Lock House

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A single-storey, two-bay former lock house of L-plan situated along the east side of the topmost lock (no.17) of the now-abandoned Union Locks (HB19/08/008) behind no.146 Hillsborough Road.

Hipped natural slate roof (skylight to north pitch) with clay ridge tiles, replacement half-round steel rainwater goods and lathe-and-plaster boxed eaves. Old photographs show three chimneys (two on the front section and one on the rear section) long since removed. The walls are of cement-harled masonry (probably random rubble). They are now so heavily overgrown with ivy in places that some window openings are now more evident from the inside than out. All the openings have flat heads and are delineated with cement render. All windows have sandstone cills.

The principal façade faces north and is symmetrical. The door at middle is sheeted tongue-and-groove with a rectangular overlight (now sheeted over). There is a structural crack above it. The window opening to its left is sheeted over, but vestiges of its 6/6 timber sliding sash survive internally. The window to the right of the door is a replacement fixed window. but would also have been a 6/6 sash originally.

The west gable of the front section is devoid of openings.

The south elevation has a projecting windbreak porch with tongue-and-groove sheeted door. The porch’s roof profile can no longer be determined due to the vegetation; it may be flat concrete, but old photographs show a hipped roof. To the left of the porch are vestiges of a 6/6 sash window. To the right is a replacement 2x2 fixed window.

The exposed elevation of the rear section of the house has a single tongue-and-groove door (with granite doorstep) at right. The south gable of this section has a 6/3 sash window and the east elevation has three regularly spaced windows - two 6/6 sashes and a replacement fixed 3x3 (it would have been a 6/6 originally).

The lock house is now physically separated from the lock complex by a modern wall.

Windows: 6/6 timber sliding sashes (where surviving)
Doors: Sheeted tongue-and-groove replacements
Rainwater goods: Steel half round replacements
Roof: Natural slate

Historical information

The Union Locks, with which this lock keeper’s house is associated, were built by the ‘Company of Undertakers of the Lagan Navigation’ in the early 1780s to link the Lagan Navigation (between Belfast and Sprucefield) with the Lagan Canal (from Sprucefield to Lough Neagh). Given that the locks comprised a staircase of four successive chambers, a lock keeper would have been essential from the start to ensure the speed transfer of barges between the navigable river and canal. On the basis of its functional association, it is presumed that the lock house is therefore contemporary with the actual locks. The canal’s engineer was Richard Owens and he may well have been the architect of the house.
Both the locks and lock house are shown in their present form on the 1833 OS six-inch map and all subsequent editions.
In 1843, control of the Lagan waterway was transferred to the Lagan Navigation Company and they continued to operate it into the mid 1900s. In 1947, the Lisburn – Lough Neagh section saw its last barge and seven years was officially abandoned. The lock house was superfluous to requirements thereafter. It was also in 1954 that the Lagan Navigation Company was dissolved and its assets transferred to the Ministry of Commerce. The lock house was probably sold off at that time. Four years later, in 1958, the navigation between Belfast and Lisburn was also abandoned.
At the time of the First Survey (1970), the house had been converted into a piggery. A wall was subsequently built between the house and lock and there is no longer any spatial connection between them.

References - Primary sources:
1. PRONI OS/6/3/14/1. First edition OS six-inch map, Co Down sheet 14 (1833).

References – Secondary sources:
1. Green, E.R.R. The Industrial Archaeology of Co Down, pp 70-75 (Belfast: HMSO, 1963).
2. McCutcheon, W.A. The Canals of the North of Ireland, pp 40-61 (Newton Abbot: David & Charles, 1965).
3. Delany, R. Ireland’s Inland Waterways (Belfast: Appletree Press, 1986).
4. McCutcheon, W.A. The Industrial Archaeology of Northern Ireland (Belfast: HMSO, 1980).
5. Blair, M. Once Upon the Lagan (Belfast: Blackstaff Press, 1981).

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

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

Criteria for listing: historic interest

R. Age
S. Authenticity
T. Historic Importance
X. Local Interest
V. Authorship

Evaluation

A single-storey L-plan former lock keeper’s house associated with the Union Locks at the start of the Lagan Canal, dating from the 1780s and probably designed by Richard Owen, the canal's engineer.
Although the building’s architectural character has been diminished by later alterations and conversion to a piggery, it retains its overall external form and appearance. As the lock keeper's house for the important scheduled union lock complex, although now separated from the locks by a modern wall, it is an important survivor from the Lagan Canal and Ireland's 18th century waterway network. It has group value with the neighbouring Navigation House HB19.08.011.