Alexandra House

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Set right on the South side of Scrabo Road, slightly East of the junction with Moate Road (c.1 mile South of Newtownards), Alexandra House is an unusual Edwardian residence of 1903 in a free style with round castellated bay and a prominent veranda which lends it a ‘colonial Australian’ feel. It is double fronted with the two storey semicircular bay to the left and a single storey semi circular bay to the right. The East portion of the house (now 228 Scrabo Road) is built around an earlier mid 19th century dwelling. The whole building consisting of the conjoined dwellings fronts right onto the side of a narrow, country road.

The central front entrance, to the North, has segmental arch head, glazed and panelled side lights (with acid etched glazing) and a panelled door with heavy moulding. The side lights and outside edges of the glazed screen are delineated with fine pilasters. The opening is dressed with Scrabo stone and framed with black granite pilasters which support console brackets and simple stone cornice with a centred projecting carved head key stone feature.

A veranda to the first floor spans from the two storey bay, across the single storey bay and a carriage arch to finish against a double height flanking wall to the right. At ground floor the front entrance is demarcated with two cast iron columns which also support the balcony. At first floor the roof to the veranda is supported on four evenly spaced cast iron columns. The two storey bay has three matching segmental arch one over one double hung sliding sash timber windows to ground and first floors. The single storey bay also has three matching one over one double hung sliding sash timber windows and to the immediate right is a carriage arch. At first floor on the balcony there is a door to the left and three matching windows to the right all with segmental arch heads. The door is glazed and timber panelled. The windows are matching. The two storey bay has a castellated parapet with a small stone shield panel inscribed ‘Alexandra House 1903’.

The entire building is finished in unpainted rough cast render with stone string courses (with moulded projection ) integrated with lintels. Windows have stone dressings and sit on string courses which are integrated with the window cills. The decorative pierced balcony rail spans between the cast iron columns and appears to be timber. The upper columns have shallow segmental panels between them, above which is an unusual timber box gutter, at eaves level.

To the right the East gable merges with a large single storey barn. The gable rises above the barn and has a very distinctive pierced decorative timber barge board which merges with the box gutter feature. The W side merges with No. 228 and the gable again rises above its neighbour and has a similar but slightly smaller decorative barge board.

The rear South façade, generally with smooth render finish with horizontal block coursing lines. To the left the Southeast corner of the building is supported on a circular stone column above which cement quoins define the corner of the dwelling at first floor with adjacent one over one painted sliding sash window. Behind the stone column, the former open carriage arch has been infilled with a chamfered wall with one over one sliding sash uPVC windows enclosing additional internal accommodation and having to right one over one painted timber sliding sash window with similar at first floor level . Two storey projection adjoins, (formerly a large metal water storage tank) and now extended with eaves and guttering aligned with main roof with outer corners defined with applied cement quoins.

Gable front with painted glazed and panelled door with side lights and centred immediately above is located a tripartite style one over one painted sliding sash window arrangement. To left return of projection and having a lower window head height a one over one painted sliding sash window is located, with a much smaller similar window immediately above (half landing level). To right of two storey projection, a contemporary sunlounge extension with uPVC framed widows and top hung opening and with hipped roof over with terracotta ridge tiles abutting the rear of the original dwelling. All centred on two small one over one painted sliding sash windows located at eaves level beneath a cat slide roof extension from main roof and containing contemporary roof lights immediately above. To right the truncated former rear extension (No. 228) is expressed with lined smooth render gable wall containing at both ground and first floor a pair equally spaced two over two uPVC sliding sash windows. Guttering throughout extruded aluminium with uPVC rainwater goods, fascia boards and soffits.

To the left of No.230 and attached to it, is No.228, which is also two storey, but lower than its neighbour. The front timber four panelled door is to the right and has moulded render surround and plain fan light. To the left is a single sash window in uPVC (no astragals) with. matching render surround and stone cill. To first floor are two matching (but shorter) uPVC windows which are located directly above the door and ground floor window respectively. The facade is finished in unpainted rough cast render and has a 200mm deep painted render base course and an unusual timber box gutter as No 230 but castellated. To the left hand side are painted render in/out quoins.
The decorative barge board matches that to the E of No. 230.

The carriage arch to the right formerly leading to an enclosed court yard has been infilled. Some of the outhouses were originally used as stables and the wider farmyard complex on both sides of the road consist of a number of large agricultural sheds which are clustered close to the principal farm dwellings. The walled garden constructed in coursed scrabo stone is accessed via a pedestrian gate across the road and encloses a large rectangular area. The dwelling at no 228-230 comprise a prominent roadside presence on the axis of the principal road dropping from Scrabo Tower, a State Care monument and listed building (HB24 11 131). On long views from the Comber to Newtownards Road and from local landmarks, Islandhill etc, the complex is in the foreground below Scrabo Tower with the fertile south-facing fields outstretched below the complex.

Historical information

Alexandra House was largely built between 1901 and 1903, with the lower section to the east (no.228) probably incorporating the fabric of an earlier dwelling that may be in part pre-1830s in construction.

The older house is shown on the OS map of 1834 as a rectangular block roughly similar in plan to the present front portion of the eastern section, with an irregularly shaped yard to the immediate west of this containing two small outbuildings. This property is not recorded in the first valuation of 1834, so it likely that the house itself was a fairly modest structure, possibly single-storey. On the revised OS map of 1858 a considerably larger building is depicted, the original residence probably having been extended or rebuilt and stretching further along the roadside, with a large addition at a right angle to the south forming a T-plan house which may have been orientated eastwards. To the west an extensive U-shaped range of outbuildings had also been added, and on the opposite side of the road was an oblong walled garden. The second valuation of 1861 records the of the dwelling as two-storey and slated, with the various components measuring 20ft x 26 x 20 (‘house’), 42 x 16 x 14 (‘kitchen’) and 33 x 4 x 14, along with several other sections (including a ‘kitchen and dairy’) whose dimensions are not noted and outbuildings of 102 x 22 x 7½, 6yds x 6 x 2[storeys] and 16 x 6 x 2[storeys].

At this point the property (which was valued at the relatively high rate of £14) was in the hands of Joseph Dugan senior, who also held the lease of the Scrabo quarries further up the hill to the north. The Dugan’s gave up working the latter in 1867, taking over the Legane and Brantry Quarries near Caledon, Co. Tyrone, and later (c.1877) purchasing an interest in the red sandstone quarry at Dundonald. The family retained the dwelling, however, with Thomas succeeding Joseph as the householder after the latter’s death in 1877, and remaining there until 1895 or 1896, his departure possibly a consequence of the death of his mother, Anna Dugan (who had also lived there), in the former year.

John McCausland was the next tenant. He is recorded in the 1901 census as a Belfast-born ‘timber merchant and farmer’ which suggests he may have been the ‘timber merchant and scrap iron merchant and machinery dealer’ with premises in Queen’s Road listed in the Belfast street directory of that year, a firm which - as ‘John McCausland & Son’ - appears to have continued in business up until the late 1950s. At this point he was living here with his wife, Julia, their three children, two domestic servants, two farm labourers and two ‘visitors’ (i.e. house guests.) Regarding the house itself, the census notes it as ‘2nd class’ dwelling with a slate roof, ten rooms and three windows in front. By this time, however, McCausland had either started or was about to commence the redevelopment the property, constructing the large main block of the present residence and refurbishing the old one (naming the whole ‘Alexandra House’), and adding new ranges of outbuildings further to the west. The identity of the architect behind all of these changes is not known, but the quality of the work and the materials used would seem to attest to the owner’s connections to the timber trade. Despite this investment, the McCauslands did not remain long within their new home, however, leaving - possibly following the death of John(?) - in c.1906.

