Galwally House, Bradford Court, Upper Galwally, Belfast, Co Antrim, BT8 6RB

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Detached symmetrical multi-bay two-storey red sandstone former house, built c.1885, with pedimented entrance bay and three-storey wing to the north. Rectangular on plan facing west and set on an elevated landscaped site to the northwest of Upper Knockbreda Road. Adapted for use as the U.V.F. hospital during the twentieth-century, later adapted for commercial office use and currently vacant.

Hipped natural slate roof with roll-moulded lead ridges, lead valleys and several tall profiled red sandstone chimneystacks with sandstone discs to the chimney head. Ogee-moulded cast-iron guttering to moulded sandstone eaves cornice with pale sandstone corbel course and string course below and cast-iron downpipes. Red sandstone ashlar walling with slightly projecting sandstone quoins, continuous moulded sandstone sill course to first floor and rock-faced basalt ashlar plinth course with chamfered sandstone trim. Segmental-headed window openings to first floor, square-headed to ground floor with sandstone surrounds and single-pane timber sash windows.

Symmetrical front west elevation, five windows wide with a central pedimented breakfront entrance frontispiece and pedimented portico in antis. Broken-based dentilated pediment with carved sandstone roundel framing a lion figure and flanked by festoons. Paired segmental-headed window openings to the first floor of frontispiece with sandstone architrave surrounds and keystones. Dentilated pediment to portico with pulvinated frieze supported by pair of panelled sandstone piers on plain plinth blocks shared with a pair of black marble columns having stiff-leaf capitals. Open-sided portico has a tripartite door opening formed in red sandstone with an eight-panelled painted timber door and plain square overlight flanked by pair of plain sidelights over red sandstone panels. Door opens onto stone paved platform and seven nosed stone steps flanked by low plinth wall. Window openings to first floor detailed as per frontispiece with taller ground floor window openings having moulded architrave surrounds, partly fluted frieze, pediments and aprons.

North side elevation abutted by gable-ended three-storey wing to the east end. This elevation has random fenestration and a single door opening with glazed timber panelled door opening onto flight of stone steps. The stair is lit by a geometrial tracery window with plain sandstone surround comprising a pair of gothic-arched openings and roundel above, each containing timber cusped frames with leaded coloured glazing and modern storm glazing. The three-storey wing is three windows wide and two windows deep with segmental-headed window openings to the upper floors having plain sandstone surrounds and keystones, square-headed to the ground floor. The gable to the three-storey wing has sandstone coping and is surmounted by a plainer red sandstone chimneystack. Further single-storey red sandstone accretion abutting three-storey wing, built c.1990, of little historic interest.

Rear east elevation is two storeys to the south end with a full-height three-sided canted bay and three storeys to the north end incorporating the wing. Windows details as per front elevation with a single door opening having replacement timber glazed door and a pair of iron fire escapes.

South side elevation has a full-height three-sided canted bay to the western end with windows detailed as per front elevation.

Setting:

Set on a slightly elevated landscaped site to the northwest of Upper Knockbreda Road having a front bitmac area and lawn and a large bitmac car park to the north side and the rear. Modern office developments to the south and east. Gate Lodge (HB25/16/002) is now remote; a large retail complex now occupies the central section of the historic demesne to the west.

Roof Natural slate
RWG Cast-iron
Walling Red sandstone ashlar
Windows Timber sash

Historical information

Galwally House was built in 1885 and first appears on the third edition OS map of 1901-2 captioned ‘Galwally’ with a driveway and lodge also shown. The house was built by John Martin of the building firm H & J Martin, a company that is still in existence and owned and managed by the Martin family (www.hjmartin.co.uk). The architect of the house is unknown but A T Brumwell, the architect of the City Hall has been suggested.(Ulster Architect) This seems unlikely since Brumwell would have been only seventeen in 1885. Dean attributes the house and lodge to WH Lynn and points out, in support of his argument, that Lynn and Martin were working together on the Central Library in Belfast at this time using the same Dumfries sandstone used to build Galwally. (Dean)

The firm was founded in 1840 by Henry Martin (d.1898). After Henry took his eldest son, John, into partnership the firm became known as H & J Martin. John inherited the company on the death of his father and became the chairman and managing director, while two younger sons became directors, one being put in charge of the Dublin branch of the business. The company’s Belfast offices were in the Ormeau Road, within easy reach of John Martin’s residence at Galwally. (www.dia.ie) The firm were contractors for many of Belfast’s most iconic structures, including Belfast City Hall, the Grand Opera House, the Ulster Museum, the Robinson and Cleaver Building and Stranmillis College. (www.hjmartin.co.uk)

