Wynard House

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Detached three-bay two-storey with attic rendered symmetrical Italianate-style villa, built c.1870 having two-storey rear return to south with wall forming courtyard to south-west and single-storey glazed conservatory to west. The building is located to the east of Kensington Road, and set within its own grounds. It is approached from the west by a tarmac tree-lined driveway leading from Kensington Road, and surrounded by residential developments to the north, east and south.

Pitched slate roof with half-gabled dormer to north and south, stone ridge tiles, painted decorative bargeboards, overhanging eaves with exposed purlins and painted timber sheeted soffit. Painted cast-iron ogee moulded guttering discharging to circular downpipes. Pair of two-stage smooth rendered chimneys to east and west with projecting cornice and terracotta pots. Smooth rendered walls with projecting plinth. Square-headed window openings with moulded surrounds and one over one timber sliding sash windows throughout, unless otherwise stated.

Front elevation faces north and has three-bays with pair of single-storey canted bays flanking entrance and gabled half-dormer to attic level. Flat leaded roof to canted bays with raised parapet, projecting cornice on scrolled brackets on dentil course. Glazed mono-pitch roof to conservatory with glazed walls on renderd plinth. Smooth rendered walls with plinth, raised vermiculated quoins to ground floor and raised smooth quoins to first floor. Moulded sill course to, ground, first and second floor with ornamental frieze to second floor. Flanking pilasters to openings of canted bays. Round-headed opening to second floor with pyramidal keystone. Round-headed entrance opening with moulded surround having pyramidal keystone on pilasters. Square-headed entrance door opening with moulded transom having round-headed fan-light over.

West elevation has pair of round-headed window openings at attic level and smooth rendered boundary wall extending south having painted stone coping and two-stage pier to south-west corner with projecting cornice. Square-headed openings to rear return.

South elevation has gabled half-dormer to attic level with round-headed opening. Pitched roof to rear return with chimney and blank gable with boundary wall extending west having square-headed opening.

East elevation has pair of round-headed window openings to attic level of main house and square-headed door opening to rear return.

Setting: Located within its own grounds with lawns to north and west, hedge and fence boundary to south and east, garage to north-east and approached by tree-lined avenue from west. Pair of squared roughcast rendered piers with moulded coping and smooth plinth to entrance with wall on semi-circular plan. Cast-iron metal gateway between piers.

Materials:
Roof: Slate
RWG: Cast-iron
Walls: Render
Windows : One over one timber sliding sash

Historical information

Mid nineteenth-century Ordnance Survey maps show the site of this dwelling to have been unoccupied by any building and to have been surrounded largely by open countryside. In the early 1870s Hamilton Cuming, a wealthy Belfast merchant acquired a plot of ground from Sir Thomas McClure on which he was to build a house. This area on the edge of Belfast was becoming popular as a residential district for some of the town’s businessmen and Wynard House was one of a number of suburban villas that were erected in this period.

Hamilton Cuming had built his house by 1880 when it appears in the Valuation Revision Book of 1880-87. It was given a rateable valuation of £50. Originally the house was named Cumingstown House. The residence appears in the Belfast and Province of Ulster Directory of 1884 as Kensington Villa. It is named as such on the 1902 Ordnance Survey map where the ground plan of the house matches the footprint from present-day aerial photographs.

Hamilton Cuming died on 2 June 1888, leaving an estate valued at £6,565. He was the fourth son of Hamilton Cuming senior, of Ballymagarrick (d. 1872), and was buried with the rest of his family in Drumbo Church of Ireland graveyard. He does not appear to have been married.

The Valuation Revision Books show that the property had passed to Hamilton Carse by 1891 and to Richard Webb, a linen manufacturer, by 1896. He and his family appear in the 1901 census when the street address was Knock Avenue.

The 1904 street directory lists Mrs [Letitia] Carse as the occupier of Wynard, indicating a change of name for the house. By 1911 Wynard was the home of George Jamison, a book-keeper. In the 1920s Matthew Marshall took up residence in Wynard. By 1937 it was the home of Hugh Brown who was still in possession of Wynard when he died in 1962.

Primary sources
1. Belfast and Province of Ulster Directory, 1884 onwards
2. PRONI, Will Calendars
3. PRONI, VAL/12/B/17/6B, 1867-79
4. PRONI, VAL/12/B/17/6C, 1880-87
5. PRONI, VAL/12/B/17/6D, 1888-97
6. PRONI, VAL/12/B/43/L/2, 1897-1905
7. PRONI, VAL/12/B/43/L/6, 1906-15
8. PRONI, VAL/12/B/43/N/9, 1916-1930
9. PRONI, OS/6/1/5/2, 1855
11. Ordnance Survey 1:2,500 scale map, County Down sheet 5.09, 1902 – reproduced by Alan Godfrey Maps (Gateshead, 1999)

Secondary sources
1. Timothy Campbell and Stephen Royle, ‘East Belfast and the suburbanization of north-east County Down in the nineteenth century’, in Lindsay Proudfoot (ed.), Down: History and Society (Dublin, 1997)

Online sources
1. 1901 and 1911 census returns (www.census.nationalarchives.ie)

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

Wynard House is a well-proportioned mid-late nineteenth century house which retains its original form and character. Built c.1870 by Hamilton Cuming, a wealthy Belfast merchant, at a period when the edge of Belfast was becoming a popular residential district for local merchants. Although of some interest, as one of a number of suburban villas that were erected in this period, there are better examples and it is not considered of special architectural or historic interest.

General comments

Well maintained building. Interior plasterwork of particular merit.