Willesden

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Description at December 1999. Building has been demolished.

Description at November 1999. At the time it was surveyed it was a mildly classical two storey gabled house of 1861 set on the SW side of the Church Road overlooking the Holywood town centre. The building was originally an asymmetrical middling sized house, but now sports two modern extensions one of which renders the front elevation almost symmetrical and which combined almost double the original footprint.

To the front is a disabled ramp with the main ramp rising from the right side to a central platform. To the left of centre is a short flight of steps. The guard rail is formed from a modular steel tubing. (?Key Klamp)

To the centre of the SW front elevation is a slightly projecting, two storey bay with in /out quoins. To the ground floor of this is a single storey chamfered bay with simple moulded double pilasters as piers. The window openings rest on a shared sill. Above the windows is a moulded and projecting cornice with dentills and is surmounted by moulded balustrade. To first floor is a centrally placed paired window arrangement with ‘linked’ drip moulding with label stops. To the left of the bay is the recessed front door screen. The door is framed with timber pilasters. The outer sides of the frame are similarly formed. The four panel front door has semicircular moulding to the upper panels. The upper part of the margin panels are glazed with semicircular arch heads while the lower section has timber panelling. The door panels, panels to the margins an faces to the pilasters all have ‘hipped roof’ shapes to the raised mouldings. A projecting corniced canopy with dentils and blocking course is supported on square columns, the right one of which is attached to the projecting bay while that to the left has glazing between the column and wall. To the left of the front door is a paired window. The separating pier and the side mouldings are formed as pilasters. The windows sit on a shared cill and are surmounted by a projecting cornice with dentils and topped by a blocking course. To the right of the central bay are two paired ground floor window arrangements, as before, but without the pilasters. To the first floor are two evenly spaced window openings. That directly above the porch is slightly narrower. With the exception of the windows above the porch, which are timber, the windows are PVC without astragals. (Note -All windows are PVC without astragals unless otherwise stated)

The NE elevation has a projecting two storey wing identical to that to the front with the exception of the first floor right side window has been blocked. To the immediate left is a two storey, mainly open steel return stair. The stair leads to a small first floor door which is to the immediate left of the projecting bay. To the ground floor left is a paired window, as before but with a much simplified cornice. To the first floor is a plain window opening. To the immediate left are in out quoins which delineate original shape of the house. To the immediate left is a two storey return dating probably from the late nineteenth century. To the ground floor are two paired window arrangements similar to that to the left. To the far left of this façade is a small single storey extension which merges with a high yard wall. Access was not possible to the rear yard but an oblique view could be gained through the wrought iron yard gate.

The SW face has two side wings both of which are two storey. That to the left is gabled and the gable is blank. That to the right is slightly longer and has a ‘partial hip’ and one window to the first floor and one glazed door to the ground floor, both of which are centrally placed. Between the two wings is a narrow court which allows a view of a small part of the original SW façade. This has a paired window arrangement with projection cornice etc. as before to the ground floor and a single first floor window. Windows from each wing over look each other across the small court yard.

To the right side of the rear SE façade is the three storey gable of the 1888 return. To the second floor are two evenly spaced timber sash windows with horizontal astragals. To the right of centre on the first floor is a modern PVC window. At ground level is a flat roofed extension. To the left of which are two modern windows and to the right is a timber door with vertical timber boarding. The left of the main return merges with two storey gables. The middle gable has two evenly spaced window openings with timber sash windows. The gable to the far left has one similar (but wider and shorter) window to its right side.

The right side of the rear façade faces into a rear yard and in separated from the left side by an outhouse with a mono pitch roof. The left side is formed by the SW face of the c.1980’s bedroom wing. This merges with the other gables and has four windows to the first floor and tow widows to the right of the ground floor, a door to the left of this and a further window to the far left.

External walls are finished in lined render. Corners to the front of the original (1861) building are finished with chamfered and moulded in /out quoins. The main roof is finished with Bangor Blue slate, and gables are finished with plain and slightly overhanging barge boards. Rw goods and soil stacks are mainly PVC. All chimney stacks have been removed from the front portion of the building. The 1888 return has three chimney stacks, two to the ridge and one to the verge line. All are rendered and have moulded and chamfered copings.

Historical information

This house was built in 1861 by John R. Neill, a partner in Neill Brothers noted jewellers and watchmakers of High Street and Donegall Place, Belfast. It was bought by Alexander Finlay in the later 1860s and passed down though that family, first to Archibald and then in the 1960s to Rev. James S who then sold the house. It was converted to a nursing home in the 1980s.

In 1888 the house was extensively renovated. It was probably at that time that the two storey return was added to the SE corner. Large wings were added in the 1980’s to the NW and SW corners.

To the NE side garden is a large block of polished granite which is inscribed with various diagrams and formulae. This was commissioned by Archibald Finlay in 1947 to celebrate the geometry associated with the cube root of the number two.

Demolished in December 1999

References- Secondary sources
1 Tony Merrick ‘The Buildings of Holywood’ (Holywood Advertiser 1986).

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

Demolished. It was a mildly classical two storey gabled house of 1861, originally asymmetrical, two storey, and gabled but latterly sporting two modern extensions, one of which rendered the front elevation almost symmetrical. Together these extensions almost doubled the size of the original footprint.