179 Coast Road,

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A one and a half storey gate lodge of asymmetrical plan in Tudor Revival style, built of squared random rubble blackstone, with ashlar quoins and moulded dressings in sandstone.

Main entrance faces south. South elevation comprises a single storey gabled block with a projecting gabled porch to the left, with a cross-gabled two-storey block to the right, with a recent single storey hipped extension to the extreme right hand end. Roofs of original blocks, Bangor blue slates in regular courses between gable copings of sandstone; prominent central chimney stack, smooth cement rendered, between single and two-storey blocks, with three tall ornate lozenge-patterned pots. Gables shouldered with stepped kneelers; ornate octagonal stone finials with coved corbels and lozenge-patterned shafts. Cast iron gutters and downpipes. Main entrance doorway comprises a panelled wooden door set in a Tudor arched surround surmounted by a projecting drip moulding carried on moulded corbels. Small Gothic lancet in side wall of porch. To right of porch, a small rectangular two-light casement window, small-paned. Two-storey gable to right has a three-light rectangular white painted wooden window to ground floor, divided by transom and mullions, with Tudor arched heads and small panes, set in a rectangular opening with Tudor style projecting drip moulding over. Above, in first floor, is a narrow Gothic arched lancet, with small panes, Gothic arched heads, set within a projecting Gothic drip moulding; surmounted by a burglar alarm immediately below gable finial.

North or rear elevation is similar in style and treatment to entrance elevation, except single storey block has a three-light timber window with Tudor arched heads and plate glass, all set within a Tudor style projecting drip moulding.

West or end gable of single storey block has a canted single storey bay entirely of dressed sandstone including roof; contains three windows, white painted timber casements with Tudor arched heads, set in rectangular openings.

Modern extension to east has hipped roof of slates, smooth cement rendered walls with raised cement quoins, rectangular sheeted door on entrance front, small-paned rectangular windows with top-hung vents, enclosed to the rear or north and partly to the east by a modern smooth cement rendered wall with crenellated parapet.

SETTING: The building stands in a rural area on the seaward side of the Coast Road which skirts the shoreline. It stands in its own small garden, with its boundaries formed by hedges. There is a small white painted wooden pedestrian gate to the front boundary and a large wooden vehicular gate to a driveway at the rear.

Historical information

Built for James Agnew as a gate lodge to his residence Carncastle Lodge which was built at the same time on the opposite side of the main road but which was later demolished, 1937, to be replaced by Carnfunnock House which itself became a Lions Holiday Home for old folk in 1974 and with which this gate lodge is no longer connected. The year of construction of this lodge is not recorded but it and the nearby secondary gate lodge associated with it (ie 184 Coast Road: Ref no. HB06/03/004) appears on the second OS map of 1857 and may be dated to c. 1850. The modern extension of the rear was approved by ES in 1994.

References - Primary

1. OS Map 1857, Co Antrim 35.

Secondary

1. J.A.K. Dean, The Gate Lodges of Ulster, U.A.H.S., Belfast, 1994, pp 6-7.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
C. Ornamentation
J. Setting

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest

Evaluation

A more than usually vigorous example of an early Victorian gate lodge designed in a Tudor Revival style, which presents a largely unspoiled appearance to the main road.