3-5 Lorelei

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Three three-storey two-bay Victorian mid-terrace houses, incorporating what was known as the Tedford Hotel, 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 incorporates three of the houses in the terrace. For the purposes of this record only one will be described; that to left: three-storey bow window to right; at first floor is a decorative cast-iron balcony with uPVC double-leaf doors at centre of bay. 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 is abutted by adjoining building (HB23/14/003B).

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 (HB23/14/003D).

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. Modern steel railing 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)
This terrace started life as a pair of semi-detached houses, built c.1880 (which later became numbers 3 and 4 Lorelei Terrace) overlooking Bangor Bay. They enter Annual Revision records in 1881 and are initially listed as vacant and leased from Alan Carswell, who is likely to have been the developer. Both houses are initially valued at £35 but in 1882 the valuation of number four is raised to £37. This appears to be due to the addition of stables which are later separated out of the valuation. In 1882 someone with the surname of Cannon is living in number three and Alan Carswell is listed as the occupier of number four. Alan Carswell may be the head of the printing firm R Carswell & Son Ltd of Queen Street, Belfast. (McSkimin and M’Crum, p.129)

In 1890 the pair of houses is listed as ‘Lorely’ and the occupier of number three is H Boas, then Hugh Ferguson in 1896 and Geraldine Jones in 1899. The occupiers of number four are John Wyley and then Anne McFerran in 1896.The houses were sold on to Samuel Crosbie in 1897 and it is he who subsequently develops the site further by adding four more houses. In August 1898, the Irish Builder announces 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”. In 1899 the valuation of both houses was reduced to £30. The houses added to the terrace by Young & Mackenzie follow the design of the original pair very closely, the original semi distinguished only by wrought-iron balconies to the front façade. It is possible that Young & Mackenzie were also the architects of the first two houses.

Herman Boas (1827-1917) was a founding member of the Jewish congregation in Belfast in 1861 and its president in 1877. He was also Treasurer of the Belfast Hebrew Board of Guardians for many years. Boas had emigrated to Nottingham from Lubeck in 1854 and settled in Belfast in 1861 trading as Sol Boas and Company, fancy box and linen ornament manufacturers. His wife Caroline Spiers was a niece of the lexicographer Alexander Spiers and aunt to Herman Heyermans, the Netherlands playwright and novelist. Their eldest son, Frederick Samuel Boas (1862-1955) became an extremely distinguished Shakespearean scholar, publishing numerous works in the field of Tudor and Stuart drama and poetry. He was Professor of English Literature at Queen’s College, Belfast from 1901 to 1905. Ernst Boas, Herman’s son and heir to the family firm, rented number two, shortly after the houses were first built. (Hyman, p.206)

In 1901 the occupier of number three is listed in the valuation records as Emma Dale. (Annual Revisions) The 1901 census shows Francis Dale, a retired book-keeper, in residence with his wife, Emma and their two children. Sarah Stronge, Emma’s sister, lives with the family and they have a cook, an unmarried woman of 40. By 1911 the character of the terrace had begun to change from large family residences to boarding houses catering for commuters and tourists. In the 1911 census Sarah Stronge is shown as occupying both this house and its neighbour, number two, and operating them both as boarding houses. She has two servants, a cook and a housemaid from County Monaghan and there is a visitor staying, perhaps a boarder. In 1942 the house became the offices of the Liverpool, London and Globe Insurance Company. By the time of listing in 1975, it was in use, together with numbers four and five, as a hotel. (NIEA file)

The 1901 census lists the occupiers of number four as Mary McFerran and Margaret Mc Ferran, sisters who were both born in England and are living from the income generated by investments. The 1911 census shows that the McFerran sisters are still resident but they now have a general domestic servant from County Tipperary. Several changes of occupier ensue; Gorman (1914), Annie Tracey (1919), Ethel M Cance (1924), Rosamund C McKeown and Elizabeth Walker in 1926. By the time of listing in 1975, the building was in use, together with numbers three and five, as a hotel.

Number five first enters valuation records in 1900 as a newly-built vacant dwelling. By 1901 it is occupied by James Jackson. The valuation is £36. (Annual Revisions). The 1901 census shows that James Jackson had a private income from investments and lived with his sister and her son together with two domestic servants. Kathleen Kyle follows in 1908, but at the time of the 1911 census the house was vacant. Sarah Mulholland was tenant in 1914 and Elizabeth Colville in 1918 (Annual Revisions).

By the time of listing in 1975, Nos 3, 4 & 5 were in use as a hotel and the entire terrace was converted 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.Hyman, Louis “The Jews of Ireland from Earliest Times to the Year 1910” Shannon: Irish University Press, 1972
2.McSkimin, S; M’Crum, E J “The history and antiquities of the county of the town of Carrickfergus from the earliest records till 1839” 1909
3.NIEA file – HB23/14/003B

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

Three three-storey two-bay Victorian stucco terraced houses, incporporating The Tedford Hotel; built c.1890 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.