Tudor Hall

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A two-storey-with-attic multi-bay semi-detached stucco house in Tudor-Revival style, built c.1850, located in secluded grounds off Tudor Oaks Road to the east of Holywood. Rectangular-on-plan with series of gabled wings extending from rectangular main block and conservatory to west.

Pitched natural slate roof with blue/black angled ridge tiles; raised stone skews and kneelers. Tall stone clustered chimneystacks arranged in groups of three and four, having ovolo moulded heavy plinth. Cast-iron ogee rainwater goods on drive-in brackets. Walling is smooth rendered/stucco with quoins over a chamfered plinth. Windows are 1/1 timber-framed sliding sash with horns in simple chamfered surrounds with chamfered sills; hood moulds with label stop to second floor, label moulds and stop to ground floor windows.

Principal elevation (entrance) faces southwest and comprises three-storey entrance bay offset to left of centre, flanked by two gable bays; that to left is narrower being a single window wide: left bay abutted by three further gabled bays at a recessed angle, with conservatory to front. Gabled porch with pinnacle and cartouche detail, contains single panelled double-leaf door with pointed-head transom light and side windows enclosed with label mould; lit from north and south and accessed by deep stone step.

The northwest elevation is two windows wide with gabled attic windows; box bay with parapet and three window openings to ground floor.

The northeast elevation is abutted by adjoining building (HB 23/20/018B)

The southeast (rear) elevation is concealed by mature plantings.

Setting

The house is set on an elevated site looking out towards Belfast lough. Lawned to front and accessed via a gravel drive from Tudor Oaks Road, the house sits in a mature site (which once extended to the Bangor Road below) and is surrounded by mature boundary trees and hedgerow.

Roof: natural slate
Walling: stucco
Windows: timber
Rainwater Goods: Cast-iron

Historical information

This house forms part of a pair of semi-detached houses, built in 1849 by Henry Murney, a prosperous merchant, and substantially remodelled by Boyd and Batt in 1868.

According to Merrick, this area of Holywood began to become popular with well-to-do businessmen and merchants in the 1830s and 40s, “The district most favoured by this newly and rapidly evolved class was the triangle of land bounded by Bangor Road, Victoria Road and Croft Road. This higher ground proved attractive because being outside the town, there was the scope to site each villa in four or five acres of prime woodland which could then be landscaped to look like a small country estate and more importantly, the entire area commanded unrivalled views of Belfast Lough and the County Antrim hills without being too exposed. It was soon to become unofficially known as High Holywood”. (Merrick, p.56)

The houses were built in 1848-9, at a total cost of just over £6,000 by Henry Murney, a tobacco merchant with a business in High Street, Belfast. On a staircase landing of Tudor House there is a stained glass window inscribed ‘Tudor House. H.M. 1848’. The houses are set within a group of three pairs of semi-detached houses, that together were known as ‘Tudor Park’. These are first shown on the OS map of 1858 together with a ‘gate lodge’ on the Bangor Road entrance to the demesne. Merrick notes that the gate lodge and castellated gates were lost when a private housing estate was built in the grounds in the 1970s. (Merrick, p.58; Brett, p.104)

The property is listed in Griffith’s Valuation (1856-64) as the property of Henry Murney leased from John Hunter who was probably the landowner. The valuer comments that it is an elegant villa, Tudor style stone finish and oil painted. It is valued at £60 and mention is made of the gate lodge, a greenhouse in the garden and a shed and byre. A sketch plan is shown and dimensions are given.

In 1868, following severe damage in a fire, the building was restored by Boyd and Batt architects, which resulted in a rise in the valuation to £75. The restoration was announced as ‘nearly finished’ in the Irish Builder of 1 November 1868. However, the valuation began to drop gradually thereafter and by 1891 it was £52. The Murneys were in residence until 25th August 1907 when Henry Murney, son of the Henry Murney who had originally built the house, and Isabella Murney, his sister, died on the same day. Brett states that they died in a second fire at the house, and that following this tragedy a connecting door between the house and its neighbour was blocked up. (Brett, p.105)

Henry Murney MD, MRCS Eng was born in Belfast in 1825 and studied medicine in Dublin, Edinburgh and London. In 1854 he was appointed general surgeon at the General Hospital in Belfast and was prominent in developing the General Hospital, the Belfast Royal and the Royal Victoria Hospital. His portrait still hangs in the board room of the Royal Victoria Hospital. He was president of the Ulster Medical Society in 1871 and 1872. He and his brother George were keen yachtsmen and George owned a 12 ton cutter called ‘Ripple’, a painting of which hangs in the Royal Ulster Yacht Club, Bangor. Henry was Rear Commodore of the club from 1875 to 1883. Valuer’s notes of 1900 give a plan and dimensions for the building, (McKee)

The wills of Henry and Isabella grant probate to Charles Hoey, solicitor and Frederick Hoey, merchant, who was their nephew. Frederick Hoey duly became immediate lessor of the property by 1909. Hoey appears to be letting the property and there follows several changes in occupier and some periods of vacancy. By 1918 Annette Gardiner is in residence and by 1930 William Dunn.
Brett states that the building was the subject of ‘extensive, expensive and co-ordinated repairs between 1989 and 1992. (Brett, p.105)

References:

Primary Sources

1.PRONI OS/6/3/1/2 – Second Edition OS map 1858
2.PRONI OS/6/3/1/3 – Third Edition OS Map 1900-02
3.PRONI OS/6/3/1/4 – Fourth Edition OS Map 1919-31
4.PRONI OS/6/3/1/5 – Fifth Edition OS Map 1938-41
5.PRONI VAL/12/A/3/53 – Valuer’s Notebook (1900-06)
6.PRONI VAL/2/B/3/1 – Griffith’s Valuation Map (1856-64)
7.PRONI VAL/2/B/3/18B – Griffith’s Valuation (1856-64)
8.PRONI VAL/12/B/17/10A-G – Annual Revisions (1867-1930)
9.Irish Builder, Vol 10, 1 November, 1868, p.273

Secondary Sources

1.Brett, C.E.B. “Buildings of North County Down” Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 2002
2.McKee, M “Ripple, The Murney Brothers and the Marble Clock” in Waterlines, Journal of the Royal Ulster Yacht Club, 2008
3.Merrick, Tony “Buildings of Holywood” Holywood: Holywood Advertiser, 1986

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

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

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest
V. Authorship

Evaluation

A two-storey with attic multi-bay semi-detached stucco house in Tudor-Revival style, built c.1850. Much of its architectural detailing and character survives and it is representative of the expansion of Holywood in the first half of the Nineteenth century. Although its setting has been compromised by modern development, there are six houses in total in Tudor Park, built by the wealthy tobacco merchant Henry Murney and they form a notable group. A fine, well-preserved example of the type Belfast’s wealthy merchants were building in the mid 19th century.

General comments

Please note this record has been renumbered it was previously recorded as HB23/20/018