI VAL/2/B/5/3F – Griffith’s Valuation 1856
7. PRONI VAL/12/E/156/1/3 – Annual Revision Town Plan c. 1882-1907
8. PRONI VAL/12/B/30/9A-P – Annual Revisions 1859-1931
9. PRONI VAL/3/B/6/3 – First General Revaluation of property in Northern Ireland 1935
10. PRONI Wills Catalogue (2 Jul 1897; 17 Nov 1941).
11. Census of Ireland (1901; 1911)
12. Ulster Town Directories (1861-1918)
13. First Survey Record – HB03/16/004 (1973)
14. First Survey Image – HB03/16/004 (1973)
15. Ordnance Survey map – 13-13NW (1967)

Secondary Sources

1. Girvan, W. D., ‘Historic Buildings in Coleraine and Portstewart’ Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1972.
2. Mullin, T. H. ‘Coleraine in modern times’ Belfast: Century Services, 1979.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
H-. Alterations detracting from building
I. Quality and survival of Interior

Criteria for listing: historic interest

R. Age
S. Authenticity
X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Breezemount House is a symmetrical three-bay, two-storey-with-attic detached house, currently in use as a Bed and Breakfast; built c.1861 and situated on an elevated site to the west side of Castlerock Road in Coleraine town centre. Altered in the first part of the twentieth-century, the building has been well maintained by its current owner, having been renovated and restored c.2001. Displaying proportions and detailing typical of the period, replacement uPVC windows alter the original character but not irreversibly. The setting has been somewhat compromised with the construction of single-storey dwellings on grounds formerly belonging to the house, and the original outbuildings have been lost, but otherwise the house retains its prominent position and outlook. Of local interest, Breezemount House is a good example of the type of dwelling typically built during the mid-nineteenth century development of Coleraine.