Brooke House

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Large two storey late Victorian (c.1875-80) gabled house sited prominently near the junction of the Crawfordsburn and Mountain Roads, on the northern edge of Newtownards.

Front S facade has central doorway with timber panelled door and plain fanlight with segmental arch head. Door and fanlight encased with fluted pilasters ‘returned’ at sides, curved moulded brackets (with swags) below a cornice and decorative keystone to segmental arch headed opening. Blocking course above cornice curves into cill of window directly above. To the left of the doorway are twin segmental arch window openings with moulded architraves with decorative keystones, both resting on a cill course with brackets. The window frames are two pane PVC (made to resemble original sash frames). Twin windows to right of doorway as previous, with a similar set to the left and right on the first floor, with a single window (as before) to the centre, all on a cill course.

The E gable has a single window to the left and twin windows to the right (on cill courses) on both the ground and first floors, all as front, with a similar set of twin windows at attic level high in the gable. This gable merges with a large two storey gabled return. The E facade of the return has twin windows to the left and a single window to the right, as before and resting on a cill course, to the ground and first floors. The N (gable) facade of the return has a modern sliding ‘patio’ door to the ground floor.

The W gable of the main house has two single windows, as before and on a cill course, to the left on the ground floor. Sandwiched between these is a glazed PVC door. To the first floor are twin windows to the left and a single window to the right, all as previous, with twin attic windows as E gable also. Attached to the right hand (W) side of the rear is a long single storey flat roofed store.

To the centre of the rear is a two storey projecting flat roofed bay (sandwiched between the return and the single storey store) with a PVC door to the ground floor and twin windows (as before but with margins and coloured glass), directly above to the first floor. The W facade of the long return has a PVC window (without any surround) to the left on the ground floor, with a single window (as front) to the right on the first floor.

The facade is finished in lined render with chamfered quoins and plinth.

The roofs of the main house and the return are pitched and covered in Bangor blue slates. There are decorative barge boards with finials and a series of ‘twinned’ corbels to the eaves. Two central yellow brick chimney stacks to main roof and one to roof of return. Cast iron rw goods.

Historical information

Although a house is shown on this site on the OS Maps of 1834 and c.1858-60 none match the exact plan of the present building which in itself looks entirely late Victorian and probably dates from the later 1870s. The current resident (1998) informed the writers that she believed that the house may have been designed and built by a member of the locally famous Dickson family, as a wedding present for his new wife.

References- Primary sources
1 PRONI Ordnance Survey Maps, 1st Edition, 1834, Co. Down 6.
2 PRONI VAL 1B/34 1st valuation, Newtownards, c.1835.
3 PRONI Ordnance Survey Maps, 1st Revision, 1860, Co. Down 6.
4 PRONI 2nd valuation, Newtownards, c.1863.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

Large two storey late Victorian house, with rendered walls and natural slate roof, which is well preserved both externally and internally, but which lacks any special features to lift it into the listing category.