Gate Lodge, 4 Saintfield Road, Belfast, Co Antrim BT8 6AA

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Detached single-storey stone former gate lodge to Galwally House (HB25/16/001), built c.1885. Irregular on plan facing south extended to the rear c.1990. Located on the east side of Saintfield Road with a private residential development to the rear site.

Hipped natural slate roof with lead ridges and valleys and profiled red sandstone chimneystacks with clay pots. Replacement ogee-moulded cast-iron guttering to pale sandstone eaves course supported by decorative sandstone corbel course and string course below. Red sandstone ashlar walling with slightly projecting pale sandstone quoins, continuous pale sandstone sill course and rock-faced ashlar limestone plinth course with chamfered sandstone trim. Square-headed window openings with slightly projecting pale sandstone surround, blank pale sandstone aprons and replacement single-pane timber sash windows with partly exposed sash boxes and angled horns.

Front south elevation is dominated by a three-sided canted bay with the remainder of the facade stepped back and an entrance porch to the re-entrant angle. The porch has a carved sandstone corner pier rising from the plinth course with full-height panels, fluted frieze and projecting capstone. The square-headed door opening and window opening to the west cheek is framed by a slightly projecting pale sandstone surround with a replacement hardwood panelled door opening onto stone platform.

The west side elevation has a single window opening with the elevation continuing in the form of the modern extension with canted bay to the north end. Modern extension is built in red concrete block with stone surrounds to the window openings and timber corbels to eaves.

North rear elevation abutted by the modern extension with four window openings.

East side elevation has a single window opening with the modern extension to the right having a modern entrance portico and canted bay to the north end.

Setting:

Set on the east side of Saintfield Road enclosed to the road by a modern redbrick wall with a bitmac driveway passing the front elevation and leading to a small residential development of two-storey houses to the rear. The Gate Lodge has group value with Galwally House (HB25/16/001) despite being now remote from the house (which is now accessed from Upper Galwally).

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

Historical information

The present building is the gate lodge to Galwally House (HB25/16/001) and was built c1885 at the same time as the main house. The building first appears on the third edition OS map of 1901-2 captioned ‘Lodge’. The house and lodge were 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 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.

The house enters valuation records as a gate lodge in 1888, occupied by Thomas Millis and leased from John Martin. The gate lodge was valued separately from the house at £5. The 1901 census finds Thomas Graham, gardener to the Martin household, in residence with his wife Mary Ann. By the time of the following census in 1911, a chauffeur’s house had also been built in the grounds of the house, but the gate lodge continued to be occupied by the gardener, William Edward Harris, who lived with his wife and two young children. The gate lodge continued to form part of the Galwally House estate and when the House became a hospital in 1917 the lodge also eventually passed to the Trustees of the Hospital.

According to Dean, the lodge had been ‘immaculately restored and expertly extended’ by 1994, perhaps at the same time as Galwally House was restored by new owners in 1985. 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
H-. Alterations detracting from building
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest
V. Authorship

Evaluation

A detached single-storey stone former gate lodge to Galwally House (HB25/16/001). Possibly designed by W H Lynn and with good detailing in sandstone, its interest lies primarily in its group value with the Galwally House.