85 Victoria Road

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A two-storey three-bay semi-detached Victorian villa, built c.1855 located on a secluded site off the Victoria Road to the east of Holywood town centre. Rectangular on plan with box bay to front, canted bay and box bay to north, double-height return and single- storey extension (both to side).

Hipped natural slate roof; rectangular chimney stacks with dentilled plinth. Cast-iron ogee rainwater goods on projecting corbelled eaves; plastic to side return. Walling is painted smooth render with quoins and plinth. Windows are replacement timber and uPVC (unless otherwise stated); round-headed tripartite openings to first floor having hood mouldings and decorative stops; moulded lugged surrounds to square-headed first floor windows. All bay windows with torus moulded course and dentilled eaves.

The principal elevation faces west. First floor comprises central uPVC window flanked by tripartite round-headed windows. To left at ground floor is box bay window with tripartite opening (replacement casement glazing); to right is original 1/1 timber mullioned window; to centre is portico with four squared Doric columns surmounted by plain entablature with moulded string course and dentilled cornice; glazing to cheeks. Inner doorway has two bolection-moulded square raised-and-fielded panels surmounted by two round-headed glazed panels and brass door furniture including lion’s head knocker; obscurely glazed side lights and transom light with pilaster jambs. Three window openings to double-height and single-storey extension to right.

The north elevation comprises projecting bay to right with canted bay to ground floor; to first floor is a tripartite window opening. The left bay contains a box bay to ground floor and replacement window to first floor.

The east elevation is abutted by adjoining building; HB23/20/067B.

The south elevation has, to right; a single uPVC window and double-leaf timber door with transom light; abutted to left by double-height return having four asymmetrical uPVC windows to first floor; exposed section to right with single uPVC window to first floor and two to ground floor. The return is abutted to ground floor by a single-storey extension containing modern timber half-door; modern timber window to exposed section.

Setting:

Situated in a mature secluded site off a private lane to the south of Victoria Road. Accessed via gravelled driveway; bounded to lane to south by painted masonry wall with cast-iron gate and by mature hedgerow to all other sides. Mature sloping garden to front and paved courtyard to rear.

Roof: natural slate
Walling: render
Windows: uPVC and timber
RWG: Cast-iroand plastic

Historical information

This house is one of a pair of semi-detached houses built, according to Merrick, c.1855 as homes for the prosperous merchant and professional classes as Victoria Road began to be developed in the mid-nineteenth century. The opening of the railway to Holywood in 1848, afforded easy access to Belfast and attracted a class who were experiencing increasing prosperity and sought healthier and more attractive surroundings away from the city centre. (Merrick, p.5)

The building first appears on the second edition Ordnance Survey map of 1858 captioned ‘Clermont’.

The current house was occupied by Captain Alexander Blakely and leased from Rev Henry Henderson. It is valued at £36, later raised to £47. The valuer comments on the elegance of the villas and dimensions are given for the house, ‘laytoo’, projections, shed and office.

Captain Alexander Blakely (1827-68) was a designer and manufacturer of ordnance and the cannon bearing his name are indelibly associated with the American Civil War where they were used by the Confederate States. Thirty-two of his guns still exist in North America either in whole or in parts, where they are highly prized. Blakely sold to many countries including China, Italy, Russia and Peru but was famously unsuccessful in selling his guns to his own government. (http://captainblakely.org)

Blakely was born in Sligo, the son of the Very Reverend Theophilus Alexander who later became Dean of Down. He served in the Crimean War and on his return moved to a house in West London, although he travelled widely and spent much time at ‘Clermont’ in the 1860’s, by which time he had become a respected expert on ordnance. He was one of the first to apply theoretical science to the manufacture of weapons and was a member of several learned societies including the British Association for the Advancement of Science and the Royal Irish Academy. By 1866 he had become a wealthy man with a large house in Park Lane and a 300 ton steam yacht, but also at this time he began an adulterous relationship and was forced to flee the country after being named in divorce proceedings. He and his lover died of yellow fever in Peru in 1868. (http://captainblakely.org)

Rev Henry Henderson, who appears to have been the developer and landlord, was minister of Holywood First Presbyterian Church from 1844 until his death in 1879 and was also a regular columnist in the Belfast Weekly News under the pseudonym “Ulster-Scot”. (Auld, p.121-2)

A succession of occupants followed and there was a gradual fall in valuation to £35 in 1882 and to £32 in 1891. In 1890 the immediate lessor is John Marsh, a Quaker who was married to Antoinette, a niece of Thomas Jackson, architect. (Trainor, p.70)

The house remains in use as a domestic dwelling.

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/2/B/3/18B – Griffith’s Valuation (1856-64)
6. PRONI VAL/12/B/17/10A-G – Annual Revisions (1867-1930)
7. PRONI VAL/12/E/123/1/1-6 – Annual Revisions Town Plan (c1860-c1866)
8. PRONI VAL/12/E/123/2/1-6 – Annual Revisions Town Plan (c1867-1900)
9. Belfast and Ulster Directory, 1861

Secondary Sources

1. Auld, C. “Holywood Co Down, Then and Now” Holywood: Con Auld, 2002
2. Merrick, Tony “Buildings of Holywood” Holywood: Holywood Advertiser, 1986
3. http://captainblakely.org – Captain Alexander Blakely RA by Steven Roberts 2010
4. Trainor, Brian ed. “Researching Irish Australians” Ulster Historical Foundation, 1998
5. www.oxforddnb.com

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
H-. Alterations detracting from building
I. Quality and survival of Interior
J. Setting
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest
Not listed

Evaluation

A two-storey three-bay semi-detached Victorian villa, built c.1855. This house retains most of its historic character and its original detailing, despite the loss of its windows and minor alterations to the first floor plan. Along with its pair (HB23/20/067B), it is a good and robust example of the type of mid-Victorian villa that formed a substantial part of the development of this area of Holywood after the arrival of the railway.

General comments

This record has been renumbered. Previous reference was HB23.20.67. Now allocated as HB23.20.067A.