Linden Lodge

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A detached two-storey stucco villa, built c.1830 to designs by John Millar, located within a group of similar dwellings at junction of Marino Park and Old Quay Road, Holywood. Cruciform on plan, with entrance to west and truncated south arm extended at ground floor by a modern sun room.

Pitched natural slate roofs with angled clay ridge tiles and raised fractables with saddleback masonry coping to gables. Feature lozenge chimneystacks with white pots are variously arranged: twin stacks rise from ground level flanking gablet to west; two stacks corbelled out from first floor level to either side of principal south gable; elsewhere octagonal flues on square stacks over mock-machicolation detailing. Rainwater goods are half-round cast-iron. Walling is ruled-and-lined stucco, painted white, over a chamfered plinth, south elevation has triple dogtooth moulding and string course between floors to projecting section. Windows are generally replacement timber multi-pane double-side-hung casements, with chamfered reveals and cills, those to principal elevations with label moulds.

The principal entrance elevation faces west and is gabled at right, having a single-storey porch in re-entrant angle. Porch has a buttress at corner and a Tudor-arched timber door of vertical panels accessed up a stone step. Gable has a window to each floor; left side has irregular fenestration but is dominated by a window set into a gablet flanked by chimneystacks; blind triangular-headed niche to ground floor between stacks.

The north gable has a canted timber bay to ground floor and a window over. The left cheek of this gable is blank, with chimneystack rising from ground level.

The east gable has an exposed basement opening onto an enclosed yard bounded by metal railings and accessed by a flight of stone steps. Basement level has a set of multi-pane timber patio doors; there is a window to each floor over, that to ground floor enlarged. To north-east internal angle is a single storey projection (mirroring and of similar dimensions to entrance porch) with buttresses; it has a rebated chamfered window opening with triple lancet window in timber frame to either side.

The south gable is abutted at ground floor by a modern conservatory extension with Gothic glazing. There is a window to first floor.

Setting

The house is set in a small enclosed garden planted with mature shrubs; mature tree and hedge boundaries, gravel turning circle to west, accessed from Marino Park.

Roof: Natural slate
Walling: stucco
Windows: timber
RWG: Cast-iron

Historical information

This house is one of a group of houses built as bathing villas to designs by John Millar for Thomas Ward c1830.

The house is shown, captioned ‘East Cottage’ on the first edition Ordnance Survey map (1834) among a number of villas within a single plot. These are all listed in the Townland Valuation (1828-40), the current building being described as ‘house and offices’, the property of Mr Thomas Ward, and valued at £16.14s.

In his 1837 publication, Samuel Lewis writes, “There are several good lodging-houses in the village and its environs; and from the increasing number of visiters [sic], several houses in detached situations and chiefly in the Elizabethan style of architecture are now in progress on the Cultra estate, by Thomas Ward Esq, after designs by Millar. These houses are sheltered with thriving plantations and beautifully situated on a gentle eminence commanding a richly diversified and extensive prospect of Carrickfergus bay, the Black mountain, Cave hill, the Carnmoney mountains and the town and castle of Carrickfergus, the view terminating with the basaltic columns of Black Head.” However, it appears these observations were made some time before publication, as the OS Memoirs records the houses as already complete in 1834. The memoirs notes that they “have been built for the bathing season, when they are generally filled from Belfast.” (Lewis, Vol II, p.6; OS Memoirs, p.74)

The second edition OS map (1858) shows the villa uncaptioned. Griffith’s Valuation (1856-64) of this period gives the occupier as Captain Richard Hoskin and is described as a ‘house and lawn’. Dimensions are given for the dwelling and it is valued at £32. A sketch plan is drawn in the margin. (Brett identifies Linden Lodge as the house occupied by Thomas Ward. However, the sketch plan of Captain Hoskin’s house in the margin of the fieldbook correlates very closely to the plan of Linden Lodge. Other primary sources suggest that Brook House (HB23/18/039) was in fact the house owned by Thomas Ward and let to Thomas Vallentine.) (Brett, p.178)

During the late nineteenth and early twentieth century the house was increasingly left unlet and became a less attractive rental proposition – perhaps because of the growth and popularity of Bangor as a seaside destination once the railway reached it in 1865.

