41 Railway Street / 2 Bachelor's Walk

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Symmetrical three-storey with attic over basement rendered former hotel, built in 1848. Rectangular on plan facing east on a corner site with a matching decorative gabled north elevation fronting onto Bachelor's Walk and a two-storey rendered rear extension built c.1980.

Pitched natural slate roof with two large rendered profiled chimneystacks to either end and two gabled dormer windows to front and rear pitches having single-pane timber sash windows, decorative front panels and exposed rafter feet. Moulded cast-iron guttering to a dentilated render eaves cornice and cast-iron downpipes. Painted rendered walling with render plinth course. Square-headed window openings with painted masonry sills and single-pane timber sash windows.

Symmetrical three-storey east front elevation is three windows wide with a pair of three-sided oriel windows to the first floor. Oriels comprise a flat roof with paired arched window openings having single-pane timber sash windows, flanked by slender pilasters on continuous sill course and supporting a dentiled cornice above. Replacement panelled aprons below the sill and supported on oversized scrolled brackets framing the ground floor window openings below. Square-headed window opening to thecentre bay of the first floor flanked by slender pilasters and supporting a dentiled cornice with single-pane timber sash window. Central square-headed door opening with modern sheeted hardwood surround and original cornice above.

Blank south gable with a single modern square-headed window opening at first floor level.

Rear elevation abutted by modern two-storey extension with two gabled dormers to the roof, as per front pitch and dentiled eaves cornice below.

North gabled elevation has pair of oriel windows to the first floor, detailed as per front elevation with a central round-headed former door opening. Former door opening is flanked by two pairs of squat columns with stiff-leaf capitals on raised plinth blocks supporting foliate console brackets and dentilated lintel cornice with foliate panels to the spandrels below. Now serving as a fixed pane window opening.

Setting:
Street-fronted on a corner site opposite Lisburn Railway Station (HB19/13/003) with matching east and north elevations fronting onto Railway Street and Bachelor's Walk. Two-storey rendered extension abutting rear elevation fronting onto Bachelor's Walk, built c.1980 with three modern oriel windows.

Roof Natural slate
RWG Cast-iron
Walling Render
Windows Timber sash

Historical information

No. 41 Railway Street was constructed in 1848 originally intended as a hotel to take advantage of the arrival of the railway to Lisburn c. 1840 (Lisburn.com). When originally opened this building was known as the ‘Railway Hotel.’ The hotel first appears on the second edition of the Ordnance Survey map (1857) for Lisburn where it is depicted as a square-shaped building situated at the corner of Railway Street and Bachelor’s Walk a number of meters from the Railway Station; to the rear of the hotel an oblong outbuilding, which was used as the hotel stables, can be seen extending along bachelor’s Walk. Griffith’s Valuation (1863) records that the hotel and its offices were valued at £34 and let by the Marquis of Hertford to a Ms. Mary Armstrong.

The Armstrong Family have operated this hotel for a number of generations; Mary Armstrong’s will tells us that she died in 1876 leaving effects of under £6,000 to her family and charging her daughter Annie Armstrong with the care of the hotel (PRONI Wills Catalogue – 2 December 1876). Census records state that Annie Armstrong continued to operate the hotel in 1901 at the age of 47. The census records that Armstrong was a Roman Catholic who resided at the hotel with a number of staff including barmaids, domestic servants and a yardman who tended the horses and cars of customers. The 1911 Census describes the hotel as a large 1st class public house which consisted of 22 rooms and possessed a piggery and a store amongst its out offices, along with the extensive stable block. Annie Armstrong resided at the hotel until her death in October 1928 at which time she left effects of £1,560 16s. to a Ms. Evelyn Armstrong (presumably her sister as Annie Armstrong never married) and a Mr. John Heaney, a local flax buyer (PRONI Wills Catalogue – 25 October 1928).

An unknown newspaper cutting (c. 1988) recording the history of the hotel tells us that the hotel was originally opened in 1848 by a Mr. John Armstrong (whose wife was the Mary Armstrong noted in Griffith’s Valuation). The hotel passed, as we have seen, to Mary Armstrong and subsequently her daughter Annie who died in 1928; after Annie Armstrong’s death the hotel came into the possession of her brother Michael Armstrong whose daughter Helen became the third generation to operate the hotel. It was Helen Armstrong who closed the hotel which she converted into a bar and restaurant (named the ‘Robins Nest) which it has operated as since. Two further generations of the Armstrong family have operated the business at this property since its conversion. The site continues to be used as a bar and restaurant, although a new extension has been added to the building after a fire destroyed the rear return and stable block in 1978 (Lisburn.com).

Primary Sources

1. PRONI MIC/664/1 – Picture of Lisburn by Thomas Pattison
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. PRONI VAL/2/B/3/24B – Griffith’s Valuation 1863
7. PRONI Wills Catalogue – (1876; 1928)
8. 1901 / 1911 Census

Online Resources

1. Unknown Newspaper Cutting c. 1988
(Lisburn.com - http://www.lisburn.com/history/memories/memories-2004/robins_nest.html)

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

Evaluation

Symmetrical three-storey with attic over basement rendered former hotel, built in 1848. Despite having lost much interior detailing the building still retains externally a wealth of decorative mid nineteenth-century architectural detailing and is a very prominent landmark on the corner of of Railway Street and Bachelor's Walk. This building was originally constructed as the Railway Hotel to take advantage of the arrival of the railway station facing it. It continued as a hotel until the mid twentieth century when it became a bar and restaurant and therefore has a long association with the Lisburn public.

General comments

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

FILE PA'd 16/04/15