Daltons

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A three-storey, three-bay, mid-terrace former Georgian townhouse with Victorian façade alterations dating from c.1890. Located centrally in Lisburn town centre, adjacent to the Irish Linen Museum.

Pitched natural slate roofing with clay ridge tiles; red-brick chimneys with replacement clay pots replacement extruded metal rainwater goods. Stucco rendered walling. Replacement double glazing windows; moulded stucco surrounds with roundels. The front entrance forms part of a modern glazed shop front.

The principal elevation faces south and it is symmetrically arranged. The ground floor entirely comprises a modern shop front with illuminate signage and awing over. Three uniformly arranged first floor windows with diminished second floor windows directly over. The upper floors are flanked by Corinthian pilasters rising to a dentilled entablature; castellated parapet with diminutive castellated octagonal towers to either side; centrally located plaque bearing an unidentified coat-of-arms displaying a “Red Hand”.

The left gable is abutted by adjoining building 30 Market Square North.

The rear elevation is largely abutted by a large modern constructed two-storey extension, shared with the adjoining building. Door located at the second floor on the right accessed by a galvanised fire escape stair. Various modified window openings.

The right gable is abutted by adjoining building 26 Market Square North

Setting:

The building forms part of a Georgian terrace that has been largely modified or part replaced for commercial and retail premises. The building addresses the former market square and Assembly Rooms (HB19/16/004), now the Irish Linen Centre and Lisburn Museum. To the rear of the site is a car park accessed from Graham Gardens.

Roofing: Natural slate
Walling: Stucco rendered
Windows: Replacement double glazed casement
RWG: Replacement extruded metal

Historical information

The town of Lisnagarvey, as it was known until the 1660s, was first established in the early seventeenth century when James I granted Sir Fulke Conway the south Antrim manor of Killultagh. Sir Fulke established the headquarters of his Killultagh estates at Lisburn and began to lay out its foundations in the early 1620s (Mackey, p.1) By 1640 the town had been laid out very much along its present lines, with a central market place and streets radiating from it. (Mackey, p.x) After a disastrous fire in 1707, the town was quickly rebuilt to its former street plan using improved materials, brick replacing wood and slates and tiles replacing shingles. Rebuilding was encouraged in the aftermath of the fire by Lord Conway who granted forty-one year leases on the waste holdings. (Ulster Star 20/04/2007; Mackey, p.4)

The essential structure of the current building appears likely to date from the period of reconstruction following the fire. A building on the site is shown on Pattison’s 1833 map of the area.

Photographs of Lisburn dating from the 1870s show a building on the site of a simple early Georgian design. By the turn into the twentieth century, the facade had been remodelled with its present castellated parapet, Corinthian pilasters and window mouldings. (Mackey, p.29, 56)

At this time the frieze bore the legend, ‘Whiskey Bonder and Wine Importer’ and the premises was a public house.(Mackey, p.29) In the period up to 1905 the bar was the residence of Robert Magill, spirit merchant (Will of Robert Magill) and by 1920 had been taken over by Thomas Browne. In 1920, disturbances in Lisburn following the murder of District Inspector Oswald Swanzy of the RIC, led to Thomas Browne’s premises being looted and the neighbouring building collapsing, with consequent damage to the pub. According to Mackey, Thomas Browne was a young publican who had settled in Lisburn not long before the riots. He is shown in a photograph with his damaged premises. Browne went on to marry and raise a family in the accommodation above the public house. (Mackey, p.89)
The former pub is now in use as a cafe.
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 Will of Robert Magill, died 9th September 1905

Secondary Sources

1. Mackey, Brian “Lisburn, the Town and its People, 1873-1973” Belfast: Blackstaff Press, 2000
2. Ulster Star 20/04/2007

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

A three-storey, three-bay, mid-terrace former Georgian townhouse with Victorian façade alterations dating from c.1890. In its present state, few original features of interest remain except the stucco mouldings on the front façade; a good example of the type of Victorian modifications during this particular period. The building, formerly a public house, represents an interesting period in the local social history of Lisburn but is not considered to meet the criteria for listing.

General comments

This record was completed without access to the primary source material held by PRONI