GATE SCREEN

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A High Victorian gateway thought to date from the mid 19th Century which formed the entrance to the former Cabin Hill School, fronting onto the Upper Newtownards Road.

The gateway consists of two ashlar Scrabo sandstone square section gate piers and two identical boundary piers having recessed panel to front face, moulded plinth and stepped pyramidal cap with ball finial (now missing to gate piers). ‘Cabin’ and ‘Hill’ is engraved to the front of the gate piers. The wrought iron gate is now removed and undergoing restoration. Curved plan dwarf walls of coursed rock-faced Scrabo sandstone having projecting plinth and chamfered coping topped by wrought iron rectangular section railings with arrow head railing tops and rectangular plan ashlar Scrabo sandstone standards with stepped coping stone.

Both of the original boundary piers have been re-built (carried out in c.2008) and repositioned slightly to the N of their original position, and as a result the radius of the curved dwarf walls has been altered.

Setting:
The gateway fronts onto the N side of Upper Newtownards Road. A replica gateway has been constructed to the E of the original, to serve as the main entrance for the residential development under construction on the site.

Historical information

The Listing File for the former Cabin Hill Preparatory School described its original gate screen as ‘a pair of wrought carriage gates hung on Ashlar stone standards with curved rock faced wing walls surmounted by wrought railings’ (NIEA Listing File).

Cabin Hill (see HB26/13/006 for full history) was erected in 1786-87 and was originally a single-storey thatched dwelling. Between 1833 and 1858 Cabin Hill appears to have underwent an extensive alteration that resulted in the current two-storey Tudor Revival building. In 1903 the property was acquired by R. J. McMordie, a future Lord Mayor of Belfast, who carried out further alterations to the property including the addition of the eastern extension and the entrance conservatory.

It is not known with certainty when the Ashlar stone gate pillars were constructed but it was likely between 1834 and 1858. The first edition Ordnance Survey map records that the original entrance to Cabin Hill was located to the east of the current entrance in the 1830s. A new entrance was opened on the site of the current gate screen by 1858 and this was depicted on the Ordnance Survey map of that year. It is likely, but not certain, that the entrance screen was installed by 1858. The gate screen was certainly in place by the time McMordie acquired the site as the third edition Ordnance Survey map records that the western entrance had become the main entrance by 1901-02.

The (now demolished) gate lodge at Cabin Hill was not constructed until the 1930s when Cabin Hill had been acquired by Campbell College and converted into a Preparatory School. Dean states that the lodge was constructed after 1932 but the building appears on the fifth edition Ordnance Survey map (1938-39) suggesting a build date of c. 1935. The gate lodge was still depicted on the Ordnance Survey map of 1966 but had been demolished by at least 1987 to make way for the construction of the Cabin Hill Court retirement house. In 1993 Dean stated that the gate lodge ‘must qualify for the shortest-lived porter’s accommodation in the province’ (Dean, p. 66).

The main entrance to Cabin Hill fell out of use following the closure of the school in 2004. The Ashlar stone gate pillars underwent a restoration in c. 2008 at which time the original gates were also removed. Field inspection of the site finds that the gate piers were repositioned slightly to the north of their original position. In c. 2011 Lacefield, a housing development (the design of which was influenced by the local architecture of Campbell College and Cabin Hill), was constructed to the north of the gate screen. The main entrance to this development was opened to the immediate east side of the former entrance to Cabin Hill. In keeping with the sympathetic design of the housing development, a replica gate screen, based upon Cabin Hill’s original Ashlar gate piers, was constructed in 2012. Immediately following the construction of this replica gate screen, a traffic accident (in July or August 2012) resulted in the destruction of one of the original outer pillars. The damaged pillar had been replaced by the time of the Second Survey when the gate screen was undergoing a further renovation.

References

Primary Sources
1. PRONI OS/6/3/5/1 – First Edition Ordnance Survey Map (1834)
2. PRONI OS/6/3/5/2 – Second Edition Ordnance Survey Map (1858)
3. PRONI OS/6/3/5/3 – Third Edition Ordnance Survey Map (1901-02)
4. PRONI OS/6/3/5/4 – Fourth Edition Ordnance Survey Map (1919-20)
5. PRONI OS/6/3/5/5 – Fifth Edition Ordnance Survey Map (1938-39)
6. Ordnance Survey Map – 130-15 (1966)
7. Ordnance Survey Map – 130-15SE (1987)
8. First Survey Record – HB26/13/002 (1982)
9. NIEA HB Records – HB26/13/002

Secondary Sources
1. Dean, J. A. K., ‘The gate lodges of Ulster: A gazetteer’ Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1994.
2. Wilson, A., ‘A history of Cabin Hill 1785-1979: A house, a school and its people’ Belfast: Campbell College, 1979.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
H-. Alterations detracting from building
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

R. Age
X. Local Interest

Evaluation

A High Victorian gate screen dated c.1850s, formerly the entrance to the listed Cabin Hill School (HB26/13/006A), with which it has group value, fronting onto Upper Newtownards Road. The gate piers are well proportioned and the railings have elaborate ornamentation. Despite the loss of some original fabric when the gate piers were re-positioned c.2008, the screen is of interest as the original entrance to the former 19th century Tudor Revival gentleman’s villa on the site, now Cabin Hill Preparatory School.

General comments

Re-numbered from HB26/13/002