13 Castle Street

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Three-storey, three-bay former Georgian mid-terrace townhouse erected in the 18th century. Located directly off Castle Street east of Market Square and west of Lisburn College in the town centre.

Pitched artificial slate roof with clay ridge tiles; uPVC replacement rainwater goods; rendered chimney stack with corbelled upper course, various pots. Ruled-and-lined rendered walling. 6/6 Georgian sliding sash windows with rectangular masonry cills; replacement uPVC to second floor. Elliptical arched door opening with plain moulded surround; embracing a timber four raised-and-pointed panelled door with bolection mouldings; brass ironmongery; flanked by Doric columns rising to entablature with mouldings; rolled glass paned fan light over with moulded surrounds and shell decorated hood.

The principal elevation faces south and is asymmetrically arranged. The front door is located on the right; to the left a glazed shop front with non-illuminated signage over. Three uniformly arranged first floor windows with diminished second floor windows directly over.

The left gable is abutted by an adjoining three storey building.

The rear elevation is fully abutted by a three-storey gable ended return comprising various openings largely replaced or blocked up; chimney at the gable apex. Evidence of a ground floor return removed and replaced by a shallow pitched modern single-storey building.

The right gable is abutted by an adjoining modern two-storey building.

Setting:

The immediate
setting to the front is the predominantly historic townscape setting of the adjoining and opposite Georgian terraces, although some buildings have been replaced with modern structures. The rear of the building opens to a large yard which has been converted into carparking; access through a carriageway located in the adjoining building. Plaque (HB19/13/017) fixed to building located in the rear yard has been removed.

Roofing: Artificial slate
Walling: Ruled-and-lined render
Windows: Timber sliding sash/uPVC replacement
RWG: uPVC replacement

Historical information

The current building occupies a unique position in local tradition as it is said to have been the home, in the late seventeenth century, both of the theologian, Bishop Jeremy Taylor and subsequently of the Williamite general, the Duke of Schomberg. The veracity of these claims is difficult to establish, however. Certainly it appears that both bishop and soldier lived in a house in Castle Street for a time, but it is likely that the fire of 1707 destroyed the fabric of any building they would have been familiar with, even though it is thought that the majority of townspeople rebuilt on the same site as their old houses. (Huguenots of Lisburn) An outbuilding (now gone) to the rear of the current building used to bear a plaque consisting of a coat of arms featuring a shield surmounted by a sheaf of corn and an (illegible) motto beneath. The building on which the plaque was to be found has now been demolished and it is not known whether the plaque has survived or whether it could shed any light on these claims.

Jeremy Taylor was born in 1613 in Cambridge and attended Gonville and Caius College, subsequently becoming a royal chaplain and theological writer whose work continues to be influential to the present day. In the late 1650s he met the third Viscount Conway and Killultagh who became his patron and persuaded him to move to Ireland. Taylor was consecrated as Bishop of Down and Connor in January 1661 but appears to have lived at Portmore, the residence of Lord Conway and at his own house in Magheralin until at least 1664 when ill health forced him to move to a house in Castle Street. In August 1667 he contracted a fever when visiting the sick and died at his home ten days later. (Dictionary of Irish Biography; Dictionary of National Biography)

Frederick Herman von Schomberg, 1st Duke of Schomberg was born in Heidelberg in 1615 and became a soldier at the age of eighteen serving with distinction in a series of European campaigns. In 1688 he became commander of the Dutch army under William of Orange. After successfully invading England where his forces toppled James II, he was handsomely rewarded by parliament, appointed commander of land forces in England and created a duke. In August 1689 he was sent to fight James in Ireland and during military preparations for the battle of the Boyne that winter, Schomberg made Lisburn his headquarters. He is said to have occupied the house lived in by Bishop Jeremy Taylor twenty two years earlier. (Dictionary of Irish Biography; The Story of Lisburn Town)
The current building was probably constructed as a dwelling house in the aftermath of the fire of 1707. The shopfront is a later addition, probably twentieth century. A building on the site is shown on the first edition OS map of 1833.

According to Fred Kee’s ‘Lisburn Miscellany’, the house was occupied for some years leading up to the 1970s by the Wilson family. The family donated to Lisburn museum a large silk scarf which had formerly belonged to General Nicholson. Nicholson was killed in the Indian rebellion of 1857 and became a hero to generations of Victorian boys. He is commemorated by a statue in Market Square (HB19/16/004). In the 1970s the house was used as a bakery and is presently in use as a gallery. (Lisburn Miscellany)

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

Secondary Sources

1. Best, E. Joyce “Huguenots of Lisburn” 1997 (available at www.lisburn.com)
2. Dictionary of National Biography online
3. Kee, F “Lisburn Miscellany” Lisburn Historical Society, 1976 (available at www.lisburn.com)
4. McGuire, J and Quinn, J, eds “Dictionary of Irish Biography” Cambridge: Cambridge University Press and Royal Irish Academy, 2009
5. Newhouse, N “A History of Friends’ School Lisburn” 1974
6. Semple, S “The Story of Lisburn Town” (available at www.lisburn.com)

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
H-. Alterations detracting from building

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Three-storey, three-bay former Georgian mid-terrace townhouse erected in the 18th century. Externally the building makes a positive contribution to the Georgian character of Lisburn town centre; despite its proximity to some modern replacement buildings. However, although the front façade has retained much of its original proportions and style, including the splendid doorway, little else remains throughout the building by way of historic fabric of interest, as a result of inappropriate alterations and significant internal alteration.

General comments

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