1 Lorelei

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A three-storey two-bay Victorian end-terrace house, built c.1898 to designs by Young and Mackenzie on the outskirts of Bangor town centre. Rectangular on plan with full-height modern extension to rear (1990s).

Pitched natural slate roof; conical roof and finial over bay. Rectangular painted masonry chimneystack with moulded plinth. Walling is painted smooth render/stucco with moulded string-course between floors and continuous sills; dentilled eaves to second floor. Windows are uPVC throughout. Cast-iron ogee rainwater goods on projecting eaves, plastic rainwater goods to rear.

The principal elevation faces north-east and comprises three-storey bow window to right; to left is entrance bay with single opening to upper floors. Door is timber-panelled with plain fanlight in moulded recess; Doric pilasters surmounted by bead moulded arch with keyblock; moulded swirl motif to spandrels.

The south-east elevation has three window openings to the third floor. To left is extension dating from the 1990s; modern and of no interest.

The south-west (rear) elevation is completely abutted by extension (1990s); modern and of no interest.

The north-west elevation is abutted by adjoining building (HB23/14/003B).

Setting

Located in an elevated position on the east side of Princetown Road, overlooking Bangor Bay. Accessed from a lane between 82 and 88 Princetown Road. Tarmacadam car-park to front and rear; garages to front at lower level. Side wall with modern steel railing which extends along front.

Roof: Natural slate
Walling: Render
Windows: uPVC
RWG: Cast-iron; uPVC to rear

Historical information

After the arrival of the railway from Holywood in 1865, Bangor began a phase of rapid growth and land that had been open fields along the coast to the west of the town gradually began to fill with terraces and villas catering for the well-to-do middle-classes, both residents and those attracted to Bangor during the summer season. In the latter decades of the nineteenth century the character of Bangor changed from a declining manufacturing town to a thriving and fashionable resort, the ‘Northern Brighton’. (Patton, p.xii)

The terrace started life as a pair of semi-detached houses, built c.1880 (these two houses later became numbers 3 and 4 Lorelei Terrace) overlooking Bangor Bay. The pair were sold to Samuel Crosbie in 1897 and it was he who subsequently developed the site further by adding four more houses, two on either side of the original pair. In August 1898, the Irish Builder announced that “Two blocks of houses will shortly be commenced at Lourlie [sic]...for Mr Samuel Crosbie, from plans by Messrs Young and Mackenzie, architects, Belfast”. (Irish Builder)

The vacant newly-built house first enters valuation records in 1900 and by 1901 it is occupied by John Greenhill and then Rachel Bolton. The valuation is £39. The 1901 census lists Rachel Bolton, a doctor’s widow, as the head of the household. She occupies the house together with her daughter, a teacher, and her brother who works as a commercial clerk in a brewery. Also resident is their domestic servant from County Monaghan. By 1911 the character of the terrace was beginning to change from large private houses occupied by families to boarding houses catering for commuters and tourists. The 1911 census shows sisters Sarah and Jane Mulholland running the premises as a boarding house with the help of a domestic servant from County Leitrim. They had one lodger at the time, Agnes McCracken, a Post Office clerk. However by 1914 Levina Barkley was resident and William G Allingham (1922) and Ethel C Scott (1927) follow. (Annual Revisions, 1901, 1911 census)

The house appears to have remained in residential use and was developed into apartments c.2000. A large modern extension has been added to the rear of the terrace and the older part of the building has been completely refurbished. Each of the former houses in the terrace now consists of six dual-aspect flats.

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.Irish Builder, Vol 40, 15 August, 1898, p.125
9.Lawrence Collection - 9538

Secondary Sources

1.Patton, M, “Bangor, An Historical Gazetteer” Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1999

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

A three-storey two-bay Victorian stucco end-terrace house, built c.1898 to designs by Young and Mackenzie on the outskirts of Bangor town centre. This terrace would once have formed part of an important group of Victorian terraces overlooking Bangor Bay, built at the time of Bangor’s expansion as a seaside resort. The original character has been compromised with the conversion to modern apartments and the plan form has been lost; the terrace is now a façade retention. Some good architectural detailing survives in the main elevation; however, the original windows have been lost and the setting has been compromised by the addition of garages and a tarmacadam car-park to the front. The rear elevation is dominated by a full-height modern extension. Taken as a whole, the terrace is of a relatively late date and common type and no longer meets the statutory and policy tests as a building of special architectural or historic interest.