The house enters valuation records as a house in progress in 1885, occupied by John Martin and built on land owned by the Bateson family of Belvoir Park. The house was eventually valued at £135 and £21 for the large plot of land on which it stood. The gate lodge was separately valued at £5. The 1901 census finds John Martin, contractor and builder, resident in the house with his second wife and six children, ranging in age from 6 to 20. The oldest is a student at Cambridge and the remainder are ‘scholars’. The household retained a substantial staff of five servants, a parlourmaid, a Parisian governess, two housemaids and a cook from County Wexford. The house had ten windows to the front façade and thirty rooms, making it the largest house in the immediate area. By the census of 1911 a chauffeur’s house had been added to the plot. John Martin’s sons had now entered their adult professions, his oldest son as a civil engineer and two younger sons as linen manufacturers. The staff now consists of a cook, parlourmaid, housemaid and under housemaid. (Annual Revisions; 1901/1911 census)

John Martin appears to have died between 1911 and 1914 leaving his wife Emily Martin to take over the house. By 1917 she had vacated the house and it was let to the Ulster Joint Committee of the British Red Cross Society and the Order of St John who opened the premises the same year as ‘Hilden Convalescent Hospital’, the first hospital to be opened by those organisations in Ulster. The new hospital consisted of the mansion house, which contained fifty-one beds for patients, together with an extensive wooden building to the south to accommodate an additional seventy-five beds. The adaptations were carried out under the supervision of Henry Seaver who acted as honorary architect and the contractors were the owners of the building, Messrs H & J Martin. The hospital was partly financed by a donation from Mrs Harold Barbour of Barbour’s linen threads, who gave £2,000 to equip the hospital and £1,000 a year for its maintenance. The Red Cross and St John’s also raised funds for the hospital to the tune of £3,000. (Irish Builder) After the war ended the hospital became a convalescent home for disabled soldiers and sailors and on the fourth edition OS map of 1920-1 the building is captioned ‘Galwally (Hilden Hospital)’. (Appeal by UVF)

By 1930 the hospital was the property of the UVF, a Protestant/Unionist militia that had suffered heavy casualties during the First World War, when many of their number served as part of the 36th (Ulster) Division. By 1934 the hospital had fallen vacant, the remaining patients having been transferred to Craigavon hospital on the Holywood Road. However, with the commencement of the Second World War in 1939, the hospital came back into use, although it remained voluntary. In 1970 a new wing was completed at Craigavon hospital and Galwally was closed when the remaining patients were transferred there. (Papers by Command; Medical Social Work, Vol5)

The house lay vacant for some years but was acquired by Goldblatt Management Consultants in 1984 who adapted the interior as offices. Merex Construction Ltd were the main contractors, but a number of specialist craftsmen were also involved such as James Watson who restored the stained glass. The supervising architects were Philip Lynn and Tony Wright. The exterior was slightly altered with the removal of a chimney at the north end of the building and the casting of a new coping piece. Stonework, flooring and cornices were restored and replaced where necessary and dormers which had been added at a later date were removed. The service yard and servants’ quarters were developed to give an additional lettable building. (Specify; Ulster Architect) The building is currently vacant.

References:

Primary Sources

1.PRONI OS/6/3/9/1 – First Edition OS Map 1834
2.PRONI OS/6/3/9/2 – Second Edition OS map 1858
3.PRONI OS/6/3/9/3 – Third Edition OS Map 1901-2
4.PRONI OS/6/3/9/4 – Fourth Edition OS Map 1920-21
5.PRONI OS/6/3/9/5 – Fifth Edition OS Map 1920-31
6.PRONI VAL/12/B/20/7A-F – Annual Revisions (1864-1930)
7.PRONI VAL/12/F/4/93 – Annual Revisions (1930-35)
8.PRONI VAL/5/A/33/2 – UVF Appeal (1936)
9.Reports from Parliamentary Commissioners (Established Church – Ireland), Vol XXIV 1867-8
10.Papers by Command, Vol 50, HMSO, 1970
11.Medical Social Work, Vol 5, Institute of Medical Social Workers, 1952
12.Ulster Architect, January 1986, p.27-9
13.Specify, January 1986, p.87-90

Secondary Sources

1.Dean, J. A. K. “The Gate Lodges of Ulster: A Gazetteer.” Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1994.
2.www.hjmartin.co.uk
3.www.dia.ie – Dictionary of Irish Architects online

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
I. Quality and survival of Interior
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

V. Authorship
X. Local Interest
R. Age
S. Authenticity
U. Historic Associations

Evaluation

Detached multi-bay two-storey red sandstone former house, built c.1885, with pedimented entrance bay and three-storey wing to the north. Located on an elevated landscaped site to the northwest of Upper Knockbreda Road. Currently vacant, this former hospital was built as a large family residence in an austere neo-classical style that is enlivened by its warm red sandstone and decorative pedimented entrance bay. The overall appearance indicates an intact building, of architectural and historic interest, and having group value with the Gate Lodge (HB25/16/002), despite a compromised setting and revised access from Upper Galwally.

General comments

Additional listing criteria apply - R - Age, S - Authenticity and U - Historic Associations

Previously recorded as HB25/16/001