53A Shore Road,

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Semi-detached three-bay two-storey rendered house, built c.1845, facing south with a lean-to conservatory (shared with adjoining house), a two-bay two-storey return (shared with adjoining house), and a further flat-roof single-bay two-storey return.

Pitched natural slate roof, black clay ridge tiles and a large rendered chimneystack to either end (that to south shared with adjoining house), and painted octagonal clay pots. Overhanging eaves with timber fascia and replacement ogee-moulded metal guttering and cast-iron downpipes. Corrugated iron roof to flat-roof return.

Painted ruled-and-lined rendered walling.

Square-headed window openings with bevelled reveals to front and rear elevations, stop-chamfered to ground floor (right). Painted stone sills and timber sash windows. Two-over-two to front elevation, with convex horns, except to window opening within conservatory, and to rear elevation, having earlier six-over-six timber sash windows with cylinder glass and no horns. A round-headed window opening to the rear elevation ground floor level has a three-over-six timber sash window with incorporated fanlight. A further window opening to the rear elevation at ground floor level contains a nine-over-six timber sash window, while the flat-roof return contains a further three-over-six timber sash.

Front elevation (south) is symmetrical with the conservatory spanning the southern two bays including the elliptical-headed front entrance. The conservatory is of iron construction forming vertical panes on a low rendered wall with lean-to glazed roof. To the east side elevation of the conservatory is a square-headed door opening with a timber panelled door with a glazed oval panel, c.1940.

West elevation is abutted against adjoining house HB22/01/004B.

Rear (north) elevation contains a shared two-storey return to the west end and a further flat-roof two-storey return to the centre. Most original multi-pane timber sash windows remain to the rear elevation with a square-headed door opening having a vertically-sheeted timber door.

East gabled side elevation has a single window to the ground floor at the south end and a single window to the first floor to the north end.

A multi-bay two-storey rendered building, built c.1990, is located close to the rear returns and is in separate ownership. A tall rendered screen wall spans the space between the rear elevation and the later building, enclosing a small rear yard. The east side area and the front of the house is finished in gravel above a large lawn overlooking Belfast Lough. A curved gravel drive rises through a wooded area to Shore Road, opening onto the road via a pair of rubble stone piers and walls with steel gates.

Roof: Natural slate
Walling: Ruled-and-lined rendered
Windows: Timber sash
Rainwater goods: Metal and cast-iron

Historical information

The building is first shown on the second edition OS map of 1857, captioned ‘Copeland View’, and is ‘H’ shaped in plan. According to Brett, the name was changed between 1870 and 1877.

An entry in Griffith’s Valuation of 1859 describes the house as ‘2 bathing lodges as one house, let monthly, furnished, very superior and situated on shore of Belfast Lough’. Each house is valued at £27.5s and they are leased from Thomas Johnston. They are let separately to Captain W Malcolm and Robert McGowan.

Valuation Revisions of 1864-69, name the property ‘Loughside’. It is now occupied by Jonathon Dinsore, and the lessor is the Reps. of John Cumming. The building is valued at £51.

In the Valuation Revisions of 1875 the property is described as ‘now one house’. It is occupied by James Cumming, and the lessor listed as L. John Campbell. The building valuation is revised to £55.

According to Brett, the occupier, Professor James Cuming, was Professor of Medicine at Queen’s University “the first alumnus to be appointed to a chair and the only Roman Catholic on the academic staff...educated in Dublin, Paris and Vienna...he was an admirer of Horace and inventor of the celebrated Cuming’s dyspepsia powders. It was apparently he who tacked onto the west-facing gable a splendid Victorian cast-iron conservatory, with ratchets for ventilation, fat heating pipes, and fruiting vine, all still in working order; and at the other end of the house a fine music-room – still so used...After Cuming’s death the house was occupied by Tom Sterling, JP [and] confectioner, ‘with branches all over the city’ [and a] ‘collection of antiques, furniture and silver, etc...unequalled in the north of Ireland’. (p. 195)

References:

Primary sources

1. PRONI OS/6/1/52/1-First Edition OS Map (1832)
2. PRONI OS/6/1/52/2 -Second Edition OS Map (1857)
3. PRONI VAL/2/A/1/52 -Griffith’s Valuation Map (1857)
4. PRONI VAL/2/B/1/22A-Griffith’s Valuation (1859)
5. PRONI VAL/12/B/7/5A-F -Valuation Revisions (1861-1894)

Secondary Sources

1. Brett, C.E.B. Buildings of County Antrim, UAHS, 1996.

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

X. Local Interest
Z. Rarity

Evaluation

One of a pair of identical houses that may have originally been a single unit, this house retains a wealth of original features including timber sash windows, an impressive iron-framed conservatory and some quality timber joinery and plasterwork to the interior. Overlooking Belfast Lough on a mature site, this house is a good example of the mid-nineteenth century coastal developments built to take advantage of the sea views and adds to the variety of architectural heritage of the Shore Road.