Prospect House

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Detached three-bay two-storey over basement house, built c.1820, located to the east side of Prospect Road, Carrickfergus. Rectangular-on-plan with central entrance; two-storey canted bay to each side.

Roof is pitched and slated (now partially covered with corrugated metal sheets); few terracotta clay ridge tiles remain; leaded hips to canted bays. Corbelled chimney-stacks with clay pots to each gable. Cast-iron ogee profile rainwater goods (few cast-iron downpipes remaining); walls are exposed coursed rubble. No windows remain to front and rear elevations (original 6/6 timber sliding sashes with exposed boxes have been removed or destroyed; majority of openings are now boarded) all with angled sandstone heads with keyblock and painted masonry cills unless otherwise stated.

Principal elevation faces south; central entrance with two-storey canted bay to either side with window to each cheek at ground and first floor. Entrance and round-headed fanlight are boarded. Central bay at first floor has Serliano window with cast-iron balcony (now almost entirely missing; only a small section to the right remains.)

Left gable has two oculus windows at first floor.

Rear elevation is five windows wide with central entrance (boarded); surmounted by window at first floor; two windows to each side at each floor.

Left gable has two oculus windows at first floor.

Basement level is not visible.

The house is located within a modern housing development, built c. 2008. Enclosed within close proximity to all sides leaving only a small external space to the rear of the house which is enclosed by Leicester Park to the North. The house is accessed from Prospect Road to the west.

Roof:Natural slate (majority replaced with corrugated metal sheets.)
Walling: Exposed coursed rubble
Windows: Angled sandstone heads, keyblock, and painted masonry cills; (original 6/6 timber sliding sashes with exposed boxes
have been removed or destroyed; majority of openings are now boarded)
RWG: Cast-iron ogee profile gutters (few cast-iron downpipes remaining.)

Historical information

The building appears in its current form on the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1832, captioned ‘Prospect’.

The Townland Valuation records a house with basement storey and offices, owned and occupied by John Borthwick. The value of the buildings is initially recorded at £14 1s 3d, later revised to £24 19s 1d (date not given). The total value including land is £59 8s. 2d., revised to £69.15s.5d.

Griffith’s Valuation of 1859 records no change in ownership. House, offices and land are valued at £40. The entry is revised (date not given) to include a gate lodge, increasing the value of the buildings to £46.

Valuation revisions from the 1860s record a small increase in value to £50, and in 1880 a change in occupancy is recorded, from John Borthwick to John Girdwood.

Brett contradicts earlier secondary sources which date the house to the 1760s, referring to the 1808 Williamson revision of the Lendrick map of 1780. He cites the insertion of the house in the later edition as evidence for the construction of Prospect around the turn of the century. Boyle, in the OS Memoirs, dates the house to c.1800: "a two-storey house with 2 sexagons in front…erected about the year 1800 by Henry Clements Ellis Esq." (quoted in Brett, p.170)

The house was used as a restaurant in the 1990s, and has been vacant for a number of years.

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 OS/6/1/52/3 -Third Edition OS Map (1901-2)
4. PRONI VAL/1B/187 - Townland Valuation Fieldbook (1839)
4. PRONI VAL/2/A/1/52 -Griffiths Valuation Map (1857)
5. PRONI VAL/2/B/1/22A -Griffiths Valuation Fieldbook (1859)
6. PRONI VAL/12/B/7/5B -Valuation Revision Fieldbook (1864-1873)

Secondary Sources:
1. C.E.B. Brett, Buildings of County Antrim, UAHS, Belfast, 1996

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest

Evaluation

A formerly elegant detached four-bay two-storey house with basement, built c.1820, located to the west side of Red Brae Road, Carrickfergus. The former mature garden setting has been replaced by a modern housing development. It retains handsome proportions, and quality craftsmanship evident in the stone construction and despite the loss of original features it remains an important late Georgian building in Carrickfergus.