Lisnastream House

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Symmetrical detached three-bay two-storey redbrick house, built c.1900. L-shaped on plan facing east with multi-bay two-storey rear wing, built c.1800. Range of single-storey and lofted outbuildings lining yard to north. Set within a large farm on the southwest side of Lisnastream Road accessed via a long avenue with single-storey gate lodge to the road.

Hipped natural slate roof with roll moulded terracotta ridge tiles and profiled redbrick chimneystacks with terracotta pots. Moulded cast-iron rainwater goods to overhanging eaves with exposed rafter feet. Redbrick walling laid in Flemish bond with projecting redbrick plinth course and decorative moulded brick courses at sill and impost levels to both floors. Segmental-headed window openings with stone sills and single-pane timber sash windows with ogee horns and some historic glass.

Symmetrical three-bay two-storey front east elevation with paired window openings to the ground floor and a central segmental-headed door opening with terracotta hood moulding and original timber doorcase. Doorcase comprises; flat-panelled timber door flanked by pair of bipartite sidelights with leaded coloured glazing and tripartite overlight;door opens onto conrete paved platform and steps.

Single-bay two-storey south elevation abutted by single-storey three-sided canted bay with hidden roof behind moulded coping. Further single-bay two-storey recessed section with paired windows to each floor, those to the first floor having decorative leaded Art Nouveau glazing.

The rear lower two-storey rendered wing has hipped natural slate roof and two redbrick chimneystacks with cast-iron rainwater goods. The north side elevation has horizontally-glazed 2/2 timber sash windows with a flight of stone steps to the west end section, while the south elevation is abutted by a modern conservatory and largely glazed with replacement steel or hardwood casement windows.

Setting:
Set on a large farm holding, on the southwest side of Lisnastream Road accessed via a long bitmac avenue which opens into a bitmac yard to the north side of the house and lined with lofted outbuildings of varying dates. Single-storey gate lodge with hipped natural slate roof, terracotta ridge tiles, redbrick chimneystack, cast-iron rainwater goods, flint-dash rendered walls and replacement timber windows and door.

Roof Natural slate
RWG Cast-iron
Walling Redbrick / render
Windows Original timber sash

Historical information

The earliest confirmed occupant of Lisnastrean house was a Mr. William Graham who resided there in 1861; however a house in the townland of Lisnastrean was occupied by members of the Graham family as early as 1796 when a William Graham was recorded as a tenant in a letter to Lord Downshire from his agent. During the 1798 Rebellion Lord Downshire was informed through another letter that a Mr. Wolsey Graham of Lisnastrean townland, a minor leader of the uprising in the country south of Lisburn, had been apprehended in the area. These sources indicate that a member of the Graham family resided in the townland of Lisnastrean from the end of the 18th century, however no evidence can be found to link these figures to the history of Lisnastrean House.

The current two-storey rear wing of Lisnastrean House, which was the earliest constructed part of the house, first appears on the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1833 where it was depicted as an oblong building which possessed two large outbuildings to its north and a number of smaller out offices. In 1861 Griffith’s Valuation records that the house and its outbuildings were valued at £10 and were let to William Graham by the Marquis of Downshire. The gate lodge first appears from the second edition of the Ordnance Survey in 1858 when it was depicted as a square building situated at the end of the road to the house. Dean describes this gate lodge as a ‘modest two-roomed single-storey lodge with a hipped roof’ originally constructed by the Graham family c. 1840 (Dean, p. 82). The 1901 and 1911 Census tells us that the Graham family had vacated Lisnastrean house by the beginning of the 20th Century, however it is not known who occupied the house after it was vacated.

Field research suggests that the two-storey redbrick house was added to the earlier wing c. 1900; the third edition of the Ordnance Survey map (1902-03) could not be examined, however the fourth edition of records that the new house had been constructed by 1919-20. The fourth edition map also shows us that the farmbuildings situated to the north and west of the house were constructed between 1858 and 1919-20 when they first appear. Currently the farm continues to be in operation and the house remains occupied; however the gate lodge currently lies vacant.

References:

Primary Sources

1. PRONI D607/D/193 – George Stephenson to Lord Downshire 22 September 1796
2. PRONI D607/F/216 – Thomas Lane to Lord Downshire 9 June 1798
3. PRONI OS/6/3/14/1 – First Edition OS Map 1834
4. PRONI OS/6/3/14/2 – Second Edition OS Map 1858
5. PRONI OS/6/3/14/3 – Third Edition OS Map 1902-1903
6. PRONI OS/6/3/14/4 – Fourth Edition OS Map 1919-1920
7. PRONI VAL/2/B/3/25C – Griffith’s Valuation 1861
8. Census of Ireland 1901 / 1911

Secondary Sources

1. Dean, J. A. K., ‘The gate lodges of Ulster: A gazetteer’ Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1994.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

Symmetrical detached three-bay two-storey redbrick house, built c.1900, facing east with multi-bay two-storey rear wing, built c.1800. A late nineteenth-century or early twentieth-century house added to the east end of an earlier vernacular type farmhouse. The earlier house has been much altered although the more formal later addition retains its original external fabric. An interesting group with the outbuildings and gate lodge in an attractive rural setting, but not considered of sufficient architectural and historic interest to merit listing.

General comments

This record was completed without access to original source material held by the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland.