Gate Lodge to Lismachan House

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Detached two-bay single-storey stucco-fronted gate lodge, built in 1872, as the gate lodge to Lismachan House (HB26/12/002A), to the designs of Thomas Jackson. Square on plan facing west with front entrance porch and rear extension. Located on a mature corner site within the grounds of Lismachan House between Belmont Road and Glenmachan Road.

Pitched natural slate roof with black clay ridge tiles, lead valleys and a single profiled and corbelled rendered chimneystack with clay pots. Replacement steel guttering to overhanging timber sheeted eaves having carved corbels and square steel downpipes. Cement sprayed ruled-and-lined walling with projecting plinth course having moulded trim, continuous sill and impost mouldings with rusticated quoins. Generally square-headed window openings with painted masonry sills, hood mouldings and original single-pane sliding timber sash windows.

West front elevation comprises a large gabled bay to the left and advanced gabled entrance porch to the right, both having bracketed overhanging eaves. Round-headed window opening to the gabled bay and voussoired round-headed door opening to the porch with original panelled timber door with bolection moulding and plain semi-circular fanlight. The porch also has slender window openings to the cheeks. Door opens onto single sandstone step to front area.

Two-bay north side elevation with symmetrically-placed square headed windows.

Rear elevation now obscured by flat-roofed extension with rear gable visible. Sheeted timber door and timber casement windows to extension.

Single-bay gabled south side elevation with paired round-headed window openings with bowtel-moulded surrounds, otherwise detailed as per front gable.

Setting:

Located on a mature landscaped site at the southwest corner of the grounds to Lismachan House (HB26/12/002A) behind the Belmont Road boundary wall.

Roof Natural slate
RWG Replacement steel
Walling Cement sprayed stucco
Windows Original sliding timber sash

Historical information

This gate lodge, a single-storey Italianate lodge located at the south entrance of Lismachan House (HB26/12/002A), was constructed in 1872, two years after the completion of its associated villa. Lismachan House was originally built for James Shaw, a local landlord, but was acquired by Thomas Malcomson Greeves, a flax manufacturer, in 1872. Along with his brother John, Greeves established the flax spinning firm J. & T. M. Greeves Ltd. and set up a large spinning mill off the Falls Road in 1862 (UTD; Rankin, p. xvii; p. 200).

The Irish Builder records that Lismachan House was constructed in 1869-70 to designs by Thomas Jackson and originally consisted of four sitting rooms and eight bedrooms. Lismachan is one of a number of mansions the eminent local architect designed for the Sydenham area. The Dictionary of Irish Architects describes Jackson (1807-1890) as primarily a domestic architect ‘although he turned his hand to buildings of every type, commercial, industrial, educational and ecclesiastical.’ Prior to undertaking work in Sydenham, Jackson had been responsible for a suburban development scheme in North Belfast from the 1830s. Jackson took inspiration (and the name - Cliftonville) for the new North Belfast suburb from the development of Bristol’s Clifton Suburb where he had received training. Having established his reputation as one of the leading domestic architects in the city, and with the industrialisation of Belfast, from the 1860s Jackson became the preferred architect of the merchant elite. Between the 1860s and 1870s Jackson designed a number of suburban villas and mansions in East Belfast that included Craigavon (HB26/12/025), Glenmachan House, Glenmachan Tower (HB26/12/005), The Moat (HB26/12/026) and Lismachan House (Irish Builder, p. 6; Brett, p. 45; Dixon, p. 29; DIA).

Thomas M. Greeves did not inhabit Lismachan House himself (Thomas Greeves resided at Tweskard House on the opposite side of the Belmont Road) but leased the property to his brother John Greeves who continued to reside there until his death in 1917. Following his acquisition of Lismachan House, John Greeves commissioned the construction of the gate lodge. The lodge was designed by Thomas Jackson’s eldest son Anthony Thomas Jackson (1838-1917). The Dictionary of Irish Architects records that Anthony T. Jackson entered into partnership with his father in 1867 but established an independent practise c. 1869 making the gate lodge one of his earliest independent contracts (DIA). The valuation sources combined the value of the lodge with Lismachan House from the 1870s to 1970s but in 1900 the Belfast Revaluation set the rateable value of Lismachan’s gate lodge at £6. In that year the valuer noted that the lodge cost an estimated £153 to construct and was occupied by a Mr. John Brown. The original plans of the lodge show that the building consisted of a living room, two bedrooms, a scullery and porch (Dean, p. 82).

Lismachan’s gate lodge was listed in 1980. The NIEA HB Records note that the lodge underwent remedial work in 1988 following an extensive outbreak of dry rot. Dean described the lodge as ‘a competent informal Italianate style lodge. Single storey stuccoed, with shallow pitched gables, on an irregular plan … there is a typical Jackson chimney stack, with a plinth and moulded brackets in the cornice’ (NIEA HB Records; Dean, p. 82). Field inspection of Lismachan’s gate lodge finds that the building is currently utilised as a private dwelling.

References

Primary Sources
1. PRONI OS/6/3/5/2 – Second Edition Ordnance Survey Map (1858)
2. PRONI OS/6/3/5/3 – Third Edition Ordnance Survey Map (1902)
3. PRONI OS/6/3/5/4 – Fourth Edition Ordnance Survey Map (1919-20)
4. PRONI VAL/12/B/17/2B-2H - Annual Revisions (1867-1897)
5. PRONI VAL/12/B/43/N/1-9 – Annual Revisions (1897-1930)
6. PRONI VAL/7/B/13/20 – Belfast Revaluation (1900)
7. PRONI VAL/3/B/3/20 – First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1935)
8. PRONI VAL/4/B/7/46 – Second General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1956-72)
9. Irish Builder (1 Jan 1870)
10. Belfast Street Directories (1860-1943)
11. First Survey Record – HB26/12/003 (1978)
12. First Survey Image – HB26/12/003 (No Date)
13. NIEA HB Records – HB26/12/003

Secondary Sources
1. ‘Lismachan House Condition Report’ Belfast: Alastair Coey Architects, 2007.
2. Brett, C. E. B., ‘Buildings of Belfast: 1700-1914’ Belfast: Friar’s Bush Press, 1985.
3. Dean, J. A. K., ‘The gate lodges of Ulster: A gazetteer’ Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1994.
4. Dixon, H., ‘Honouring Thomas Jackson’ Belfast: Belfast Natural History and Philosophical Society, 1970 77.
5. Rankin, K., ‘Linen houses of the Lagan Valley and their families’ Belfast: Ulster Historical Foundation, 2002.

Online Resources
1. Dictionary of Irish Architects - http://www.dia.ie

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
J. Setting
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

R. Age
S. Authenticity
V. Authorship
X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Detached two-bay single-storey stuccoed building, constructed in 1872, as the gate lodge to Lismachan House (HB26/12/002A), to the designs of Anthony Jackson, son of Thomas Jackson, with the latter having been responsible for the design of Lismachan House itself. Despite the inappropriate flat roofed extension and the recent spray-applied finish, the building retains much of its external and internal detailing and represents a good example of Jackson's work in East Belfast. The lodge forms an intrinsic part of, and has group value with, Lismachan House which is a good example of a nineteenth-century suburban gentleman's residence set within mature grounds; as such it adds significant character to Belmont Road.

General comments

HB number changed from HB26/12/003 to HB26/12/002B and Lismachan House changed from HB26/12/002 to HB26/12/002A.