The Gate Lodge, 14 Main Street, Dundrum, BT33 0LX

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Relatively plain, hipped-roof single-storey gate lodge (originally for the caretaker of a still extant near by bathhouse), built c.1830, but extended several times in the mid to later 20th century. The building is built in to a high wall on the south side of Main Street, Dundrum. To the south is a small, enclosed, private garden, accessed on the west side, through an adjoining contemporary gate screen.

Orientation
The front façade faces south-southwest, for ease of description this is referred to as south; orientations of all other facades are similarly ‘corrected’.

The building is roughly L-shaped in plan with a later dog-leg return extension to the east and a small projection to the west end. With fewer openings to the north side, the it turns its back to the road; more and larger openings to the south present a more open aspect to the private garden area; from here there are partial views of Dundrum Bay.

The south, front façade faces the enclosed garden and is asymmetrical. To the left side of the 'main' central section is the flat-arched front door opening; the glazed-door is uPVC and has broad sidelights.

Window openings are flat-arched; in the main these have traditional, vertical proportions, however some to the projecting return have been enlarged and are horizontal in character. Window frames are all uPVC; a number of those within the traditionally proportioned openings have sliding sash while all others have casement frames. Sills are a mixture of cut stone and pre-cast concrete. Fenestration is somewhat informal, though not so irregular to be vernacular in character.

Walls are finished with unpainted, ruled and lined render. The roofs of the original section and the additions are all hipped and have slight overhangs with painted timber fascias. The roof coverings are all natural slate to the road-facing sides and south projection, with man-made tiles elsewhere. The ridges was red fire-clay tiles. Rainwater goods are uPVC. To the centre of the original section is an over-sized Tudoresque chimneystack; there are two flues; these are square and set diagonally, rising off a broad plain base; chimney pots are plain fireclay.

The east side of the north, road-side, façade merges with a stone garden wall; the west side merges obliquely with another garden wall; the gateway is set within this wall.

Gateway
The paired wrought-iron gates have spear railings; the top rail curves down to the centre. These are supported on stout square gateposts with shallow pyramidal stone caps. To the north side is a gothic-arched wicket gate; vertical members are formed with flat bars and rise to the centre with a ‘Gothic’ profile.

Historical information

This house was built as a lodge or caretaker’s residence for the former bath house to the east [16 Main Street- HB18/11/030]. It was constructed some time between c.1829 and c.1833, as it does not appear on an estate map dating from the former year, but does appear on the on the OS map of 1833-34. Both the lodge and the bath house were part of a wider ‘development’ centred around a large inn to the north-east [present nos.6-10 Main Street- HB18/11/029A-C], which appears to have been planned in 1823, was ‘in progress’ in 1825, but not completely finished when it was advertised for lease in October 1827.

The inn itself was an important element in Lord Downshire’s attempts to develop Dundrum, for decades little more than a hamlet, as a fashionable watering place. There is evidence from letters contained within the Downshire Papers that Thomas Duff worked on both the Inn and the bathhouse, however it is not certain whether he had any hand in the lodge.

The first valuation of c.1836 records all three inn-related buildings, with the ‘lodge or gate house belonging to the bath caretaker’ a simple single-storey rectangular dwelling measuring 32½ft x 15½ x 8, with the large chimneystack presumably in the centre of the roof, and the entrance possibly to the south-western end. The bath house itself is noted as ‘in Lord Downshire’s possession’, whilst the inn itself was divided into two properties, the actual inn to the north end (then leased to Samuel Harrison- who was overseeing his Lordship’s building schemes within the village), and the Marquis of Downshire’s ‘very well furnished house’ to the south, which was then vacant but had been ‘let to the Dean of Down for 2 years…at 100 guineas yearly.’ As this entry hints at and as later valuations specifically state, neither the new inn nor the bathhouse proved successful as commercial ventures.

In the second valuation of 1861, the lodge is described as ‘a free house’ given to the gate keeper, who was paid £6 yearly to caretake the baths’. The dimensions of the lodge are noted as before, however a small outbuilding of 9ft x 7 x 5 had been built just to the east of the building itself.

