Kenneth McKee Solicitors

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Mid terrace three-storey redbrick former house, built c.1850. Rectangular on plan with rear return, forming part of a terrace of four similar houses lining the east side of Railway Street.

Pitched natural slate roof with black clay ridge tiles and pair of shared brick chimneystacks with clay pots. Cast-iron guttering on iron brackets to dentiled brick eaves course and cast-iron downpipe. Redbrick walling laid in Flemish bond with cement pointing and rendered plinth course, rubblestone walling to rear elevation. Square-headed window openings with painted masonry sills and original 6/6 timber sash windows with some cylinder glass.

Front elevation is two windows wide with a round-headed door opening having a coved render surround and timber doorcase. Original timber door with two flat panels flanked by slender panelled pilasters on masonry plinth blocks and pair of scrolled console brackets supporting stepped lintel cornice with plain fanlight above. Door opens onto two concrete steps to the street.

North side elevation abutted by adjoining house No.20 (HB19/13/026C).

Rear elevation has rubblestone walling and redbrick linings to all openings and is abutted by a gable-ended two-storey rendered return. Original 6/6 timber sash windows to rear elevation with replacement multi-pane timber casement windows to the return. Tall rendered wall encloses small rear yard.

South side elevation abutted by adjoining house No.16 (HB19/13/026A).

Setting:
One of a group of four similar former houses set among a terrace of various dates and heights lining the east side of Railway Street.

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

Historical information

No. 18 Railway Street first appears from the second edition Ordnance Survey map for Lisburn in c. 1857 along with the neighbouring buildings on the terrace which stylistically date from the same period (HB 19/13/026A-D). The building was constructed sometime after 1830 as it does not appear on a detailed map of the town centre by Thomas Pattison c. 1830; field research would support a construction date of c. 1850 when the extended terrace first appears on the Ordnance Survey maps.

In 1901 the building was used as a private dwelling, occupied in 1901 by Mr. Thomas M. Wilson, a 31 year old Presbyterian who worked as Lisburn’s Town Clerk. The 1901 Census tells us that Wilson occupied No. 18 Railway Street with his wife Jane (30); however by 1910 the house had passed to a Mr. Ernest T. S. Wilson (Ulster Towns Directory, 1910).

Ernest Wilson was a local Solicitor who resided at No. 18 with his wife Florence (23) in 1911. The census building return of that year described No. 18 Railway Street as a 1st class dwelling which consisted of 12 rooms and possessed a slated roof.

Brett described the houses on this terrace (Nos. 4 to 24) as ‘good three-storey Georgian brick or stucco houses with glazing bars intact ... the backs of [which] are of stone’ (Brett, p. 13). The original features and layout of No. 18 has been well preserved; the Georgian style glazing referred to by Brett still survives as does the original Edwardian doorcase and fanlight window (the only example along the terrace to preserve this feature). Like many of the buildings along this terrace, the shop front and upper floors of No. 18 Railway Street have been converted into business premises which are currently occupied by a company of Solicitors.

References

Primary Sources

1. PRONI MIC/664/1 – Picture of Lisburn by Thomas Pattison c. 1830
2. PRONI OS/6/1/68/1 – First edition OS map 1833
3. PRONI OS/6/1/68/2 – Second edition OS map 1857
4. PRONI OS/6/1/68/3 – Third edition OS map c.1900
5. PRONI OS/6/1/68/4 – Fourth edition OS map 1920
6. 1901 / 1911 Census
7. Ulster Towns Directory (1910)

Secondary Sources

1. Brett, C. E. B., ‘List of historic buildings, buildings of architectural importance in the Borough of Lisburn’ Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1969).

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

Mid terrace three-storey redbrick former house, built c.1850. Part of a group of four similar former houses, this building is the only one to retain its ground floor composition and original doorcase. Retaining some of its original late georgian/early victorian character the builidng forms part of a historic terrace in the heart of Lisburn. Although interesting,the building is not considered on its own to meet the criteria for listing, and the insertion of modern shopfronts to the neighbouring former houses has degraded the character and group value of the terrace.

General comments

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