86 Sandown Road

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Unusual, asymmetric single storey over part basement dwelling house, whose rendered rear portion was built 1890-91 as a gate lodge (for the now demolished Sandown House), with the red brick front section added c.1898. The building is set on the eastern side of Sandown Road on sloping ground to the immediate north of what was – up until the 1950s- a railway line.

The building has an irregular and somewhat sprawling footprint. To the north side is the later, red brick addition, which is roughly square in plan, but with a canted bay to the north-east, and another to the west. To the rear this section is part flat-roofed (to the west), with a pitched, part-hipped roof to the eastern half. To south again is the older section, which is L-shaped and gable-ended, but has a small, odd, part gabled, part hipped roof projection to the east. The latter abuts a smaller, hipped roof rendered block that appears to have been a shed (and possibly originally freestanding), but which appears to have been extended southwards, with a covered yard to the west side, between it and the main building. The window openings are varied in both size and shape and include examples with flat-arch brick lintels, flat-headed in rendered walls, segmental-headed in brick and a slightly ‘Tudoresque’ tripartite example. The window frames, however, are largely uniform, most being uPVC replacements.

The wall finishes include red clay facing brick, plain render and ruled and lined render. The roof is comprises hips, gables and flat sections. The pitched sections are slated with blue-black natural slate, whilst the ridges vary and include red fireclay ‘batten-roll’ style with fireclay finials and plain fireclay ridge tiles. The ridges to the hips are formed in lead sheet over batten rolls. The rainwater goods are mainly replacement uPVC. Two squat, rendered pot-less chimneystacks rise through the ridge on the south side.

The front (north) façade is asymmetric. To the left of centre is the main entrance, which is composed of a uPVC door with sidelights and overlight. To the immediate left of this is a canted bay with a hipped roof, whilst to the right side (an area covering over half of this elevation) there are no openings, simply plain red brick walling.

The east elevation is informal with a series of three advancing bays to the left side. The bay to far left belongs to the ‘shed’ section (see above), whilst the two others, plus the rest of the elevation to the right, all belong to the c.1898 extension. The second and third advancing bays each have a single window whilst the first bay has two windows. To the right of the third bay there is another, relatively large, window. The second bay is gabled and is topped with a rectangular box that appears to contain a water cistern.

The south elevation is much obscured with vegetation. It has a fully exposed basement level due to the fall in the ground on this side and consists of the south side of the original dwelling with the gable end of the section to far right, and, between this an the south gable of the original building, a wall which encloses a covered yard. The two south-facing gables are blind, but set back to the left side of these there two windows to the upper level and one to lower level. [Access to the lower ground floor level yard was not possible.]

The west elevation has a canted bay to the far left, then a short flat-roofed section with a relatively large window. To the right of this is the gable of the original section, which has a tripartite window arrangement, with the centre light raised, and the whole arrangement surmounted by a stone drip moulding. To right again, and set well back from the line of the rest of the elevation, there is a wide window to the upper floor and one narrow window to the lower level.

Setting

To the south-west of the building, next to Sandown Road, there is a high coursed rubble wall (with rough coping) which encloses a rectangular yard. There is a gateway (with corrugated-metal sheeted ‘gate’) to the western side of the yard.

Roof natural slate
Walling brick & rendered
Windows uPVC
RW goods uPVC

Historical information

The plot on which this house stands was originally the garden of Sandown House, the large two-storey villa to the north-east, recently renovated. Sandown House was built by Robert Corry and is first recorded in the valuation books in 1891. Included in the initial valuation of the property is a ‘gate lodge’, which seems to correspond with the older rear section of the present No 86 Sandown Road.

The building does not appear to have acted as a gate lodge for long, and by 1899 is accorded an individual mention in the street directories as ‘Ivy Lodge’, with the occupant noted as Tighe H. Rea an accountant and ‘secretary to the Lagan Navigation Company, and, after 1907, ‘Argentine Consul’. The fact that the building is mentioned in sources under its own name, (the same name, incidentally, of a house in Newry belonging to Isaac William Corry in the 1840s and 1850s), suggests that it was upgraded around this time. This is supported by map evidence, the town plan of 1896 showing the L-shaped rear section of the current building, with that of 1901-03 showing it much as today.

Mr. Rea remained at Ivy Lodge until 1910, when Thomas McEwen, a ‘foreign correspondent’ is listed as resident. He was followed in c.1921 by a Miss Orr, then Jackson Totten (1928), Miss L. Totten (1930), Charles Henry Stanley (1931), Captain William McFerran (1938), and David L. McFerran (1943). The next occupant (in c.1946-47) was John Innes Mackintosh Stewart, a lecturer at QUB from 1946 to 1948, and who, under his pen name of Michael Innes, published nearly fifty crime novels and short story collections between 1936 and 1986.

Between 1949 and 1979 the property was occupied by Mr. Rupert S. Sutcliffe, with Mrs. S. Quigg succeeding him in 1980. Ruby Waterman the next resident- after1986, and Mark R. Waterman from 1992.

A small building, set between this house and the railway line, appears to have been occupied as a dwelling (‘Railway Cottage’) from 1931 until 1974. It has since been demolished.

References- Primary sources

1 PRONI VAL12B/17/2A-M (1864-1929)
2 OSNI OS9-50-4-46B (1894-96)
3 OSNI OS8-30-4B-27 (1896)
4 Belfast and Province of Ulster Directory, (Belfast, various dates 1898-1995)
5 OSNI OS8-30-5-83 (1901-03)
6 OSNI OS10-3-4-12-1 (1919)
7 OSNI OS6-3-4-4 (1921)
8 OSNI OS10-3-4-12-2

Secondary sources

1 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._I._M._Stewart [accessed 2011.12.20]

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

Asymmetric single storey over part basement dwelling house, part built 1890-91 as a gate lodge, with main section added c.1898. This house is an example of late Victorian suburban architecture, which began as a much smaller gate lodge, but was soon extended and upgraded as an individual house. While of local interest, it is not among the best examples of the type and has been compromised by loss of fabric and character that have reduced its architectural and historic interest.