Exodus

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Detached three-storey redbrick and stone former library, built c.1900, with double-height redbrick hall to rear. Square on plan facing east on the west side of Railway Street with the south side elevation fronting onto Wardsborough Road.

Double-pile hipped natural slate roof (running perpendicular to front elevation) with central valley and roll-moulded black clay ridge tiles behind shaped redbrick parapet wall rising from stone and moulded redbrick cornice. Pair of redbrick chimneystacks with terracotta pots to either end and cast-iron hoppers below the cornice and cast-iron downpipes to the side elevations. Redbrick walling laid in Flemish bond with sandstone ashlar walling to the ground floor of front and south side elevations. Segmental-headed window openings with sandstone sills and single-pane timber sash windows.

Three-storey front elevation is four windows wide with a decorative sandstone ashlar ground floor. Moulded redbrick surrounds to first floor openings resting on a sandstone cornice to the ground floor. Three tall window openings to the ground floor with nine fixed panes to each window with moulded timber frame and arched upper panes flanked by sandstone pilasters resting on a continuous moulded sill to a raised sandstone ashlar plinth, supporting lintel frieze and sandstone fascia above. Square-headed door opening with original flat-panelled timber door having bolection mouldings and a sandstone architrave surround with pulvinated frieze and segmental pediment. Rectangular overlight with three arched timber frame panes. Door opens onto single stone step to the street.

South side elevation has sandstone ashlar treatment returning from the front elevation surmounted by sandstone cornice. The remainder of the elevation is blank redbrick with a single square-headed window opening to the second floor having 2/2 timber sash window.

Rear elevation is four windows wide and abutted by a double-height multi-bay redbrick hall with pitched natural slate roof and multi-pane steel windows to both side elevations with flush splayed stone sills. Square-headed window openings to the rear elevation with sandstone sills and 2/2 timber sash windows.

North side elevation is abutted by a slightly advanced chimney with a single segmental-headed window opening to each floor. Loading bay to the second floor with original timber glazed and panelled door.

Setting:
Street-fronted and corner sited, positioned on the west side of Railway Street at the corner of Wardsborough Road enclosed to Wardsborough Road by a tall redbrick wall and a short access lane to the north side elevation enclosed by modern steel gates on pair of tall redbrick piers.

Roof Natural slate
RWG Cast-iron
Walling Redbrick
Windows Timber sash / Steel

Historical information

Railway Street, which had been known as Jackson’s Lane before the arrival of the railway in 1839, was gradually developed with a series of municipal buildings and dwelling houses during the course of the nineteenth century (McCutcheon, p.104; Neill) The first edition OS map of 1833 shows a structure on the site but the current building first appears on the third edition of c1900. The building enters valuation records in 1894 and is divided into a ‘lower part’ which is a Post Office and yard valued at £60 and leased from William Reid and an upper part, valued at £15, which is the residence of the Post Master, John Trousdell.

The Irish Builder of 1st August, 1893 invited tenders for the Post Office which was to be built by the Board of Works. James William Walby was employed as a temporary clerk of works for the erection both of this building and the Post Office in Portadown. Walby was an architect and the son of James Walby, superintending engineer of the postal service in Dublin and later in Belfast. J W Walby was born in Dublin and later became a pupil of William Batt in Belfast. He settled in Portadown in the late 1890s and practised as an architect there until at least 1915. (www.dia.ie)

The 1901 census records sixty-year-old John Trousdell, from Limerick, as resident postmaster with his County Antrim wife and two adult children, his son working as a sorting clerk and telegraphist. In 1907 the valuation of the house was added into the valuation of the post office and the whole was valued at £75. By 1910 the resident postmaster was William Croker of Waterford who lived in the building with his wife and eleven-year-old son. Unusually, Croker declared himself not to belong to any church and refused further information to the census enumerator. (Ulster Towns Directory, 1910; 1901, 1911 census)

During the second world war the post office was the scene of a fund-raising effort involving a genuine missile, as is recalled by former Lisburn resident, Desmond McConaghy, "The details as I remember are: The head post office at that time was in Railway Street, right next door to the Presbyterian Church. As one of the many efforts to promote and personalise the war effort a real bomb was placed on the floor near the counter. It would have been around 6 feet long from nose to finned tail, about 18 inches in diameter and black in colour. There might have been some choice message for Hitler painted on it! It was, of course, in a completely safe condition at this stage. The thought was that people could help to pay for the bomb by buying stamps specifically for that purpose. I have a vague recollection of stamps being stuck on it. I have no idea of the accounting process but that is how I recall it." (www.lisburn.com)
The building was in use as a library by 1975 and remained so until the construction of Lisburn’s new library in Linenhall Street c2000. The former post office and library has been taken over by a Christian organisation for use as a youth centre.

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 c.1900
4. PRONI OS/6/1/68/4 – Fourth edition OS map 1920
5. 1901 census online
6. 1911 census online
7. Irish Builder, Vol 34, 1st August 1893
8. Ulster Towns Directory, 1910

Secondary Sources

1. McCutcheon, W.A. “The Industrial Archaeology of Northern Ireland,” London: HMSO, 1980.
2. Neill, T., ‘Lisburn: an illustrated history and companion’ Lisburn: Cottage Publications, 1996.
3. www.dia.ie – Dictionary of Irish Architects online
4. www.lisburn.com

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
I. Quality and survival of Interior
J. Setting

Criteria for listing: historic interest

R. Age
S. Authenticity
T. Historic Importance
X. Local Interest
Y. Social, Cultural or Economic Importance

Evaluation

Detached three-storey redbrick and stone former library, built c.1900, with double-height redbrick block to the rear. Originally built as a post office, converted for use as a public library, and now in use as a youth centre it has retained most of the external detailing and much of the internal fabric above ground floor level. This building is one of the more significant ones in Railway Street and its stone ground floor front façade is of particular note as is the well detailed extensive rear red brick block which was probably originally used as the Post office sorting office. As a former Post office and library is has significant social interest for the local community.