Station House

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A detached two-storey, three-bay dwelling with two two-storey rear returns on its E elevation. The main section of the house is aligned N-S with its principal elevation facing W.

Pitched natural slate roofs with fretted bargeboards and boxed eaves. Corbelled yellow-brick chimney to each gable (but removed on the NE return). Half-round metal and plastic rainwater goods. Walls of red brick embellished with stepped yellow brick quoins. A purple brick platband runs around the N, E and S elevations of the main section at ground and first floor cill levels. The N elevation of the NE return and S elevation of the SE return also have an identical platband across their first floors.
Single-storey entrance porch to middle of W elevation. Although a porch is also shown on all the OS maps, this element appears to be a modern replacement, albeit with matching roof (but plain bargeboard), walls and quoins. Door to left check and window (with concrete cills) to its gable and right cheek. The windows and doors throughout are modern casements in uPVC.
The ground floor of the left bay of the main section contains two windows with shallow segmental yellow brick heads and common painted stone cill. The bay to the right of the porch has a canted single-storey bay with a similarly detailed window to each cant (but separate cills). There is a single window to each first floor bay, detailed as below except for the middle one which has a semi-circular yellow-brick head.
The south gable of the main section has two segmental headed windows, also with yellow brick heads and stone cills, to its first floor. There is also a modern boiler house attached to the ground floor, with metal flue up the quoin.
The SE rear return is the same height as the main block, but slightly inset from its gable. It is detailed as the main block. There is a pair of windows to its S elevation at ground floor level, and two first floor windows on its E gable.
The NE rear return is slightly lower and shorter than the SE return. Its N elevation is continuous with the N gable of the main block. There was originally a chimney to its gable, now removed. This elevation also has two windows at ground level, both with flat red brick heads. The right-hand window (with concrete cill) is a modern insertion in place of a smaller original window or door. There are two original windows to the first floor. All the windows on this elevation have flat red-brick heads. The N elevation of this return has a ground floor door (a modern insertion), to the left of which is an infilled original window opening (with yellow-brick head).
The back yard is partly bounded by a red-brick wall topped with hollow triangular terracotta copings. The yard contains a modern single-storey brick and rendered concrete shed.

The house is situated below the corner of Magheralave Road and North Circular Road. Its grounds are enclosed along their north and east sides by a random basalt wall topped with terracotta copings. There were originally steps down to the back yard from the main road, but this entrance has been infilled with brick and the steps removed. There is also a side entrance along the North Circular Road. Here the wall rises to accommodate a wrought-iron gate set within an opening with dressed granite jambs and head. Further along this road is a more recent vehicle entrance. A large garden extends west of the house and is bounded to S and W by a hedge separating it from Lisburn Station.

Roof: Natural slate
Walling: Brick
Windows: Plastic
RWG: Plastic and metal

Historical information

This building is first shown on the 1900 OS Lisburn town map and on all subsequent maps. Lisburn Station, with which it was associated, was built by the Great Northern Railway (Ireland) in 1878. Preliminary drawings of this house are dated 1880 but show a building somewhat different to the one actually built, probably in the early 1880s. The GNR(I)’s chief engineer at that time was W.H. Mills and it was he who was probably responsible for its design.

References – Primary sources:
1. PRONI OS/6/1/68/2 Second edition OS six-inch map, Co Antrim sheet 68 (1857).
2. Drawing entitled ‘Proposed Station Master’s House, Lisburn’ dated 1880 (NIEA Monuments & Buildings Record, no.98877).
3. PRONI OS/8/17/3A/5 Lisburn town map (1900).
4. PRONI OS/10/1/68/2/2 Second edition OS 25-inch map, Co Antrim sheet 68-02 (1920).
5. PRONI OS/10/1/68/2/3 Third edition OS 25-inch map, Co Antrim sheet 68-02 (1939).
6. PRONI OS/11/165/6/1 OS Irish Grid 25-inch map, sheet 165 (1962).

References - Secondary sources:
1. W.A. McCutcheon (1980), The Industrial Archaeology of Northern Ireland, p.159 (Belfast: HMSO).

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
H-. Alterations detracting from building
J. Setting
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest
V. Authorship
R. Age

Evaluation

This former master’s house of c.1880 is typical of the architecture of the Great Northern Railway (Ireland) at this time, and of W.H. Mills in particular. The uniformity of its red brickwork is enlivened by the use of contrasting yellow and purple brick, and decorative bargeboards. Despite replacement of the original timber windows with double-glazed uPVC, the building retains much of its original external character and has group value with the important railway buildings and structures in the adjoining Lisburn station (HB19/15/003A-B).