Groomsport House

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A two-storey three-bay Tudor Gothic Revival country house with exposed basement and attic, built 1849 and now much altered and converted to several apartments. The house is located to the east of Groomsport overlooking the sea, and comprises the main building in a substantial modern residential development. The main part of the house is rectangular-on-plan dominated by a substantial porch, now surmounted by a gabled glazed extension. The former porch entrance is now part of the upper floor, the basement at west having been excavated to form a basement apartment. Full-height service wing to south; modern extensions comprise a two-storey extension to east, a basement extension to west and, to south, flat roofed full-height stairwell and sanitary extensions fronted by a large bifurcated entrance stair to re-entrant angle with service wing. Porch entrance extensions to basement apartments have been added to north.

Roofs are pitched natural slate with angled clay ridge tiles; gables have fractables on kneelers with roll-moulded copings, generally topped with octagonal pinnacles. Sandstone chimneystacks have tall octagonal flues with moulded caps grouped in threes and fours to main body of house, twos to return. Gutters are moulded stone, downpipes are cast-iron. Walling to main body of house is ashlar sandstone over a rubble basement (partially painted to east); return is rubble stone with painted rendered two-storey canted projecting bays. Windows to principal elevations are tri- and bi-partite ashlar sandstone transomed-and-mullioned timber casements with label moulding; attic windows to gables are small round-headed single casements.

Entrance elevation faces west and has a two-storey projecting porch in sandstone over a rubble stone base flanked by projecting brick-dressed piers rising to octagonal piers topped by pinnacles (all with appropriate responds). A fretted stone balustrade encloses a modern gabled conservatory to second floor. Windows are Tudor-arched in square recesses with label moulds and carved spandrels; that to south face has cusped tracery and is fitted with 1/1 sashes. Entrance at basement level comprises a replacement timber door set in an ashlar sandstone surround with label mould. To either side of porch, over a projecting basement extension, gabled bays have windows to principal floors and attic.

The north elevation is symmetrical, three openings wide to principal floors over a basement with porch extensions. The central bay has a blind multi-foil headed statuary niche; side bays have canted bay windows with castellated parapets and quatrefoil panelled frieze to upper ground floor, abutted to basement by modern gabled porches.

The east elevation is abutted to right end by a modern two-storey block, and is extended at left by the lower service wing, which is set back slightly. Fenestration is irregular, all bi-partite and single casements with the exception of a large castellated canted oriel on corbelled sandstone base, detailed as canted bays (above). The service wing is described later.

The south elevation is abutted by various extensions at left (all having roofs concealed behind plain parapets) and the service wing at right. It contains entrances to upper and basement apartments; formed by an upper-level timber porch set obliquely into the angle of stairwell extension and service wing, and accessed by a sweeping bifurcated concrete staircase arranged over the projecting entrance porch to basement apartments. The letter ‘G’ is affixed to mild steel parapet railings.

The service wing is rubble stone with sandstone quoins to south, painted ruled-and-lined rendered to north, and has bi-partite Tudor-arched mullioned windows in square-headed sandstone surrounds. The south elevation is abutted by two castellated canted bays to first floor level.

Setting
The house is surrounded by tarmac parking area on all but the north side, which is accessed by a narrow entry bounded to north by a high boundary wall. The extensive site, including original outbuildings (now of no interest) has been developed with several three storey apartment blocks, all accessed by a tarmac drive from Donaghadee Road. The entrance retains gate lodge (HB23/01/016B) and part of the gate screen (HB23/18/016C). There are lawns and a tennis court to west front, and views to the sea.

Roof: Natural slate
Walling: Scottish sandstone
Windows: Timber
RWG: Stone gutters, cast-iron downpipes

Historical information

Groomsport House is a mansion built in 1848, designed by architect James Sands for John Waring Maxwell, who intended the house for his nephew and heir Robert Perceval-Maxwell. The house has been converted for use as apartments in recent years.

The house appears as “Groomsport House” on the Second Edition Ordnance Survey map of 1858. In Griffith’s Valuation (1856-64) it is listed as the residence of Robert P[erceval-] Maxwell and is leased from his uncle J[ohn] W[aring] Maxwell of Finnebrogue. The initial valuation of £58 increased to £75 following improvements, including the construction of a gate lodge. Estate papers for the Maxwell family contain correspondence between Sands and John Waring Maxwell about the house’s construction. Sands visited the site in January 1844, and freestone was shipped from Glasgow six months later. Accounts for the project concluded in 1848 at a cost of over £6,000 (Dean, p.78, Patton, p.66).