In 1869, the ‘pleasure ground’ around the bathhouse was bisected with the construction of the Belfast & County Down Railway’s line and the relationship between the bathhouse and the lodge disrupted somewhat. In 1886, the ‘lodge, baths and pleasure ground’ are noted as let separately from the hotel, however, it is likely that this had been the case since the advent of the railway line, with the lodge no longer acting as the home of the caretaker . The lodge itself recorded as occupied by a William Lewis in 1886, followed by a Betty Archibald in 1901, Hugh McIlroy in 1902, Mary Mawhinney 1907, William King 1908-11, William Coburn 1914, John Howie 1923, Henry Whittaker 1927, Robert McCaffrey [?or McCavanagh] 1936, Mary Breen 1939, John McKinney 1945, Elizabeth Mennet 1955 and Stuart Ming 1968.

Map evidence shows that by 1922 the building had lengthened north-eastwards, taking in the space (or perhaps incorporating part of the fabric of) the formerly separate outbuilding. On the 1931 OS map small projections are shown to the south-eastern side of the building, the easterly of these occupying the site of the present return. The 1979 OS map both of these projections had been demolished by that date, although the return had not yet been built; it appears to have been added in the 1980s. The smaller linear projection to the south-west end of the building is not shown on any of the pre-1931 OS maps, although its appearance suggests it is of the early 1900s.

References- Primary sources
1 PRONI D671/P/5/1 Downshire Papers- ‘Elevations of Inn and Lodging Houses, Dundrum…’, September 1823
2 PRONI D671/M/5/14 Downshire Papers- Map of Dundrum, 1823
3 PRONI D671/C/11 Downshire Papers- Letters from Thomas Duff to Lord Downshire and W.E. Reilly, 1826-34
4 PRONI D971/42/A/7/13 Papers of L’Estrange & Brett Solicitors- Sale poster for the ‘New Inn at Dundrum’, 15 October 1827
5 PRONI D671/M/5/15 Downshire Papers- Map of Dundrum Town and Town Parks by H. Murray, 1829
6 PRONI OS6/3/44/1 OS map, County Down sheet 44, 1833-34
7 PRONI VAL1B/380 First valuation, Kilmegan parish, c.1836-c.38
8 PRONI VAL1D/3/19 Valuation plan of Dundrum, c.1838
9 PRONI VAL2D/3/17 Valuation plan of Dundrum, c.1861
10 PRONI VAL2B/3/79 Second valuation, Kilmegan parish, 1861
11 PRONI VAL12B/18/9A Annual valuation revision book, Dundrum ED, 1866-78
12 PRONI VAL12B/18/9B Annual valuation revision book, Dundrum ED, 1879-87
13 PRONI VAL12B/18/9C Annual valuation revision book, Dundrum ED, 1888-1901
14 PRONI OS6/3/44/3 OS map, County Down sheet 44, 1900
15 PRONI VAL12B/18/9D Annual valuation revision book, Dundrum ED, 1902-14
16 PRONI VAL12B/18/9E Annual valuation revision book, Dundrum ED, 1914-23
17 NIEA OS map, County Down sheet 44/5, 1922
18 NIEA OS map, County Down sheet 44, 1931
19 PRONI VAL3B/4/6 First General Revaluation of Northern Ireland, Dundrum ED 1935
20 PRONI VAL3C/4/13 First General Revaluation of Northern Ireland, Dundrum ED 1936-57
21 PRONI VAL4B/3/37 Second General Revaluation of Northern Ireland, Dundrum ED, 1957-72
22 NIEA OS map, sheet 241/16, 1979

Secondary sources
1 Brett, C.E.B., ‘Historic Buildings…East Down’, (Belfast, 1973), p.20-22

Internet sites / articles
1 Irish Architectural Archive

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
H-. Alterations detracting from building
J. Setting
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Dating from c.1830, this small dwelling is one of Dundrum’s oldest extant structures, having been built as part of Lord Downshire’s attempt to transform the village into a fashionable resort. It is also something of a singular structure, having been built as a lodge for the caretaker for a nearby bathhouse. The fact that the bathhouse itself survives, along with a large former inn that both it and the lodge were originally associated with, adds to its value. It is also important to note that both of the other buildings appear to have been designed by a notable local architect, Thomas Duff of Newry; Duff may have had a hand in the appearance of this building, but this is not certain.