33 Castle Street

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

End of terrace four-bay three-storey over basement redbrick former house, built c.1800. Square-on-plan facing south with full-height rear bow adjacent to two-three-storey brick extension, built c.2005.

Natural slate roof with lead ridges, pitched to west, hipped to the east with tall profiled redbrick and rendered chimneystack to west, all behind lead-lined parapet wall. Decorative cast-iron hoppers break through parapet wall to either end with cast-iron downpipe. Small segmental-headed dormer to front pitch.

Redbrick walling to front elevation, rendered to side and rear elevations, with rusticated quoins to all corners. Camber-headed window openings formed in redbrick with painted stone sills and replacement timber sash windows with 2/2 horizontal panes.

Four-bay three-storey redbrick front elevation, laid in Flemish bond with deeply moulded cornice to lead-lined parapet wall and painted rusticated walling below ground floor sill course with mojulded plilnth course below. Off-centre painted stone pedimented doorcase comprising round-headed door opening with replacement multi-panelled timber door and semi-circular fanlight flanked by pair of Doric columns with acanthus leaf and egg-and-dart capitals with full entablature supporting broken-based pediment above. Lead lining to pediment and masonry platform to pavement with step to either side having a single iron bootscraper.

West elevation abutted by adjoining building, No.29-31 (HB19/13/18).

Rear elevation abutted by three-storey redbrick extension to the west and bowed stair hall to the east with round-headed window openings and uPVC windows. Cornice continues across bow.

East side elevation is blank with cornice, parapet and quoins as per front elevation and plastered band above each floor.

Roof Natural slate
RWG Cast-iron
Walling Redbrick / Render
Windows Replacement timber sash /uPVC

Historical information

The house would appear, stylistically, to date from c.1800, with a major refurbishment to the interior c.1900.

Unfortunately, Townland Valuation town plans have not survived for Lisburn and it is not possible to identify the house with any certainty in these records. In Griffith’s Valuation the house is occupied by Miss Mary Anne Gregg and leased from the Marquess of Hertford ‘in perpetuity’, although there seems to be some doubt, as the valuer has noted, ‘Miss Gregg says the place is her own’. Dimensions are given for the house, cellar, gate, returns containing a kitchen and a water closet,offices and sheds. The house is valued at £45.

The Greggs were a prominent family in Lisburn and there is a Mary Ann Gregg buried in the Quaker burial ground at Railway Street. (Kee))

In 1876, when Sir Richard Wallace inherited the Marquess of Hertford’s estates, the house was taken over by his agents, Claude and Frederick Capron, perhaps as their dwelling, the newly constructed town house of Sir Richard being to the east and his estate office, likewise newly constructed, to the west.

In 1903 the heir of the Wallace estates, Sir J M Scott was the occupier of the house, and in 1910 the valuation was decreased to £30, probably indicating that the house was falling into a state of disrepair. By 1911 it had been taken over by the Board of Guardians and had been split into two; a house, motor house and yard leased by David C Campbell, a doctor, and a dispensary office and yard run by the Board of Guardians. The refurbishment to the interior may date from this period.

By the time Brett was writing in 1969, the house had become an RUC station and appears to have remained so at least until 1987. (Lisburn Historical Society Journal)

The building has now been converted into offices with flats to the rear.

References:

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/1/68/1 – First Edition OS Map 1833
2. PRONI OS/6/1/68/2 – Second Edition OS map 1857
3. PRONI OS/6/1/68/3 – Third Edition OS Map c1900
4. PRONI OS/6/1/68/4 – Fourth Edition OS Map 1921
5. PRONI OS/6/1/68/5 – Fifth Edition OS Map 1939
6. PRONI VAL/2/B/1/61A – Griffith’s Valuation (1856-64)
7. PRONI VAL/12/B/8/9A-T – Annual Revisions (1863-1924)
8. PRONI VAL/12/E/40/1/ – Annual Revisions Town Plan (1877-c1898)
9. PRONI VAL/12/E/40/2/ – Annual Revisions Town Plan (1898-c1907)
10. PRONI VAL/12/E/40/4 – Annual Revisions Town Plan (1907-c1927)

Secondary Sources

1. Kee, R “Lisburn Miscellany” Lisburn Historical Society, 1976 (available at www.lisburn.com)
2. Lisburn Historical Society Journal, Volume 7, 1989 9 (available at www.lisburn.com)

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
H-. Alterations detracting from building
I. Quality and survival of Interior
J. Setting
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

V. Authorship
X. Local Interest

Evaluation

End of terrace four-bay three-storey redbrick house on the north side of Castle Street dating from the early nineteenth-century. The building retains its elegant proportions, Georgian doorcase and elements of its interior including the staircase and landing arches. Although its former use as an RUC barracks and later conversion to multi-occupancy apartment block has eroded its setting and architectural character, the building has interesting historical connections to Sir Richard Wallace and the Marquess of Hertford. It makes a positive contribution to the rich heritage of Castle Street and has group value with its neighbouring properties Wallace House (HB19/13/004) and no. 29-31 Castle Street (HB19/13/18).