11 Graham Gardens

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A two-storey-with-attic, two-bay end-terrace commercial premises built c.1900; located on the west side of Graham Gardens in Lisburn city centre. Square on plan with two-storey return and large modern extension to rear.

Pitched natural slate roof with red-brick corbelled chimneystack having chamfered stalk and decorative carved raised flue; original red-brick chimneystack with one tall terracotta pot to rear. Decorative terracotta ridge tiles, bargeboards and finial to gable. Cast iron ogee rainwater goods on decorative corbelled eaves. Walling is English garden wall-bonded red-brick on plinth; string course to lintels at ground floor, decoratively carved string course to first floor and carved platband with raised corbels under eaves. Windows are 1/1 timber-framed sliding sash with horns; ground floor windows are segmental-headed in chamfered reveals with decorative keyblocks; tripartite windows to first floor under decorative label mould with carved keyblock and continuous corbelled sill; paired windows to attic are arch-headed with decorative hood moulds having stops and keyblock, brackets under sills.

The principal elevation faces east. Ground floor has two windows to left of entrance, each with iron bars and replacement sills; replacement door with metal frame-work and shutter accessed by a single step.

The south elevation is abutted at ground floor by a modern garage. To attic are two arch-headed windows with hood moulds; window to first floor left; window to ground floor.

The west (rear) elevation is abutted by a two-storey return, which is completely concealed by a large modern extension.

The north elevation is abutted by an adjoining building.

Setting:

Set on the west side of Graham Gardens in Lisburn town centre, forming part of a mainly twentieth-century terrace, the only one of its type. Facing an enclosed car-park to east; to rear is a tarmacadamed car-park backing on to a multi-storey car-park.

Roof: Natural slate
Walling: English garden wall-bonded red-brick
Windows: 1/1 timber-framed sash
RWG: Cast iron

Historical information

The building is first shown on the third edition OS map of c1900 and appears to be captioned ‘Mission Hall’. In the absence of any further original source material very little could be discovered concerning the building’s history. The available secondary material tends to be contradictory. Fred Kee in his Lisburn Miscellany, states that the “ red brick house in Graham Gardens, now occupied by J. C. Patterson, was used as a dwelling-house by the Loan family until about 1933”. (Lisburn Miscellany) However, there is no reference to this family in census returns from the area.

Newhouse’s history of Friends School states that the current building was used as classroom accommodation when the school was requisitioned by the military during the Second World War. “Sloane House, described by Sylvia E. Jess as a grim, solitary, and gaunt, three-storey red-brick Victorian building in Graham Gardens, also housed classes (it is now used by J. C. Patterson Ltd. as a store)”. (Newhouse, p.122) Visual inspection of the building suggests that it may have been intended as the end building of a terrace which was never completed.
J C Patterson continue to occupy the building which is used as an electronics shop.

References:

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/1/68/3 – Third Edition OS Map c1900
2. PRONI OS/6/1/68/4 – Fourth Edition OS Map 1921
3. PRONI OS/6/1/68/5 – Fifth Edition OS Map 1939

Secondary Sources

1. Kee, F “Lisburn Miscellany” Lisburn Historical Society, 1976 (available at www.lisburn.com)
2. Newhouse, N “A History of Friends’ School Lisburn” 1974

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

A two-storey-with-attic, two-bay red-brick end-terrace commercial premises built c.1900; located on the west side of Graham Gardens in Lisburn town centre. The building is well-detailed in a typical late-Victorian style, with good examples of decorative brickwork. The major architectural components, including early fenestration, chimneystacks and the original proportions, have also survived. Not of sufficient interest, however, to warrant listing.