6 Victoria Road

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A two-bay two-and-a-half storey mid-terrace house, one of a terrace of four, built c.1870 to designs by Robert Neill and located to the south end of Victoria Road close to Bangor town centre. Square on plan with three-storey return to rear.

Pitched natural slate roof having painted render chimneystack with terracotta pots. Cast-iron half-round rainwater goods on timber fascia on projecting eaves. Walling is painted smooth render. Windows are a variety of timber sliding sash with projecting masonry sills. uPVC windows to rear. Canted oriel window to right at first floor with plain entablature, all supported on timber brackets; generally margin-paned lights.

The principal elevation faces north and is two openings wide to ground and first floor, with single opening to gablet; gablet having apex board. Door has two elongated bolection-moulded panels with beaded muntin and brass door furniture: lesene strips with dentilled entablature on decorative console brackets. Ulster History Circle blue plaque with following: “Colin Middleton 1910 -1983 Artist lived here”.

The east elevation is abutted by adjoining building; HB23/05/013D.

The rear elevation exposed section has single windows to each floor. Remainder of elevation is abutted by a three storey rear return (eaves level lower than main block).
Rear return has a pitched roof (right half of pitch is occupied by the neighbouring building) with natural bangor slates and chimney stack on ridge at gable end. Return east elevation is abutted by adjoining building HB23/05/013D; south elevation has single 1/1 uPVC window to second floor, remainder blank; west elevation has single 1/1 uPVC window to second floor, three windows to first floor (central window diminutive) and a window to left and a replacement timber door to right at ground floor.

The west elevation is abutted by adjoining building; HB23/05/013B.

Rear yard completely enclosed with high masonry wall.

Setting
Situated to the south end of Victoria Road adjacent to Bangor Marina in Bangor town centre. Fully enclosed rear yard; to west is Tower House (HB23/05/012).

Roof: Natural slate
Walling: Render
Windows: Timber / uPVC
RWG: Cast-iron

Historical information

The terrace first enters the valuation records in 1870, the houses being initially valued at £18 and replacing three low-value dwellings. The valuation is raised to £22 in 1871, at which time the houses are all vacant and leased from Robert Neill, the developer of the site. By 1872 the occupier of all the houses is listed as Robert Neill and he leases them from Robert E Ward. The valuation is dropped to £21 in 1873, possibly following an appeal. It is unusual for all houses in a terrace to be listed as having the same occupier and this continues to be the case for some years, even when the houses pass to another Neill – Charles – in 1883. A possible explanation is that Robert Neill used the houses as convenient accommodation for his employees, who did not therefore pay rent, and were, perhaps, not in continuous occupation.

Robert Neill of Bangor was a ship-owner and coal merchant, listed in the Mercantile Navy List and Maritime Directory for 1867 as the owner of a ship named ‘Just’, registered in Belfast. According to Patton, Robert Neill’s cargo boats were one of the two chief companies running from Bangor in the 1860’s. His boats ran to and from Neill’s Pier, off Quay Street, where the Coal depot was situated, and a short distance away from the terrace. The pier was purchased by the council in 1931, cleared of coal sheds and renamed ‘South Pier’. Robert Neill’s son Charles, also a coal merchant, died in 1893 and left his property, including the current terrace to his wife Olivia. (Patton, p.153)

In 1886 the valuation was reduced to £18 and from 1899 the terrace is named ‘Tower Buildings’ in the valuation records, with a further reduction in value to £16. The houses are listed as the property of Olivia Neill from 1899 and from 1901 the tenants of each individual house began to be noted, perhaps indicating that the houses were no longer in use as accommodation for the firm Robert Neill and Son.

The current house was occupied by William Yates in 1901 and subsequent tenants were Victor Ferguson (1908), Charles Neill (1914), John McClure (1920) and John Elder (1930).

During the war, the current property was in use as a boarding house and owner information suggests that Clark Gable, American film actor stayed at the house and was photographed leaning on the fireplace, the photograph appearing in the local newspaper, the ‘Spectator’. Unfortunately the relevant issue could not be located. Gable spent much of 1943 stationed at RAF Polebrook in Northamptonshire, where he flew combat missions with the aim of producing a recruitment film for aircraft gunners, but no reference could be found to a visit to Northern Ireland. (Spicer, p.327)

In 1973 the house became the home of Colin Middleton (1910-1983), landscape and figure painter. Son of a damask designer, Middleton became an apprentice in his father’s firm and studied at Belfast College of Art under Newton Penprase in his spare time. He took over the business in 1935, but was able to devote himself full-time to art from 1947. From 1954 to 1970 he was a teacher of art, at Belfast College of Art, Coleraine Technical School and then, Friends’ School Lisburn.

He was strongly influenced by Van Gogh but once called himself the only Surrealist painter working in Ireland. He was also at home with cubist and expressionist styles and was called ‘without doubt one of the few Irish painters who can claim more than local significance’. In 1969 he was awarded an MBE and in 1970 became a member of the Royal Hibernian Academy. An honorary M.A. degree was awarded to him by Queen’s University in 1972.

He exhibited widely, beginning in 1938 with the Royal Hibernian Academy. A Middleton exhibition was held at the Belfast Museum and Art Gallery in 1943, and in 1949 at the Waddington Galleries, Dublin. Thereafter he began to exhibit outside Ireland, at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston in 1951, and at several galleries in London, including the Royal Academy. A major retrospective, including nearly 300 works was held in 1976, at the Ulster Museum and the Hugh Lane Municipal Gallery of Modern Art, Dublin. The Dublin Magazine commented in 1955, “Apart from the brilliance of his paint, he has one rare quality in his inexhaustible capacity for wonder.” (Snoddy, p.421-4)

The house continues in use as a dwelling.

References:

Primary Sources

1.PRONI OS/6/3/2/3 – Third Edition OS Map 1901
2.PRONI OS/6/3/2/4 – Fourth Edition OS Map 1919-26
3.PRONI OS/6/3/2/5 – Fifth Edition OS Map 1939
4.PRONI VAL/12/B/23/7A-K – Annual Revisions (1866-99)
5.PRONI VAL/12/B/23/9A-S – Annual Revisions (1900-1930)
6.PRONI VAL/12/E/129/1 – Annual Revisions Town Plans (c.1864-1899)
7.PRONI VAL/12/E/129/2 – Annual Revisions Town Plans (1898-c.1916)
8.PRONI Will of Robert Neill who died 24/10/73
9.PRONI Will of Charles Neill who died 18/10/93
10.Mercantile Navy List and Maritime Directory, 1867

Secondary Sources

1.Patton, M, “Bangor, An Historical Gazetteer” Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1999
2.Snoddy, T “Dictionary of Irish Artists, 20th Century” Dublin: Merlin Publishing, 2002
3.Spicer, C J “Clark Gable, biography, filmography, bibliography” McFarland and Co Inc, 2002

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

A two bay two-and-a-half storey end-terrace house, built c.1870 by Robert Neill, a ship-owner and coal merchant. Architectural detailing is largely intact and the oriel window is a distinctive feature. No 2 has group value as part of a terrace of four and is a well-preserved example of late 19th century housing in Bangor town centre.