ORCHARD COUNTY HOTEL

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A wall formed of the partial front façades (ground level only) of a former pair of late Georgian Townhouses, built 1835-37 and converted to a hotel in 1969 ('The Orchard County Hotel'). Located in Lurgan town centre, on the upper section of the main street, near to the junction of High Street and Malcolm Road. The façade is adjoined to W by Nos. 45-47 High Street, (HB14.23. 032A&B) and to E by the site of a large modern church development (Lurgan Gospel Hall).

The wall has two identical Georgian porticoes and a series of square headed window openings. There are 3 no. openings between the porticoes and 2 no. openings to each side. The window openings are boarded with panels printed with biblical text. Cills are painted masonry. The face of the wall is painted render ruled and lined to create a rusticated effect with a moulded plinth in painted masonry. The porticoes are open with twin pairs of ionic columns supporting an entablature. There are masonry steps with bullnose nosings at the front (3 no. steps to right-side portico and 5 no. steps to left-hand side portico). The entablature has a Greek key fascia and a painted masonry moulded cornice and there is a modern fibre-board soffit and light fitting to the under-side of the porch. The bases of the columns are also moulded painted masonry. The doorway behind consists of a painted timber multi-panelled door with a plain overlight(boarded with no glazing), flanked by pairs of Doric style pilasters. The porticoes are flanked by decorative wrought iron railings on a painted masonry plinth. There is a paved area enclosed behind the railings and abutting the façade finished with concrete paviors. There is a plain rough-cast render finish to rear of the wall facing the Gopsel Hall. There is also a plain rough-cast render wall adjoinihg the façade to E (boundary wall of Lurgan Gospel Hall).

Historical information

These walls occupy one, or part of one, of the strip plots running either side of what is now Church Place Market Street and High Street, most of which laid out in the latter half of the 17th century. In origin, the strips had belonged to considerably larger plots established at the time of the founding of the settlement of ‘Ballylurgan’ in the early 1600s. As the population of the town began to expand in the 1650s, the original holdings were subdivided, with 43 tenements in 1659 increasing to 79 in 1675, with 98 houses in existence by 1693. As a result, most of the relatively long, and relatively low houses that had sat detached within the old broader plots were replaced narrower taller dwellings abutting each other. By the later 1690s all of the available space fronting on to the town green (‘The Green of Lurgan’ - now Church Place) had been completely developed, compelling new houses to be constructed along what became known as ‘Middle Row’, a line of dwellings running down the middle of the street from the site of the present war memorial to a point roughly parallel with Castle Lane.

This particular site (nos.49-51 High Street) appears to have been part what is recorded as ‘Clarkson and Vaughan’s’ tenement in the 1667, a property the lease of which had transferred to messrs ‘Olive and Stuart’ by 1703. The subsequent 18th and early 19th century history of the plot is difficult to trace, but the present wall remains belong to two houses of the 1830s. A date stone uncovered during building work in 1969 (and referred to in the First Survey report of that year) suggests that the houses in question were commenced in 1835 with the valuation of July 1836 noting that although the shells of both were up at that point (no.49 measuring 45ft x 38 x 38 and no.51 42½ x 38 x 38), they ‘would require about £1000 to finish.’ In fact they were not yet complete by autumn of the following year, the OS Memoirs of October 1837 referring to them as ‘2 very fine houses at present building by the Messrs Cuppage…of brick and stuccoed in imitation of Portland stone’

The builders in question were John and Henry Cuppage, with Henry going on occupy no.49 and John no.51. The Cuppages were members of a locally prominent family that had lived at Silverwood House, (located to the south of present Francis Street but now demolished), since the mid-1600s. One of the family served in India during the later 18th century (fighting with distinction at the siege of Vellore in 1780-82), and is believed to have married an Indian ‘princess’. It was undoubtedly in commemoration of this that John and Henry named their new houses ‘Bengal Place’.

By c.1860 the lease of no.49 was in the hands of Robert Morris, with that of no.51 in possession of James Malcolm, a linen manufacturer with premises (built 1855) in neighbouring ‘Factory Lane’ – later re-named ‘Malcolm Road’ in his memory. In the 1901 census his son, also James Malcolm, is recorded as living at no.51 with his wife, Elizabeth, their three grown-up daughters, and three domestic servants, with the building itself noted as a first class dwelling containing 17 rooms. Members of the Malcolm family were still there until at least 1939.

No.49, was left vacant for some years following the death of Robert Morris in c.1879, before being sublet by his relations to Dr. Samuel Agnew in c.1885. In the 1901 census Dr. Agnew is recorded as sharing the house with his wife Mary, their six children and a domestic servant. Three of the children were still in residence with their parents at the time of the 1911 census, with Dr. Agnew is listed in the valuations as the occupant into the 1930s.

In 1969 both properties were converted to a hotel (‘Orchard County Hotel’) with a large modern style function room and kitchen extension built to the south-west. In 1974 a nearby bomb caused extensive damage to the building and it closed. The original 1830s houses were listed in 1976, but much of no.49 collapsed in 1979 and no.51 was pulled down either at the same time or shortly after. The modern section to the rear was converted to a Gospel Hall c.1980 with the lower sections of the walls of the older structures capped and preserved.

References - Primary sources
1 PRONI VAL1B/223A-B, 1836
2 PRONI VAL1D/2/11, c.1836
3 ‘Belfast and Province of Ulster Street Directory’, (Belfast News-Letter, Belfast), various dates from 1852 to 1996 [NB This property does not appear to have been recorded in the 1901 census, nor that of 1911.]
4 PRONI OS/8/39/1,1856
5 PRONI VAL2B/2/20C, c.1861-62
6 PRONI VAL12B/14/8B, E, H, L, 1864-94
7 PRONI VAL12/14/9C, E, H, K, 1894-1930
8 OS town plans of Lurgan, 1906, 1963-64, 1975, 1963-64
9 NMBRni Photos of 49-51 High Street, Lurgan, 1976

Secondary sources
1 Oram, Dick, ‘Historic Buildings…Craigavon’, (Belfast, UAHS, 1970), p.9
2 Malcomson, T.J., “Alexander Cuppage of Silverwood House”, in ‘Review – Journal of Craigavon Historical Society’, vol.3 no.3, (1977)
3 R.G. Gillespie ed., ‘Settlement and Survival on an Ulster Estate: The Brownlow Leasebook 1667-1711’ (PRONI, 1988)
4 McCorry, Francis X., ‘Lurgan: An Irish Provincial Town, 1610-1970’, (Inglewood Press, Lurgan, 1993)
5 Kieran Clendinning, "The development of the linen Industry in the Lurgan area", in ‘Review – Journal of Craigavon Historical Society’, vol.7 no.1, (1994-95)
6 Brett, C.E.B., ‘The Buildings of County Armagh’, (Belfast, UAHS, 1999), p.99

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

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

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest
R. Age

Evaluation

A wall formerly the ground level façade of a pair of late Georgian townhouses of 1835-37, located in Lurgan town centre on the E end of the High Street. Retaining two neo-classical style porticoes and original steps and railings, the wall is well detailed and a prominient feature at the junction of High Street and Malcolm Road. Converted to the Orchard County Hotel in 1969 both properties were extensively damaged by a bomb nearby in the 1970s. Built by John and Henry Cuppage, a locally prominent family that lived at Silverwood House in Lurgan, now demolished, the wall is adjacent to nos. 45-47 High Street, (HB14.23. 032A&B) and is of local historic and architectural interest.