4 Station Road

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

This house takes the form of a T-plan with the east end of the building composed of a gable-ended block with north-south axis. Attached to its west end there is a long rectangular gable ended block with a slightly lower roof with east-west axis. The house faces and lies parallel to Number 2 (HB26/09/002) and once formed part of the same yard, behind the now demolished residence of ‘The Den’. Like the adjacent house, it was built in a Tudor Revival Style’, though like most other pseudo-half framed buildings of this era, it is of not really a genuine timber-framed house. In a matter of detail however, the house differs from No. 2. In particular, there is very much less of half timber-framing.

The East End Block: Gable-ended block with higher roof than west end, and unlike the latter has a decorated ridge piece and a tall brick chimney stack with three ceramic pots. The north gable is broken by a central window with top hung casement, enclosed by a grid of wooden wall studs and a tree stud arrangement above. The south gable, which clearly was not so visible, also has a central window, but the wall studding, composed of vertical studs, is confined only to the area above the window top. The window in the south gable is also plain with a top hung casement, but on the north gable there are two camber- headed windows on the ground floor level, both windows having top opening casements. A glass lean-to conservatory has been added to the east end and looks like a 1960s addition.

The West End Block: Long rectangular range attached to the side wall of the East Block with east-west axis and slightly lower roof line. It has a slated roof (no decorated ridge piece), a plain brick chimney and three rather unattractive dormer windows, two on the north and one on the south side. These dormers, which look to be additions of the 1950s or 1960s, have flat roofs and side-opening casements. The front door lies on the north side, close to the wall with the East End and beside this a small window. Further south in the West Block there is a large sliding garage-door, which looks an 1960s addition.The rere or south side of the West Block, which has been dug into the hillside, has a back door at the east end and a window, both post relatively modern replacements.

Historical information

Late Victorian timber-framed house built 1883-85 as the gardener’s house for a villa known as 'The Den', at Stradtown, which lay immediately to the west and is now demolished. The house flanked the walled gardens (on the south side) and formed the south part of a small yard, with another similar sized building (No 2 Station Road) on the other side of the yard. The evidence suggests that both these houses were built at the same time as 'The Den' villa, for both are shown on the Ordnance Survey town map of 1894. The valuers record the ratable value of 'The Den' as £115 in 1884 and as this amount did not alter at any time prior to 1894, we can assume that no additions were made to the whole property and, consequently, that No 2 and No 4 Station Road are contemporary with each other and with the ‘The Den’ villa.

'The Den' villa was built in 1883-4 for the businessman Gustav Wilhelm Wolff, M.P.(1843-1913). He was one of the founders (in 1862) of the Belfast shipbuilding and engineering company, Harland and Wolff, had been born in Hamberg in 1843. Having come to England aged fourteen to study engineering, he eventually found himself in Belfast, where in addition to Harland and Wolff, he founded the Belfast Ropework Company in the mid-1870s. He never married and after his retirement in 1908, spent most of his remaining years in his London residence at Park Street. He became the Conservative M.P. for East Belfast in 1892 and on his death in 1913 was buried at Brompton cemetery.

The 'Den' villa stood on the site of a pre-1858 residence known as 'Mary's Cottage'. Later it was called 'Chester Cottage'. It was bought from the Rev. Jas Speers by Wolff in 1873. His house, which he called 'The Den' (one assumes derived from the name Sydenham), may have incorporated parts of the older Mary's or Chester Cottage. From the map evidence 'The Den' was a rectangular house with a long servant's/stable range to the rere and another wing on the south side with a conservatory attached. There was a covered pend leading though the rere range into a yard south of the house. South of this yard lay a walled garden with glasshouses.

References:
1. 1858 OS six-inch map
2. OS town plan for 1894
3. 1902-3 OS six-inch map
4. VAL (1884)

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

A timber framed building built in the 1880s together with the adjacent No 2 Station Road as outbuildings for the now demolished villa known as 'The Den'. This villa and these outbuildings were all built as the home of the well known ship builder and businessman Gustav Wilhelm Wolff (1843-1913). Evidently built as the gardener's house, this building never boasted the same quality of external detail as the adjacent No.2. Furthermore, it has been spoiled by the addition of flat roofed dormers. Internally, the house has lost many of its original features during extensive re-modelling, especially in the 1960s and 1970s. .

General comments

This building never had the same quality of external detail as No 2, and has been spoiled by the incertion of flat roofed dormers in the 1960s. However, it does form a matching building with No. 2 Station Road, and was built both in the same style and at the same time. The interior however of No 4 has been substantially altered, particulalrly in the 1960s and 1970s and retains very few original features.