The house lies vacant for some time after 1867 and is then occupied by Thomas H Wilson in 1880. The valuation falls to £23 in 1886, probably indicating that the house is falling somewhat into disrepair. Hugh Adair, (also the occupier of The Cloisters (HB23/18/38A) around this period and possibly the publisher of Hugh Adair’s Belfast Directory) is the occupier in 1907 and it is again vacant in 1914. Martha Butler becomes the occupier in 1919 and the valuation is reduced to £19 the same year. Valuers’ notes of that year state that the house comprises two receptions, three bedrooms and a bathroom with hot and cold water, but that the windows are ‘nearly all broken’ and it has been ‘lying vacant for a long time’. A plan and dimensions are given. By 1911 John Baird is in occupation.

In 1933 the house is called ‘Ashville’, occupied by George Sanderson and leased from Sir RJ Kennedy later changed to H J Harris (n.d.) The valuation is raised to £30 from £23. At this time the accommodation comprises two receptions, kitchen, scullery and WC downstairs and three bedrooms and a WC upstairs. There is a disused kitchen in the basement. The house is supplied with gas and well water with a pump. A plan and dimensions are given, showing the house and a separate motor house.

References:

Primary Sources

1.PRONI OS/6/3/1/1 – First Edition OS Map 1834
2.PRONI OS/6/3/1/2 – Second Edition OS map 1858
3.PRONI OS/6/3/1/3 – Third Edition OS Map 1900-02
4.PRONI OS/6/3/1/4 – Fourth Edition OS Map 1919-31
5.PRONI OS/6/3/1/5 – Fifth Edition OS Map 1938-41
6.PRONI VAL/1/A/3/1 – Townland Valuation Map (1828-40)
7.PRONI VAL/1/B/318 – Townland Valuation (1828-40)
8.PRONI VAL/2/B/3/1 – Griffith’s Valuation Map (1856-64)
9.PRONI VAL/2/B/3/18B – Griffith’s Valuation (1856-64)
10.PRONI VAL/12/A/3/22– Annual Revisions Valuers’ notebook (1917-22)
11.PRONI VAL/12/B/17/10A-G – Annual Revisions (1867-1930)
12.PRONI VAL/12/B/17/11A-C – Annual Revisions (1888-1930)
13.Day, A. and P. McWilliams, eds. “OS Memoirs of Ireland, Parishes of County Down II, 1832-4, 1837, Vol. 7.” Belfast: Institute of Irish Studies, 1991.

Secondary Sources

1.Brett, C.E.B. “Buildings of North County Down” Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 2002
2.Lewis, Samuel. “A Topographical Dictionary of Ireland, Comprising the Several Counties, Cities, Boroughs, Corporate, Market, and Post Towns, Parishes, and Villages, With Historical and Statistical Descriptions; Embellished with Engravings of the Arms of the Cities, Bishopricks, Corporate Towns, and Boroughs; Of the Seals of the Several Municipal Corporations.” London: S. Lewis & Co., 1837.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
J. Setting
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest
V. Authorship

Evaluation

A detached two-storey stucco villa, built c.1830 to designs by John Millar. Linden House is a picturesque Tudor-style house, one of a group of similarly styled dwellings, built as bathing villas, that represent both the beginnings of speculative development in this part of the North Down coast and the increasing popularity of coastal leisure pursuits among the wealthy merchant classes. The house, and the group as a whole, are distinguished by lively composition including pointed gables, slender buttresses and the Gothic detailing The original fabric appears to survive, including the original plan layout, and the house is a significant element in the notable and unusual neo-Tudor character of the enclave.