Gate Screen

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A nineteenth-century rendered gate screen, built c.1875, located at the entrance and providing shared access to 60 and 62 Princetown Road, Bangor (HB23/14/008A&B). The design of the gate screen appears to have been inspired by that of the nearby Seacourt estate (23/14/005C) built approximately 10 years earlier in ashlar sandstone.

The gate screen comprises painted masonry square gate piers having moulded cornice and square caps with flanking curved dwarf plinth walls with projecting coping and replacement timber railings terminating in circular piers that rise from square pedestals with moulded offsets; each is topped by a bell-shaped cap rising to a square plinth which may have supported a finial, now gone. Gates have been removed.

Setting

Positioned on a raised site overlooking Bangor Marina, providing shared access to 60 and 62 Princetown Road via a sloped tarmacadam driveway to the east.

Walling: Smooth render
Railings: Timber

Historical information

The entrance gate screen appears to be contemporary with the dwellings to which it provides access - 60 and 62 Princetown Road, Bangor.

This area of Bangor began to be developed towards the end of the nineteenth century as the town expanded into a fashionable resort and commuter town following the opening of the railway in 1865. The area is shown as empty fields on the second edition ordnance survey map of 1858 but by the third edition of 1901, Princetown Road has been laid out in terraces and villas as far as the promontory, Wilson’s Point.

This semi-detached pair of villas, known as ‘Augustaville’ first enters valuation records in 1875, as a development by Robert Russell Junior of two houses, unfinished, but valued at £26.10s each. This valuation is raised to £37 by 1882. (Annual Revisions) They may, however, have remained unfinished for some years, as a photograph held by Bangor Heritage Centre dated 1887 shows Augustaville still under construction. (Patton, p.161) Robert Russell is initially listed as the occupier of both houses and then as the occupier of number 60, ‘lodgers’ being recorded in number 62. In 1895 the valuation is reduced to £35 and the valuer indicates that the properties are seasonal lets, being ‘expensive houses to keep in repair...let furnished for May and June for £26’. (Annual Revisions) However, Robert Russell is listed in street directories of the period as resident in ‘Augustaville’ and the building may only have been let in the summer season, Russell retiring elsewhere, as was common practice in Bangor at the time. (Belfast and Ulster Street Directory, 1899).

The 1901 census shows that the current house was occupied by Charles Lepper, a gentleman with a private income, and his wife and young daughter. Also resident were a nursemaid from Fermanagh and a parlour maid from Tyrone. (1901 census) From 1906 the house is occupied by Thomas E McConnell, an Auctioneer and Valuer with premises in Arthur Street, Belfast (Belfast and Ulster Street Directory, 1907). The valuation is raised to £40, indicating some improvements to the property. Patrick Moore, a retired shipbroker is recorded as occupier in 1914 and he is followed by Hugh Moore in 1921.

According to the reminiscences of William Seyers, a development company began to build a hotel at the entrance to Marine Gardens and had a tool house on the site where Augustaville was later to be built. The company failed and the tool house building was run as tea rooms by a Mrs McAlpin for some years. (Seyers, p.13)

Patton describes the houses as, “A magnificent pair of stucco semi-villas, possibly the finest on the Marine Esplanade” (p.161) The houses are currently still in use as private residences.

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.Belfast and Ulster Street Directory, 1899
9.Belfast and Ulster Street Directory, 1907

Secondary Sources

1.Patton, M, “Bangor, An Historical Gazetteer” Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1999
2.Seyers, W T “Reminiscences of Old Bangor” Belfast: Lion Gate Press, 1983

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

A nineteenth-century rendered gate screen, built c.1875, located at the entrance and providing shared access to 60 and 62 Princetown Road, Bangor. The design of the gate screen appears to have been inspired by that of the nearby Seacourt estate (23/14/005C) built approximately 10 years earlier in ashlar sandstone. The screen is distinguished by good craftsmanship and detailing and has group value with the Victorian villas to which it gives access (HB23/14/008A & B). However, permission has been granted for its removal.