Ardfoyle

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A detached three-bay two-storey gabled red-brick house; built c.1920 and located in Fort Hill, north of Lisburn city centre. L-shaped main block with two two-storey returns to rear (that to west is longer with a hipped roof); modern conservatory to west and garage to north; two-storey canted bay windows to south and east; projecting stairwell window to west.

Pitched and hipped natural slate roof with decorative terracotta ridge tiles and finials; decorative bargeboards and finials to gables; red-brick chimneystacks having sandstone plinths. Walling is English garden wall bonded red-brick on chamfered plinth with decorative brick course above ground floor windows and a sandstone string course between floors. Windows are mainly bipartite or tripartite 1/1 timber-framed sliding sash with horns and projecting sills, in segmental headed reveals surmounted by decorative sandstone keyblock. Canted bays with paired windows to central section and dentilled eaves.

The principal elevation faces south; two openings wide to right with gablet over first floor window and single-storey slated open porch abutting a projecting gabled bay to left. Gabled bay contains two-storey canted bay window. Porch is partially glazed with decorative timber struts resting on a brick and sandstone plinth, accessed via three terrazzo steps. Entrance door has two raised-and-fielded panels, decorative carved panel below corbelled sill; side lights and segmental-headed transom light; brass door furniture.

The west elevation has a modern timber conservatory to right; projecting stairwell bay to left.
The north (rear) elevation is abutted by a hipped return at right and gabled return at left with a timber-sheeted door to centre. The hipped return has a window at ground floor at the gable; window at first floor at the east elevation; three windows to first floor and two windows to ground floor at the west elevation; to right is a half-panelled timber door with transom light. The gabled return has a window to first floor and is abutted to ground floor by a garage; east elevation has a bipartite window to first floor and a tripartite window to ground floor.

The east elevation has two-storey canted bay window.

Setting:

Set on an elevated site in mature grounds with lawned and shrubbed garden to all sides enclosed by mature hedgerow and trees. Tarmacadamed driveway to south and east leads to two-storey slated red-brick garage and summer house. Summer house has half-panelled timber door and transom light with original timber-casement windows. Entrance comprises two tall red-brick square gate piers with sandstone caps, supporting replacement timber gates. The rear garden is bound to the north by redbrick walling with glazed terracotta copings that is contemporary with the house.

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

Historical information

The current house, formerly known as Lisnabreena, is first shown on the fourth edition OS map of 1921. The house is not listed in the 1911 census, so appears likely to have been built between these two dates. It has now been renamed ‘Ardfoyle’, the name of Lisnabreena having now passed to 2 Forthill. The current house and Knockrath (HB19/15/019) were built to the designs of Hobart and Heron by William Lindsay Woods (owner information), linen manufacturer who later lived at number 2 until at least 1943. His 1911 census return records, unusually, both himself and his wife as linen manufacturers, possibly of the firm ‘Fiddes, Woods and Co’, linen and handkerchief manufacturers and bleachers with premises in James Street South in Belfast. (Belfast/Ulster Street Directory, 1901)
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
4. Belfast/Ulster Street Directory, 1901
5. 1911 census online
Secondary Sources
1. Owner information

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
I. Quality and survival of Interior
J. Setting
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

S. Authenticity
X. Local Interest
R. Age

Evaluation

Ardfoyle, previously known as Lisnabreena, is a well-preserved three-bay two-storey detached brick house, built c.1920 and located on a large mature site in Fort Hill, north of Lisburn town centre. Well-proportioned with much of its architectural detailing intact, it is a good representative of the types of homes built by the professional classes during Lisburn’s expansion in the early 20th century. Originally built by a local linen merchant it has group value with Knockrath (HB19/15/019), a similar house also built by him on an adjacent site. Located in the Fort Hill district of Lisburn, an area mostly Edwardian in character and largely unspoiled by development, it retains its original garage, summer house and redbrick garden walling and makes a significant contribution to the heritage of the area.

General comments

FILE PA'd 16/04/15