'Marino'

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Substantial, low proprtioned, two storey Regency gentleman’s residence of c.1830 with canted bays and hipped roof. The property is set on the SW side of South Promenade, to the S of Newcastle town centre, and commanding a view over Dundrum Bay.

The front façade faces NE and is symmetrical. In the centre is the main entrance surrounded by a flat roofed ‘portico’ with ‘closed’ NW and SE sides. The entrance doorway consists of a partially glazed double timber door flanked by side panels, with a large elliptical arched fanlight with radial tracery over. Steps to doorway. Directly above the entrance is a squat first floor 6 over 6 Georgian paned sliding sash window with wrought iron safety grille over.

To either side of the entrance is a broad two storey canted bay with hipped roof. To each face on each floor are sliding sash windows with Georgian panes. Those windows to the ‘outer’ faces of each bay are narrower, 4 over 4, with 6 over 6 sashes to those to the ‘front’. The first floor front windows have safety grilles, as first floor centre window. The front façade is finished in a slightly uneven render and painted. In/out quoins.

The SE façade has a single storey garage attached. The roof is hipped and covered in natural slate. Two large centrally located chimney stacks with octagonal pots. Rw goods are cast iron.

Substantial full-height rubble stone boundary wall with single door opening to rear boundary of plot along King Street.

Historical information

This house appears to be that shown on the 1834 OS map and the 1838 valuation town plan of Newcastle. The valuation records of 1834 note that the house then belonged to a Rev. Leslie Creery and was a relatively new building, perhaps dating from c.1830. In 1856 Charles Albert Creery obtained a new lease of the property (now known as ‘Mountain Villa’) from the Annesley Estate, a lease which forbade him to carry on the business of a public house, of ale keeper or spirit retailer, victualler, butcher, slaughterman, soap maker, tallow chandler, candle maker, smith, brazier, tin man, or any other noisy or offensive trade.

The Creerys appear to have remained in possession of the property until at least 1886, but by 1901 it was in the hands of a Richard Brush and had been renamed ‘Marino’. By 1910 Mr. Brush had vacated the house.

References- Primary sources
1 PRONI D.1503 Annesley Papers. [D.1503/1/20 Lease from Earl Annesley to Charles Albert Creery, 15 Nov. 1856.]
2 PRONI VAL/1B/362 p.21 First valuation, Kilcoo, c.1834.
3 PRONI OS/1/3/49 OS map, first ed., Co Down 49.
4 PRONI VAL/1D/3/10 Valuation town plan of Newcastle, 1838.
5 PRONI OS/6/3/49/2 OS map, first rev., Co. Down 49.
6 PRONI Second (‘Griffith’s) valuation, Kilcoo, 1863.
7 PRONI VAL/12E/111/1 Valuation town plan of Newcastle, 1864-1906.
8 PRONI and Linen Hall Library ‘Belfast and Province of Ulster Directory’ Vols.1-21, 1852-1900, (Belfast, Henderson [1852-65], Belfast News-Letter [1865- ]).
9 George Henry Bassett ‘County Down Guide and Directory’ (Dublin 1886), pp.161-165.
10 PRONI OS/8/136/1-4 OS plans of Newcastle, 1901.

Secondary sources
1 P.J. Rankin, 'Historic Buildings, Groups of Buildings, Areas of Architectural Importance in the Mourne Area of South Down', (Belfast UAHS 1975), p.74-75. [This book states that ‘Marino’ does not appear on the 1834 OS map. There is, however, evidence that it does.
2 Grenfell Morton ‘Victorian and Edwardian Newcastle’ (Belfast 1988).

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
D. Plan Form
J. Setting

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Substantial, low proprtioned, two storey Regency gentleman’s residence of c.1830 with canted bays and hipped roof.