Gate Lodge to Campbell College

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A High Victorian three storey red brick building with a three-storey tower in Tudor revival style dating from c.1894 to designs by W. H. Lynn. Irregular on plan with a three-stage tower to SE, and a single storey flat-roofed extension to NE. The building is located in the grounds of Campbell College (HB26/13/003 A) at the junction of Belmont Road and Hawthornden Way.

Pitched natural slate roof with roll-top red clay ridge tiles. Raised stone verges with floriated finials. Hipped natural slate roof to other part with black clay hip tiles. Pyramidal roof to tower with ball finial. Ogee cast iron guttering discharging to rectangular section downpipes. Red brick walling laid to Flemish bond with ashlar sandstone dressings on moulded sandstone plinth. Square-headed window openings with mullioned windows having timber casement windows.

The principal elevation faces S and has a recessed bay to W, a single storey flat roofed porch to centre and the tower to E. Segmental arched door opening to porch with moulded architraves having a diagonal sheeted timber door opening onto two steps. Raised parapet and moulded cornicing to porch and a single stage buttress to the W of the door. Three stage tower with raised parapet and moulded cornicing.

The E elevation consists of the tower to S end, a two-storey plus attic bay to centre and a single storey flat-roofed bay to N end. Square-headed door opening to last bay to N having a sheeted timber door.

The N elevation consists of a recessed two-storey gabled bay to E abutted to N by the single storey extension and a single-storey three-sided canted bay to W.

The W elevation consists of part of the single storey hipped roof canted bay to N, a single storey plus attic gabled bay to centre and the recessed two-bay wide W facing elevation of the front porch.

Setting:
Modestly landscaped yard to N, W and E of the building enclosed by timber fencing to E. Enclosed to SW by brick walling with chamfered stone coping and topped by cast iron square-section railings with arrow heads supported on red brick piers with gableted coping stones. The main gate to the school faces S and comprises a double cast iron gate supported on octagonal red brick gate piers with moulded stone plinths and pyramidal coping stones.
The building is located in the grounds of Campbell College (HB26/13/003 A) at the junction of Belmont Road and Hawthornden Way.

Materials:
Roof: natural slate roof
Walling: red brick walling
RWG : cast iron
Windows: timber casements

Historical information

The gate lodge on the Belmont Road, a three-storey red brick building located at the western entrance to Campbell College (HB26/13/004), was constructed in c. 1894. The school and its lodge were both designed in the Tudor-Revival style by W. H. Lynn (1829-1915), a Belfast-based architect who was one of the city’s most accomplished designers in the late-Victorian and Edwardian periods having also designed the Belfast Central Library in 1888. Following the completion of Campbell College in 1894, Lynn was also responsible for the design of extensions carried out to Queen’s University Belfast in 1910 (DIA).

Dean describes the gate lodge to Campbell College as ‘a highly distinctive and innovative design of irregular outline and generous accommodation. Dominated by a large square three-storey “watch-tower” scaled down from that of the college … it contains a pyramidal roof crowned by a ball finial.’ Dean deemed the lodge ‘one of Lynn’s finest compositions which he was not to equal’ and described the adjoining gate screen as ‘two big octagonal gate pillars topped by domes ogee cappings and more fleur-de-lys finials [with an] extensive stretch of railings with intermediate piers having Gothick gableted caps’ (Dean, p. 660).

The various valuation sources did not individually value the gate lodge but combined the rating of the building with the much larger school making it impossible to gauge the individual value of the lodge. The western gate lodge was first depicted on the third edition of the Ordnance Survey maps (1901-02) which also depicted the second gate lodge at the southern entrance to Campbell College (also designed by Lynn and erected c. 1894). Photographs of the school, dating from the early-20th century show that no major alterations have been made to the layout of the gate lodge since its construction.

The western gate lodge was listed along with Campbell College in 1987. The lodge continues to stand at the western entrance to Campbell College. Larmour states that the ‘tower form gate lodge is a nice introduction to the larger towered main building, [the pair form] a picturesquely grouped exercise in Tudor Revivalism, reserved in style and refined in detail’ (Larmour, p. 56).

References

Primary Sources
1. PRONI OS/6/3/5/3 – Third Edition Ordnance Survey Map (1901-02)
2. PRONI OS/6/3/5/4 – Fourth Edition Ordnance Survey Map (1919-20)
3. PRONI OS/6/3/5/5 – Fifth Edition Ordnance Survey Map (1938-39)
4. PRONI VAL/12/B/43/N/1-9 – Annual Revisions (1897-1930)
5. PRONI VAL/3/B/3/20 – First General Revaluation of Northern Ireland (1935)
6. PRONI VAL/4/B/7/45 – Second General Revaluation of Northern Ireland (1956-1972)
7. Belfast Street Directories (1877-1943)
8. First Survey Record – HB26/13/003 (1984)
9. First Survey Image – HB26/13/003 (No Date)
10. NIEA HB Records – HB26/13/003 (Missing)

Secondary Sources
1. Dean, J. A. K., ‘The gate lodges of Ulster: A gazetteer’ Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1994.
2. Larmour, P., ‘Belfast: An illustrated architectural guide’ Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1987.
3. Haines, K., ‘Neither rogues nor fools: A history of Campbell College and Campbellians’ Belfast: Campbell College, 1993.
4. Haines, K., ‘Campbell College’ Gloucestershire: tempus Publishing Ltd., 2004.

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
I. Quality and survival of Interior
J. Setting
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

R. Age
S. Authenticity
T. Historic Importance
V. Authorship
X. Local Interest

Evaluation

A Victorian three-storey red-brick building with a three-storey tower in Tudor revival style dating from c.1894 to designs by W. H. Lynn.
Originally the West of two gate lodges to Campbell College (HB26/13/003 A), the building seems to be almost intact since its construction, retaining most of its original external detailing, some internal fixtures and its elaborate gate screen. Located in its original setting in the grounds of Campbell College school complex and characterised by its distinctive 'watch tower', it serves as a good introduction to the main college building. Erected on the former site of Belmont House, an early-19th century two-storey gentleman’s mansion, formerly the residence of Sir. Thomas McClure, it is of significant architectural and historic interest and has group value with Cambell College.

General comments

Previously HB26/13/003