50 Drumbeg Road

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Detached single-storey polychromatic brick former gate lodge and iron gate screen, built c.1894, extended to the north. Square on plan facing south - set perpendicular to the gate screen on the east side of Ballygowan Road. formerly serving Ballyowan House (HB19/23/036A) at the end of a bitmac avenue to the south.

Hipped natural slate roof with clay ridge tiles and profiled red and yellow brick corbelled chimneystack with octagonal clay pots. Cast-iron guttering set into shaped yellow brick cornice and cast-iron downpipe. Redbrick walling laid in Flemish bond with yellow brick quoins and yellow brick plinth course. Square-headed window openings with stop-chamfered surrounds, painted masonry sills and vertically-glazed 2/2 timber sash windows.

Symmetrical south front elevation with gabled former front entrance porch with decorative timber bargeboard and finial. The former front entrance comprises a square-headed opening flanked by stop-chamfered yellow brick corner pilasters, now occupied by a multi-pane timber window and redbrick infill. Slender 2/2 timber sash window to either cheek.

West side elevation is one window wide and extended by a single-bay gabled section and a further single-bay flat-roofed extension. The gabled extension has decorative timber bargeboard and a 2/2 timber sash window with a steel casement window to the flat-roofed extension.

Rear elevation not accessible.

East side elevation, as west side elevation and abutted by an entrance porch having a natural slate roof and repacement timber door with decorative brass furniture.

Setting:
Set perpendicular on the east side of Ballygowan Road and perpendicular to the gate screen. Decorative cast-iron gates on octagonal stone piers with profiled stone capstones and pair of matching cast-iron railings on stone plinth wall on an S-plan and terminated by matching stone piers. Small garden to east of lodge with wrought iron arch and gate.

Roof Natural slate
RWG Cast-iron
Walling Red and yellow brick
Windows Timber sash

Historical information

This gate lodge situated at the north-west entrance to the grounds of Ballygowan House (HB 19/23/036A), was constructed between 1858 and 1901 first appearing on the Ordnance Survey maps from the third edition in 1901. This map and the later fourth edition (1920-21) depict the single-storey gate lodge as a simple square building.

Dean tells us that Ballygowan House was constructed in 1864 by a Mr. George Macklin replacing an earlier dwelling named Drum Cottage (which had originated from c. 1800); Dean also records that an earlier gate lodge situated to the west of the house had been constructed with the house. The late Victorian Lodge was constructed c. 1894 when William Macklin sold the property. At that time the property came into the possession of a Mr. Richard Johnston who resided in the house in 1901 (Ulster Towns Directory). The lodge continued to be used at this time and in c. 1925 a sympathetic gabled extension was added to the rear of the building. The house later passed to the Dr. W. A. Anderson, an eminent eye surgeon who resided in the house from at least 1937 until c. 1970. In 1937 Anderson renamed the house 'Ballyowan House' (Dean, p. 62; Macklin). Like the house, Ballyowans gate lodge is now unoccupied although it has been kept in a good state of preservation; similarly the original gate screen and entrance piers have been well maintained.

References

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/3/9/1 – First Edition Ordnance Survey map 1834
2. PRONI OS/6/3/9/2 – Second Edition Ordnance Survey map 1858
3. PRONI OS/6/3/9/3 – Third Edition Ordnance Survey map 1901-1902
4. PRONI OS/6/3/9/4 – Fourth Edition Ordnance Survey map 1920-1921
5. PRONI VAL/2/B/3/25C – Griffith’s Valuation 1861
6. Ulster Towns Directory 1901
7. Campbell College Register 1894-1954 (Lennon Wylie website http://www.lennonwylie.co.uk)

Secondary Sources

1. Dean, J. A. K., ‘The gate lodges of Ulster: A gazetteer’ Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1994.
2. Macklin, W., ‘The Macklin’s of Ireland’ Florida: The Drew Press, c. 1900-20.
3. Neill, M., ‘Recollections of the parish of Drumbeg, Diocese of Down’ (Church pamphlet, 1996).

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
H-. Alterations detracting from building
I. Quality and survival of Interior
J. Setting
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Late Victorian detached single-storey polychromatic brick former gate lodge and iron gate screen, built c.1894. This former gate lodge is well detailed and retains much of its original character. It is complemented by the adjacent high quality gate screen and has group value with Ballyowan House (HB19.23.036A) to the south.

General comments

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