Robert Perceval-Maxwell took up residence around1848. In 1870, he became the owner in fee following his uncle’s death without issue and thereafter made Finnebrogue in Downpatrick his principal residence, using Groomsport House as a summer home. The valuation rose to £79 in 1870 after a gardener’s house was added, and to £85 after Robert’s death in 1905, when a hayshed was recorded. “A Tour of North Down” carries a photograph of the house with a partial view of the grounds dating from around 1910. Robert left the property to his daughters Isabel and Anna Perceval-Maxwell who lived there until their deaths in 1923 and 1928 respectively.

During the Second World War, Groomsport House was occupied by the 515 Field Survey Company of the Royal Engineers (1940-1943) who produced maps for operations in Europe using aerial reconnaissance photography (Information supplied by Peter Gibson). In 1944, the US Army’s 166th Signal Photographic Company was billeted there for several weeks. These photographers and cinematographers later recorded the advance of the US Third Army following the D Day landings (County Down Spectator).

The Maxwell family regained possession of the house in 1951. Gavin Perceval-Maxwell undertook restoration work before selling the property in 1968. (Crosbie, p.43, Groomsport Parish Church, p.12). The house was opened as a hotel in 1994 but closed shortly afterwards and in 1999 was converted to apartments (Patton, p.66, 68).

References:

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/3/2/2 – Second Edition OS map 1958
2. PRONI OS/6/3/2/3 – Third Edition OS Map 1901
3. PRONI OS/6/3/2/4 – Fourth Edition OS Map 1919-26
4. PRONI OS/6/3/2/5 – Fifth Edition OS Map 1939
5. PRONI VAL/2/B/3/2 – Griffith’s Valuation Map (1856-64)
6. PRONI VAL/2/B/3/1C – Griffith’s Valuation (1856-64)
7. PRONI VAL/12/B/23/7A-K – Annual Revisions (1866-99)
8. PRONI VAL/12/B/23/8A-C – Annual Revisions (1894-1923)
9. PRONI D3244/E/5 – Letters and papers of John Waring Maxwell junior about architecture and buildings (1818-69)
10. Northern Whig, 4th May 1843
11. Banner of Ulster, 16th May 1848
12. Belfast Newsletter, 14th May 1923
13. Belfast Newsletter, 30th July 1928
14. County Down Spectator, 22nd October 2020

Secondary Sources

15. Crosbie, Jane E.M. “A Tour of North Down 1895-1925, Historic Photographs from the W.A. Green Collection at the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum” Belfast: Friar’s Bush Press, 1989
16. Dean, J. A. K. “The Gate Lodges of Ulster: A Gazetteer.” Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1994.
17. “Groomsport Parish Church, 1842-1992” Church Leaflet
18. Information supplied by Peter Gibson
19. Malcomson, A. P. W. (2023) The Maxwells of Finnebrogue and the Gentry of County Down c1610-c1960. Belfast: Ulster Historical Foundation
20. Patton, M, “Bangor, An Historical Gazetteer” Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1999

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

Criteria for listing: historic interest

V. Authorship
X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Groomsport House is a substantial mid-Victorian country house, built in an ornate Tudor-Revival style to designs by James Sands for the Perceval Maxwell family of Finnebrogue. At present, the house is of interest primarily due to its fine detailing, all in Scottish sandstone and distinguished by ornate chimneystacks, transom-and-mullion windows and Tudor Gothic detailing appropriate to the revival style. However, the twentieth-century renovations and changes of use, first to a hotel and latterly to a residential apartment block, have significantly compromised the historic character of the house, particularly with regard to the excavated basement, which has compromised the original proportions and developed inappropriate accretions. The setting has also been adversely affected by modern development. The relationship with its lodge (HB23/01/016B) and remains of the gate screen (HB23/01/016C) is now interrupted and these are also degraded.
However, the quality of the house survives in its detailing and its historic connections with a prominent local landlord and distinguished family and as such it retains its special interest.

General comments

This record has been reassigned as part of the Groomsport House grouping. The original HB reference was HB23/01/016.