79 Victoria Road

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A detached two-storey-over-basement three-bay Victorian stucco house, built c.1850 and located on the south side of Victoria Road, Holywood. Square on plan with gabled end bays; two-storey return to rear, canted bay to west and single-storey extension (c.1900) to east.

Pitched natural slate roof with scalloped bargeboards to gables; centred chimneystacks having terracotta pots. Cast-iron ogee rainwater goods on corbelled eaves. Walling is painted smooth render with quoins. Windows are mainly paired 2/2 round-headed sliding sash with horizontal glazing bars in raised moulded surround; those to first floor have projecting sill on corbels; those to ground floor are framed by Doric pilasters and surmounted by plain entablature and cornice.

The principal elevation faces north, comprising gabled bays each with paired window to ground and first floor; slightly recessed entrance bay at centre having single window to first floor and entrance to ground floor. Recessed timber panelled door with two round-headed etched glazed panels having brass door furniture, surmounted by transom light; framed by one and a half Doric pilasters with plain entablature and cornice.

The east elevation is abutted at right by single-storey extension, added c.1900.

The south elevation has, to right, replacement timber-framed windows to first and ground floor; small window to basement at ground-level. To left is replacement window to ground floor. To centre is two-storey gabled return; west elevation has two square-headed windows to ground and first floor; east elevation has single square-headed window to ground and first floor.

The west elevation has two square-headed windows to first floor; canted bay to left; to right is round-headed blind window with Doric pilasters surmounted by moulded arch.

Setting

Set back from the main road in mature grounds on a slightly sloping site; gravelled driveway to west with a second driveway accessed at this point leading to the rear of the property. Rubble stone boundary wall encloses the rear yard accessed by a modern timber latch gate in brick surround. To right is a small rubble stone outbuilding which can be accessed via a car port to the far south. Lawned and shrub garden to east.

Roof: Natural slate
Walling: Smooth render
Windows; timber
RWG: Cast- iron

Historical information

‘Riversdale’ is first shown, captioned, on the second edition OS map of 1858 and would appear, on field inspection, to date from c1850. The High Holywood area began to be developed following the opening of the railway in 1848, when merchants and professional people began to be attracted to Holywood as a commuter town. An advertisement in the Belfast Newsletter of October 1857 advertises to let, ‘that detached and commodious Villa, Riversdale, High Holywood at present occupied by James Strachan Esq. It contains Drawing-room (commanding an extensive view of the Lough), Dining-room (25 feet long), Parlour, Five Bed-rooms, Dressing-room, Water-closet, Pantries, Cellars &c. There is a Cow-house, small walled-in Garden and private Grounds around the House. Riversdale is ten minutes’ walk from the Holywood Railway’. (Belfast Newsletter)

By the time of Griffith’s Valuation the house was occupied by John Burgoyne and leased from the Rev Henry Henderson, who was the minister of Holywood First Presbyterian Church and a substantial landlord/ landowner in the area. The house was valued at £42. (Griffith’s Valuation) John Burgoyne was a Chairman of Holywood Police Commissioners and a Provisional Director of the Holywood Gas Company. (Belfast and Ulster Directory; Belfast Newsletter)

In 1863 John Hanson took over the house and at an unknown date, Thomas Lodge. Rev Henry Henderson was succeeded by Rev Henry Halliday in 1878 and the former minister’s property, including the current house, was taken over by him as landlord but the property passed to the Provincial Building Society in 1883. The same year Adam Speers became the occupier and he and his family were tenants for an unusually long period, the Speers family being still in residence in 1930. The house fell in value during this period, probably as part of a general devaluation of property in Holywood at this time. By 1885 it was valued at £29. (Annual Revisions)

By 1888 Adam Speers was the principal of Sullivan Upper School (HB23/20/013) and an advertisement of that year states that he was able to receive ‘into his House, Riversdale, High Holywood, a limited number of Resident Pupils’, Riversdale thus housing the boarding section of Sullivan School. (Belfast Newsletter) The 1901 census records that Adam Speers lived with his wife and two daughters, the younger of whom was also a teacher at the school. The family had a single domestic servant, a cook, who unusually remained with the family until at least the time of the 1911 census. By 1911, Adam Speers’ wife had died. Adam Speers had become a Justice of the Peace for County Down and his younger daughter remained a teacher at the school. (1901, 1911 census) The house remains in use as a domestic dwelling.

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/12/B/17/10A-G – Annual Revisions (1867-1930)
7. Belfast Newsletter, 24th October, 1857
8. Belfast Newsletter, 29th July, 1859
9. Belfast Newsletter, 1st August, 1888
10. Belfast and Ulster Directory, 1861
11. Griffith’s Valuation online
12. 1901 census online
13. 1911 census 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

X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Two-storey-over-basement three-bay detached Victorian stucco house, built c.1850. Well-proportioned with good architectural detailing in the neoclassical style, largely intact, with some original glass panes to the segmental-headed windows. Detailing and plan are largely unchanged. A good example of the type of more modest houses being built for merchants and professionals after the development of the railway.