The lease of Alexandra House was subsequently acquired by James and Samuel McMorran, local farmers and noted horse and cattle dealers, whose firm ‘McMorran Bros.’ was reputed to be one of the largest horse buying concerns in Ireland, supplying animals for the army as well as training many of the country’s ‘best show jumping horses’. In 1909, to accommodate their stock, the brothers added to the already extensive outbuildings, which in March 1911 where the scene of a serious fire in which six horses, including ‘Top-Twig’, ‘one of Ireland’s most famous “leppers”’[i.e. jumpers] died, with damages to buildings and livestock amounting to £2,750, a sizeable sum for the time. The brothers’ business interests would seem to account for the house’s equine-related internal décor.

James McMorrow died in October 1917 and Samuel retained the property until around 1927 when the valuations list James Orr as owner. Shortly afterwards he divided the house into two properties, letting the smaller of these (no.228 - basically the pre-1903 residence) to George McFeeters. The Orr family appear to retained both houses until at least 1983, though with one and sometimes both rented out at various points during the following decades. Post-2000 the building has become a single property once again, though address remains 228-230 Scrabo Road.

The post-1903 form of Alexandra House was maintained until relatively recently when the large rear return portion of ‘no.228’ was demolished and a large sunroom added, and the return to the rear of ‘no.230’ (with was originally lower and topped with a large water tank) remodelled.

References- Primary sources
1 OS maps, County series, Down sheet 5 – 1834, 1858, 1901, 1919, 1939, 1950; IG sheet
2 PRONI VAL1/B/316A-C First valuation, Comber parish - 183
3 PRONI VAL/2/B/3/16A Second valuation, Comber parish – 1861
4 PRONI VAL12/B/23/11A-D Annual valuation revision books, Comber ED – 1866-1923 [Details (which would probably have included hand drawn plans) relating to the building of the main section of the house and the various outbuildings in the early 1900s are noted in the revision books as having been recorded in the various valuers’ office notebooks for the Newtownards area; unfortunately, these have not survived – or are at least not held at PRONI.]
5 ‘Northern Whig’ – 18 October 1867, p.2; 4 July 1878, p.3; 24 March 1911, p.8; 1 September 1947, p.2
6 ‘Belfast News-Letter’ – 25 June 1877, p.1; 23 February 1895, p.1; 29 November 1904, p.3; 14 April 1936, p.1; 31 January 1983, p.2; 26 November 1986, p.2
7 Census of Ireland – 1901 [https://nationalarchives.ie/collections/search-the-census/]
8 ‘Belfast and Province of Ulster directory’, (Belfast, 1901- )
9 ‘Lurgan Mail’ – 3 November 1906, p.1
10 Census of Ireland – 1911 [https://nationalarchives.ie/collections/search-the-census/]
11 ‘Newtownards Chronicle & Co. Down Observer’ – 23 January 1915, p.4; 13 October 1917, p.8; 26 January 1918, p.1
12 PRONI VAL/12B/23/24F Annual valuation revision book, Newtownards South ED -1923-29
13 PRONI VAL/3B/4/18 First General revaluation of Northern Ireland, RD North Down (Newtownards South ED) – 1935
14 PRONI VAL3C/4/37 Annual valuation revision book, RD North Down (Newtownards South ED) – 1936-57
15 ‘Belfast Telegraph’ – 5 October 1938, p.15; 23 April 1949, p.3; 12 September 1955, p.6; 18 April 1958, p.2
16 PRONI VAL/4B/3/76 Annual valuation revision book, RD North Down (Newtownards South ED) – 1956-72

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

Criteria for listing: historic interest

S. Authenticity
R. Age
X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Large, unusual and very fine Edwardian residence of 1903 in a free style with round castellated bay and a veranda which lends it a vaguely ‘colonial Australian’ feel. The eastern portion of the house (now No.228) incorporates an older mid-19th century farmhouse. The highly decorated and unique interior incorporating extensive use of timber panelling to walls and ceilings remains largely intact.

The dwelling at no 228-230 comprises a prominent roadside presence on the axis of the principal road dropping from Scrabo Tower, a State Care monument and listed building (HB24 11 131). On long views from the Comber to Newtownards Road and from local landmarks, Islandhill etc, the complex is in the foreground below Scrabo Tower with the fertile south-facing fields outstretched below the complex.