Sullivan Upper School Preparatory Department

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A detached red brick three-bay two-storey-with-attic house, now school, built c.1890 and located on the corner of Alexandra Park and My Lady’s Mile in the centre of Holywood. Square on plan with L-shaped toilet block to south and full width single-storey extension to rear (1953), further abutted by a large single-storey-over-basement extension (c.1990).

Pitched natural slate roof with decorative terracotta ridge tiles. Cast-iron half-round rainwater goods with square hoppers on projecting egg-and-dart frieze. Walling is English garden wall-bonded red brick on chamfered plinth with dog-tooth band between floors and egg-and-dart frieze to gables. Windows are segmental-headed 1/1 timber sliding sash with horns having voussoired heads and projecting masonry sills; breakfront with leaded and stained glass windows.

The principal (entrance) elevation faces southeast and is dominated by a central breakfront rising to pediment above eaves line, framed by a window to each side. Oversized leaded and stained glass windows at first floor are flanked and divided by red-brick pilasters having two decoratively carved tiled panels to entablature and outer pilaster heads (also above entrance). Pediment has egg-and-dart and dog-tooth frieze with central diamond shaped carved panel. Entrance has replacement timber-sheeted door flanked by two slender windows and accessed by a stone step. Ground floor is abutted to left by a single-storey flat-roof extension.

The southwest elevation has paired windows to attic; first floor has window to left, modern double-leaf timber doors with sidelight and window at right with oculus over; ground floor with modern timber door with transom light to left; window at right, abutted to far right by single-storey flat-roof extension. Raised flue at left of centre and attached steel fire escape.

The northwest elevation has two dormer windows; paired windows to first floor right and left; to centre is blind window. Abutted to ground floor by flat-roof extension having metal doors with transom light to southwest and northeast elevations. Further abutted by large single-storey-over-basement modern extension (of no interest).

The northeast elevation has small breakfront to centre; to left and right of breakfront are windows to ground and first floor with small oculus to attic at left. Breakfront has paired windows to attic with a window to first and ground floor.

Setting

Set on a large mature site in a mainly residential area, surrounded by detached Victorian houses with the main Sullivan Upper School to northwest. Tarmacadam driveway to front with asphalt pitch. To south is a modern single-storey block of classrooms. Large sloping garden to northeast enclosed by mature trees. Bounded to road by mature hedgerow with modern steel entrance gates.

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

Historical information

The area to the south of Holywood began to be developed towards the end of the nineteenth century and by the 1900-02 edition of the OS map was beginning to fill with large houses in spacious grounds. The current house is shown, uncaptioned, and enters into valuation records in 1895 as one of several newly-built houses along Alexandra Park ‘a new road, off my Lady’s Mile’. The valuer comments that the house cost £843 and the ground rent was £9. He estimates a rental income for the house of ‘£60+ with railway ticket’, referring to the custom of free railway tickets being offered by the railway company to the owners or occupiers of new houses for a period of 10 years from their date of construction. (Patton, p.xii)

The first occupier of the house to be noted is Agnes Beddow. It is unclear whether she is a tenant or an owner as the immediate lessor is noted to be John Harrison, a large landowner in the area and Agnes Beddow may have bought the lease on a plot of land. The house is valued at £39 and this valuation does not change during the period of annual revisions. By the time of the 1901 census the house is occupied by James Munce, son-in-law of Agnes Beddow, who describes himself as a Civil Engineer and Assistant City Surveyor for Belfast. It is possible that James Munce was in fact the designer of the current house. He is living with his wife, mother-in-law and five children, the oldest child, a son, also working as a civil engineer. No servants are listed. James Munce claimed to have designed and supervised the building of St George’s Market in Belfast, although this building is generally attributed to Josiah Corbett Bretland to whom Munce was an assistant. Munce also claimed to have designed a number of other buildings in Belfast, including two fire stations and a police station. His son James Stilwell Munce worked as an engineer and architect, latterly as a partner in the firm Munce & Kennedy. Both as an individual and as a partner in the firm he was responsible for many commercial, domestic and public projects in and around Belfast. (1901 census; www.dia.ie)

At the time of the 1911 census James Munce was living with his wife and three unmarried daughters, his son James Stilwell having moved to London temporarily to join the Works Department of London County Council (www.dia.ie). James Munce died in 1917 and his widow Margaret is noted as living in the house until 1920 when it was taken over by Herbert C Spurrier and in 1921 by Violet Stevens Gardiner. By 1928 the occupier was Samuel Wilson (1861-1937), later knighted, who was a land agent and Senior Commissioner of the Land Purchase Commission, a body that was set up in the wake of land purchase legislation of the late nineteenth century in order to allocate and distribute land purchase monies to vendors, mortgagees and other interested parties. (Northern Ireland Land Purchase Account 2008-9; Smith, p.336)

Samuel Wilson died in 1937 and in 1953 Dromkeen House was acquired for the preparatory department of Sullivan Upper School, with some additions and alterations made that time. The school now caters for pupils from P1 to P4 and was extended to the rear in 1990. (Auld, p.59; www.sullivanupper.co.uk)

References:

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/3/1/3 – Third Edition OS Map 1900-02
2. PRONI OS/6/3/1/4 – Fourth Edition OS Map 1919-31
3. PRONI OS/6/3/1/5 – Fifth Edition OS Map 1938-41
4. PRONI VAL/12/B/17/10A-G – Annual Revisions (1867-1930)
5. Northern Ireland Land Purchase Account 2008-9, Stationery Office London HC380, 5th March 2010-11-25
6. 1901 census online
7. 1911 census online

Secondary Sources

1. Auld, C. “Holywood Co Down, Then and Now” Holywood: Con Auld, 2002
2. Patton, M, “Bangor, An Historical Gazetteer” Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1999
3. Smith, Bill “Armstrong Siddeley Motors: The Cars, the Company and the People in definitive detail” 2005
4. www.dia.ie
5. www.sullivanupper.co.uk

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

Dromkeen is a detached red brick three-bay two-storey-with-attic house, now in use as a school, built c.1895. A change of use has resulted in a loss of historic fabric and detailing and the alteration of the original floorplan. Although significant in the locale, extensive alterations have compromised its architectural and historic interest.