32 Maxwell Road

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

An asymmetrical multi-bay two-storey with attic Edwardian house, loosely in the Arts and Crafts style, built c.1910 to designs by Ernest L. Woods for himself, located on the west side of Maxwell Road to the west of Bangor town centre. Irregular on plan with projecting full-height gabled bays and double-height stairwell bay to front; double garage to north.

Hipped and gabled rosemary tiled roof with tall roughcast rendered chimneystacks having terracotta pots; exposed rafter ends. Cast-iron ogee rainwater goods (replacement). Walling is roughcast render with plinth; sandstone kneelers to gable. Windows are timber and uPVC double side hung casement replacements with painted masonry projecting sills; original leaded and stained glass windows to entrance bay.

The principal elevation faces east and is generally two storey, asymmetrically arranged with irregular fenestration. Roughly to centre is a catslide stairwell flanked by two projecting bays; that to left has sandstone coping and kneeler stones to gable; right side contains oval-headed entrance in moulded ashlar surround with hood mould, flanked by dwarf buttresses and with two narrow stained glass windows to left side; the door is original panelled timber with replacement oval stained glass panel and brass door furniture, accessed by a curved granite step. There is a single window to first floor. The right projection is hipped and has a gablet ornamented with decorative bargeboards and a cartouche; it has plain buttresses without offsets and a window to each floor. The stairwell is lit by a stained glass window with lintel below eaves; end bays are plainly detailed; the eaves height is lower to right bay. There is a dormer offset to left, lighting attic.

The south elevation has projecting chimneybreast to centre; rising from a single-storey projecting hipped bay having two diminutive windows. Single window to right at first floor; slender window to right at ground floor.

The west (rear) elevation is symmetrically arranged with three windows to first floor; ground floor with double-leaf glazed doors with sidelights to left; two large multi-paned windows to right. Gabled dormer to centre of roof. To far left is double-height bay with modern double-leaf glazed doors.

The north elevation has three slender windows to first floor and a single slender window to ground floor; abutted to right by single-storey double garage.

Setting

Located to the west side of Maxwell Road in a largely suburban area of Bangor; built during the time of the town’s extension during late 19th and early 20th century. Paved parking area to front of house; landscaped garden to rear enclosed by mature hedgerow.

Roof: Rosemary tiles
Walling: Roughcast
Windows: Timber
RWG: Cast-iron

Historical information

Development along Maxwell Road did not begin in earnest until the early decades of the twentieth century and the current house was among the first to be built along it. The house first appears on the fourth edition OS map of 1919-26, uncaptioned.

The ‘house, motor house and land’ is first entered into valuation records in 1915 and is initially vacant and then occupied by Isabella W Woods, the wife of architect Ernest L Woods. (Annual Revisions, 1911 Census) The valuation is £59.5s. By 1917 the occupier is Ernest Lucius Woods himself and the valuer notes that a conservatory is yet to be erected. (Annual Revisions) A valuation town plan dating from c1925 to c1935 shows the house captioned ‘The Nook’.

At the time of the general revaluation of the early 1930s, Ernest Woods remained in residence and the house was leased from Viscount Bangor. The valuation was raised to £86 and it is noted that the lease of the land was obtained in 1908 and the cost of the house was £1850 in 1915. The house had central heating, gas and electric light and comprised, on the ground floor, three receptions, a cloakroom with WC and wash-hand basin, kitchen, scullery with hot and cold water, and two pantries. Outside was a coal-shed, WC and motor house and on the first floor, four bedrooms, a bathroom with hot and cold water and separate WC, a hot press and a dressing room. On the second floor were two attic bedrooms and a box-room with two dormers. The valuer notes that there is an inglenook in the reception room and two of the bedrooms have wash-hand basins with hot and cold water. The bathroom was well fitted and had a ‘shower bath’. The rear of the house had a view of Belfast Lough. A plan and dimensions of the building are given showing the house with a bay window to the west and a separate motor house for two cars. By 1944 a glass house and an octagonal summer house had been built in the garden, raising the valuation by £1. The occupier in the 1940s was J Gilpin. (First General Revaluation)

Ernest Lucius Woods (1877-1952) was a civil engineer and architect responsible for some of the best-known buildings in Bangor including the Carnegie Library (HB23/05/006) and the Grammar School. He was educated at Methodist College, Belfast and articled for five years to Belfast’s city surveyor. He was then appointed town surveyor of Bangor in 1899, remaining in the post until 1908 when he resigned. It was at this period, at perhaps the apex of his career, that Woods purchased a plot of land at Maxwell Road and eventually built his new house between 1912 and 1915. (Patton, p.144; www.dia.ie) Woods was elected a member of the Royal Institute of Architects of Ireland in 1911. (Irish Builder)

Woods continued to work on domestic and commercial projects, largely in Belfast, until 1940 when he retired and resigned from the RIAI. (www.dia.ie)

Woods’ house, renamed ‘Glenview’ at the time Patton was writing, has recently been renovated and refurbished (Patton, p.144)

References:

Primary Sources

1.PRONI OS/6/3/2/4 – Fourth Edition OS Map 1919-26
2.PRONI OS/6/3/2/5 – Fifth Edition OS Map 1939
3.PRONI VAL/12/B/23/9A-S – Annual Revisions (1900-1930)
4.PRONI VAL/12/E/129/9/1-11 – Valuation Town Plans (c1925-c1935)
5.PRONI VAL/3/D/4/1/E/12 – First NI General Revaluation, Valuers’ RV Binder (1933-57)
6.Irish Builder, Vol 53, 1 April 1911, p.193

Secondary Sources

1.Patton, M, “Bangor, An Historical Gazetteer” Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1999
2.www.dia.ie – Dictionary of Irish Architects online

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
I. Quality and survival of Interior
J. Setting

Criteria for listing: historic interest

V. Authorship
X. Local Interest

Evaluation

An asymmetrical multi-bay two-storey with attic house, loosely in the Arts and Crafts style, formerly known as The Nook, built c.1910 to designs by Ernest L. Woods as his own dwelling. Woods was the Borough surveyor and responsible for many of Bangor’s Edwardian buildings. Many early twentieth century details survive and are of good quality. It is an example of the work of a prominent local architect on a smaller scale and illustrates the development of the west of Bangor during the late 19th and early 20th century, providing homes for the growing number of wealthy merchant and professional classes.