86 Summerhill,

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A three-storey, fourteen-bay tenement block built in basalt rubble with granite and red brick dressings, now in derelict condition. Ground floor single-storey units face west while two-storey upper units, approached by a ramp and balcony, face east.

West elevation: hipped roof of Bangor blue slates in regular courses with five red brick chimneys along the main ridge; walls of roughly coursed basalt rubble to the ground floor with red brick block dressings to openings, while the stonework to the upper floors is panelled, with window openings set in large rectangular red brick panels set between deep horizontal bands of basalt and divided by vertical strips of basalt quoins; Tardree granite quoins to extremities of block, with Tardree granite eaves cornice gutter. Blocked elliptical stone archway in centre of ground floor, containing a rectangular doorway and window set in brickwork.
Doorways are rectangular red brick openings containing 4-panel timber doors; windows are rectangular timber sliding sash, 6 over 6 with horns; windows derelict with some completely missing; part of walling in first two bays from left on upper floors has collapsed.

North elevation is three-storey and two-bay; walling similar to ground floor of west front, with two windows to each of the upper floors, and one doorway to the ground floor.

East elevation is similar to west except there is no central archway, while there is a balcony running across at first floor level with doorways opening onto it at that level. The balcony is comprised of a flat concrete slab, with plain iron balustrading, supported on projecting iron brackets, and reached by a balustraded ramp supported on circular cast iron posts. The walling of five of the second floor bays and four of the first floor bays has collapsed on the ground outside, bringing down part of the balcony; entrance to approach ramp now railed off to prevent access.

South elevation is similar to north except openings to top and bottom floors are now blocked with red brick.

SETTING: The building stands in a very rural area, located at the end of a very long lane from the main road. Surrounded by grassy grazing land with a river nearby and mature trees in the vicinity. Running parallel with, and close to its east side is a terrace of single storey outbuildings in red brick with slated roofs, presumably originally outside toilets, but now in derelict condition. Further to the west, in an adjoining field, is a group of one and two-storey brick buildings with slated roofs, with Gothic arched openings, now all derelict.

Historical information

Built as workers' housing by the York Street Flax Spinning Company of Belfast; precise date of building not known, but it appears on the OS map of 1857. It took the form of tenement accommodation, the single-storeyed ground floor dwelling units being entered from one side of the building, with the remainder of the block, consisting of a row of family units, occupying the other two floors and approached from the ground on the other side by a railed pedestrian approach ramp leading to an external promenade running the full length of the building. Known locally at one time as the 'Bird Cage', it was described by 1969 as almost completely derelict, although one unit was still occupied in 1972. Date of wall collapse not known.

References – Primary Sources
1. OS Map 1857, Co Antrim 50.
Secondary Sources
1. UAHS, Antrim and Ballymena (Belfast, 1969), p 13.
2. W.A. McCutcheon, The Industrial Archaeology of Northern Ireland (HMSO, Belfast, 1980), plate 106.3.
3. IHR 7185.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
G. Innovatory Qualities
J. Setting

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest
Y. Social, Cultural or Economic Importance
Z. Rarity

Evaluation

This is an early to mid 19th century building of some interest due to its unusual form and nature, as well as occupying a pleasant setting, but it has suffered a prolonged period of dereliction which has culminated in the collapse of some parts.