1 Stormont Cottages

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Semi-detached two-bay two-storey rendered house, built c.1936. L-shaped on plan facing south and located on the south side of a short bitmac avenue to the south of Massey Avenue within the Stormont Estate.

Half-hipped natural slate roof with gauged slates, roll-moulded lead ridges and two tall profiled red brick chimneystacks (that to the east shared with adjoining house). Moulded cast-iron guttering supported on deeply overhanging timber sheeted eaves with exposed rafter feet and cast-iron downpipes. Painted rough-cast rendered walling with painted brick below ground floor sill course. Square-headed window openings with painted shaped brick courses and original steel casement windows.

Garden front elevation is three windows wide with a three-sided canted bay window to the left having concrete coping to parapet.

West side elevation has an original entrance porch with steep slate roof and a square-headed door opening to the north side with original timber panelled door, glazed to the upper six panels.

Rear elevation is three windows wide with a flat-roofed single-storey extension to the left.

East side elevation abutted by adjoining house No.2 (HB26/13/043B).

Setting:
Located within the Stormont Estate just south of Massey Avenue gate lodge accessed via short bitmac avenue. Small enclosed rear yard; painted rough-cast render boundary walling with red-brick coping extending from gable with arched opening and painted timber gate; tall painted rough-cast render gate piers with red-brick cappings and painted timber gates and hedging fronting onto the avenue. Large garden to the south elevation.

Roof: Natural slate
RWG: Cast-iron
Walling: Painted rough-cast render / red brick
Windows: Original steel casement

Historical information

Nos 1-2 Stormont Villas, a pair of two-storey semi-detached interwar dwellings located near the Massey Avenue entrance to the Stormont Estate, were constructed in c. 1936. The villas were first recorded in 1936 when they were utilised as residences for the superintendents of the Stormont estate.

Prior to the construction of Parliament Buildings in 1928-32 and the laying out of Massey Avenue, the lane to the north side of Stormont Villas formed the original western entrance to the estate of Stormont Castle. A gate lodge, known as ‘Killeen Lodge,’ admitted access to the estate; this was located on the site of the current lavatory block to the north-west side of the villas. Between the purchase of the Stormont estate in 1921 and the construction of the Parliament Buildings in 1928-32, Killeen Lodge was utilised as a private dwelling. The lodge was depicted as an irregular-shaped dwelling on the Ordnance Survey County Series Map of 1931. The map noted that the Massey Avenue entrance to the Stormont estate had been laid out and that Arnold Thornely’s two-storey Gate Lodge had been constructed at Massey Avenue by that year (HB26/13/021). With the completion of Parliament Buildings, and the ceremonial opening of the estate on 16th November 1932 by the Prince of Wales, Killeen lodge was occupied by Nathaniel Cank, the newly-appointed superintendent of the Stormont estate.

Cank continued to reside at the Killeen Lodge until c. 1936 when Stormont Villas were built. Following the completion of the villas, Killeen Lodge was demolished and replaced with the current lavatory block. Stormont Villas were first recorded in the Belfast Street Directory of 1936 and were depicted along their current layouts on the 1938 edition of the Ordnance Survey Country Series maps. The architect of Stormont Villas is not known with certainty. Arnold Thornely (1870-1953), the architect of Parliament Buildings, was also responsible for the estate’s gateways and gate lodges, as well as the former Provincial Bank on Massey Avenue. Gallagher states that Thornely’s layout of the buildings and grounds at Stormont ‘represent one of the most outstanding architectural sights in Ireland … the magnificent processional avenue, lined with lime and yew trees, leads the visitor from the main gates, past the statue of Lord Carson, to the foot of the famous ‘sixty steps’ of Parliament Buildings (Gallagher, p. 76). It is uncertain whether Thornely was also responsible for the design of Stormont Villas as the dwellings were constructed four years after the opening of the estate. The First Survey Record (1994) states that the villas were designed by architects attached to the Northern Ireland Ministry of Finance. A likely candidate is Ernest L. Woods (1877-1952), a Bangor-based architect and engineer who predominantly carried out commercial and domestic contracts in the 1930s, and who the Irish Builder notes was contracted to design at least four houses within the Stormont estate in c. 1931 (DIA; Irish Builder, p. 1063).

No. 1 Stormont Villas (the westernmost dwelling) was first occupied by John Charles Conway who was also employed as an estate superintendent. Conway continued to reside at the address until his death in 1958 (PRONI Wills) at which time the house passed to Halt Waring, a prominent Civil Servant. The Second General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1956-72) set the total rateable value of No. 1 Stormont Villas (exempt from taxation) at £27 and noted that the building was owned by the Northern Ireland Ministry of Finance. The Belfast Street Directories record that No. 1 Stormont Villas was occupied by a Mr. William Vaughan between the 1970s and 1980s. The First Survey Record (1994) described the villas in the following terms: ‘A pair of two-storey houses or cottages with half-hipped roofs, slated, and roughcast walls with some rustic brick dressings such as yard wall copings, string course, window sills and canted bay windows. Small paned casements. Nicely designed in a kind of Arts and Crafts idiom, definitely domestic in feel.’

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 OS/10/3/5/5/3 – Ordnance Survey County Series Map (1931)
5. PRONI OS/10/3/5/5/4 – Ordnance Survey County Series Map (1938)
6. PRONI VAL/4/B/3/21 – Second General Revaluation of Northern Ireland (1956-1972)
7. Irish Builder (5 Dec 1931)
8. PRONI Wills Catalogue (11 Oct 1958)
9. Belfast Street Directories (1925-1990)
10. First Survey Record – HB26/13/043 (1994)

Secondary Sources
1. ‘Parliament Buildings Stormont: The building, its setting, uses and restoration 1922-1998’ Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1999.
2. Gallagher, J., ‘Stormont: The house on the hill’ Belfast: Booklink, 2008.
3. Larmour, P., ‘Belfast: An illustrated architectural guide’ Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1987.

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
V. Authorship
U. Historic Associations
T. Historic Importance
X. Local Interest
Y. Social, Cultural or Economic Importance

Evaluation

Semi-detached two-bay two-storey rendered house, L-shaped on plan, built c.1936. Located on the south side of a short bitmac avenue to the south of Massey Avenue within the Stormont Estate. The house was built as one of a pair of villas for the superintendents of the estate with the neighbouring house, no. 2 Stormont Cottages (HB26/13/043B). Retaining most original fabric both internally and externally, this modest building is constructed in a restrained Arts and Crafts style. Possibly designed by the Northern Ireland Ministry of Finance architect, Ernest L. Woods and in its original setting, it forms an important part of the wider group of structures in the Stormont Estate, including Parliament Buildings (HB26/13/013) and the entrance lodges (HB26/13/020 and HB26/13/021).