Gate Lodge, Glenalmond, 62 Quarry Road, Belfast, Co Antrim BT4 2NQ

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Detached three-bay single-storey with attic brown rustic brick former gate lodge, built c.1940 to serve Number 60. Set along Quarry Road, east of Belfast city and north of Stormont Estate on the outskirts of Belfast metropolitan area in semi-rural surroundings.
Steeply-pitched rosemary clay tile roof with jerkinhead detail to north. Single brown rustic brick chimneystack to south gable. Plastic rainwater goods on painted fascia. Brown rustic brick walling laid in Flemish stretcher bond. Painted timber casement windows flush with walling with clay tile and brick lintels and painted projecting sills throughout.

Symmetrical principal elevation faces west; projecting two-storey central bay with hipped roof contains painted sheeted timber door with wrought-iron door furniture and flanking wall-mounted bracketed lanterns; window above and at sides. Door opens onto tiled steps down to surrounding path and driveway. Flanking single-storey outer bays contain windows; that to north octagonal in shape.
North elevation has jerkinhead roof detail with deep soffit carrying plastic rainwater goods. Two windows at ground level, one at attic level.

Rear (east) elevation has centrally-placed flat-roofed porch laid in stretcher bond containing timber sheeted door flanked by two windows. Porch door opens onto tiled path surrounding house.
South elevation has full-height centrally-placed projecting chimney breast. Square-headed and bullseye windows at ground floor, one square-headed window at attic level.

Roof: Rosemary clay tile
Walling: Brown rustic brick
Windows: Timber
RWG: Plastic

Setting
Number 62 is situated beside entrance to site along Quarry Road at beginning of driveway approach to Number 60. Former quarry located directly in front of house behind mature trees and iron fencing with small garden and secondary driveway with parking space to rear.

Historical information

This gate lodge to Glenalmond (House) was built in 1938 to designs by Belfast architect John MacGeagh for Robert McConnell. McConnell (of the noted Belfast estate agents, R.J. McConnell) had commissioned MacGeagh to create Glenalmond itself in 1932-33, and at the same time as the building of the lodge, MacGeagh also appears to have been working on the extending of the main house [see HB26/12/063]. The lodge may have been especially constructed as the residence for a gardener to work within the grounds, for a Samuel Campbell. ‘gardener’, is listed as the occupant from at least 1947 until 1951.

Glenalmond, and presumably also the lodge, were acquired in c.1959 by Captain Oscar William James (Bill) Henderson (1924-2010), and his wife, Primrose (1928-2020). The Hendersons would appear to have held the property until at least the early 1980s.

The present owner states that the back porch was added to the lodge in the 1990s. Work appears to heave been carried out to the interior around this time also.

Both the lodge and Glenalmond itself stand on what, prior to the 1930s, had been a largely open field to the north end of which (immediately west to the site of the lodge) was one of several disused quarries from which the road received its name. The easternmost stretch of this road originally tracked further north, but was redirected along its present course c.1870s.

References - Primary sources:
1 Ordnance Survey maps- 1834, 1901-2, 1919, 1931, 1938, 1959
2 HERoNI MacGeagh Collection, Plans of Glenalmond - 1932
3 ‘Belfast News-Letter’ - 19 August 1942, p1 (reference to gate lodge)
4 ‘Belfast Telegraph’ - 9 October 1973, p.10 (article about the firm of R.J. McConnell, estate agents)

Secondary sources
5 Dean, J.A.K., ‘The gate lodges of Ulster - a gazetteer’, (UAHS, Belfast, 1994), p.77
6 Information supplied by owner of Glenalmond - February 2020

Online sources
7 https://www.dia.ie/works/view/46227/building/CO.+ANTRIM%2C+BELFAST%2C+QUARRY+ROAD%2C+HOUSE [accessed 07/10/21]

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

Symmetrical one and a half-storey late Arts and Crafts Style gate lodge built c.1940 to serve Glenalmond House at No 60 (HB26/12/063A), located on Quarry Road, east of Belfast city and north of Stormont Estate. It was built in c.1938 to designs by John MacGeagh with rustic brick façade, steeply-pitched tiled half-hipped roof and full-height hipped-roof entrance projection. The window frames appear to be replacements and the interior retains little evidence of original historic features. Insufficient original historic fabric therefore remains for the building to be considered of special interest.