'San Michele'

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Detached two-storey over basement rendered flat-roofed Modernist house, built c.1933, to the designs of John Carey, local contractor. Irregular on plan facing northwest and set back slightly on the east side of Layde Road with large rear terrace overlooking the sea.

Flat roof not visible and set behind rendered parapet wall with painted metal hoppers discharging to circular section downpipes. Two rendered chimney stacks with terracotta pots. Painted stipple-textured rendered walling. Square-headed window openings with replacement uPVC windows.

Asymmetrical northwest front elevation consists of a two-storey, two-bay block with single-storey projection to the northeast having a flat roof forming a raised terrace which extends to the centre bay. Raised parapet wall to FF terrace has infill painted metal railings. The elevation is curved to the southwest corner housing the staircase, which is lit by a full-height slender stairlight set in an Art Deco rendered frame. The ground floor is recessed to the centre and southwest bays and comprises a pair of square-headed arches forming an open porch with curved ends, each having a single window. Square-headed door with replacement uPVC glazed door, opening onto the tiled recessed area.

The northeast side elevation is obscured by the projecting single-storey section having curved ends and a single door opening at GF level flanked by square-headed window openings; raised parapet with infil railings, as before. Door opens onto concrete platform and steps with original steel railing.

Three-storey southeast garden elevation has a large terrace at ground floor level having steel railings and curved concrete steps down to basement level at either end. At basement level is a further terrace with boarded over swimming pool and concrete paved area. The main body of the elevation is three-bay with a decorative Art Deco rendered parapet and projecting single-storey block to southwest with large single-pane picture window, raised parapet and curved ends.

Southwest side elevation is largely blank having a central projecting chimney stack with corner window openings to the ground floor.

Roof Flat (not visible)
RWG Painted metal
Walling Painted textured render
Windows uPVC

Setting:
Located on a mature sloping site overlooking the coastline with a sloping bitmac front parking area opening onto Layde Road via pair of rendered pillars. Set within the Cushendall Conservation Area.

Historical information

No. 15 Layde Road, a two-storey flat-roof modernist house located to the east of Cushendall in the townland of Faughil, was constructed in c. 1933. The house, which is a rare local example of the modernist style, was designed and built by the contracting firm of John Carey (Ballymena) for a Mr. James Finnegan. According to the First Survey Record (c.1993) Finnegan settled in Cushendall where he set up (or purchased) an electricity works in the village (First Survey).

No. 15 Layde Road, which is also known as ‘San Michele,’ was initially valued at £41 under the First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936-57). The valuer noted that James Finnegan leased the site from the Turnly estate (the principal property owners in Cushendall) and continued to reside at the address until his death in c. 1949 at which time the building passed to his widow. The Finnegan family remained at San Michele until c. 1956 when the building was acquired by the Belfast-based solicitor Francis Hanna, who utilised the premises as a summer house. Hanna purchased San Michele outright from the Turnly estate in 1967 and continued to occupy the house until at least the 1970s. By the end of the Second General Revaluation (1956-72) the total rateable value of the site stood at £68.

In 1975 No. 15 Layde Road was included in the Cushendall Conservation Area, only the second conservation area in the province to have been designated at that time, ‘testimony itself to the special qualities of the village.’ In that year the village was also chosen as one of Northern Ireland’s four pilot schemes for conservation during the European Architectural Heritage Year (Cushendall Conservation Area Guide). Field inspection of the site, carried out as part of the Second Survey finds that No. 15 Layde Road continues to be used as a private dwelling. The building is an excellent local example of modernist domestic architecture constructed during the interwar period, of which there are few surviving examples remaining in Northern Ireland (Cushendall Conservation Area Guide).

References

Primary Sources
1. PRONI OS/6/1/20/4 – Fourth Edition Ordnance Survey Map (1921)
2. PRONI OS/8/84/1 – Ordnance Survey Town Plan (1903)
3. PRONI VAL/3/C/1/4 – First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936-57)
4. PRONI VAL/4/B/1/10 – Second General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1956-72)
5. First Survey Record – HB05/02/045 (c. 1993)

Secondary Sources
1. ‘Cushendall Village Conservation Area’ Belfast: Department of the Environment, 1975.
2. ‘Cushendall Conservation Area’ Belfast: Department of the Environment, 1993.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
J. Setting

Criteria for listing: historic interest

R. Age
S. Authenticity
T. Historic Importance
X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Detached three-bay, two-storey over basement, rendered flat-roofed Modernist house, designed and built by local contracting firm, John Carey in c.1933. While the loss of the original windows detracts, the simple white rendered exterior with stepped parapets and tubular railings has otherwise remained unchanged and employs many architectural devices from the period, dynamic asymmetry with strong geometric lines, smooth curves and a restrained use of Art Deco motifs. The composition of two and three storey of interconnecting forms responds well to the steeply sloping site with internationale style wrap-around balconies and its elevated coastal location adds to the overall appreciation of this early twentieth-century essay in Modernism.