Lynn Tara

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Detached asymmetrical multi-bay two-storey with attic Arts and Crafts red brick and rendered house, dated 1908 to the designs of James St. John Phillips. Irregular on plan facing west and set back on the east side of Antrim Road within its own mature grounds.

Pitched natural slate roofs with roll-moulded terracotta ridge tiles and three profiled red brick chimney stacks with terracotta pots (hipped to the south). Moulded cast-iron guttering supported on overhanging timber sheeted eaves with exposed rafter feet and decorative timber brackets, square-profile cast-iron downpipes with decorative trefoil brackets. Flat-roofed dormer windows to front and rear pitches with multi-pane timber casement windows. Red brick walling to the ground floor laid in Flemish bond with original pointing and surmounted by dentilated terracotta trim. Pebble-dashed render to first floor walls. Segmental arched heads to window openings with tooled red sandstone sills and original multi-pane timber casement windows (unless otherwise stated).

Principal (W) elevation is five windows wide with full-height gabled projection to the right and full-height flat-roofed central entrance bay. The gabled projection has a slightly advanced red brick chimney stack with terracotta date plaque having incised lettering stating; ‘A.D. / 1908’ with moulded red brick surround and round-arched hood moulding. Diminutive windows flank the chimney stack to both levels with replacement timber casement windows framing original Art Nouveau leaded coloured glazing. Lead-lined flat roof to entrance bay projection having tripartite window opening to first floor with original timber casement windows, moulded transom and Art Nouveau leaded coloured glazing. Segmental arched tripartite door opening with compound moulded brick surround interspersed with flush red sandstone quoins and original double-leaf timber doors with glazed panels and matching sidelights set on flush splayed red sandstone sills. Door opens onto two nosed concrete steps with lead-lined canopy over supported on large timber brackets and pair of decorative iron brackets over.

Gabled north side elevation abutted by single-storey red brick abutment. Assymmetrically-placed diminutive window opening to the first floor and a single door opening to the abutment with original sheeted timber door.

East rear elevation is three windows wide with a central lead-lined flat-roofed canted bay window. To the right is a segmental arched door opening with replacement double-leaf hardwood multi-paned glazed French doors opening onto concrete steps with steel handrails.

South side elevation is two windows wide with a full-height projecting canted bay window surmounted by oversailing half-timber gable. Largely replacement timber casement windows to this elevation with original leaded coloured glazing inserted to the overlights.

Roof: Natural slate
RWG: Cast-iron
Walling: Red brick / pebble-dashed render
Windows: Timber casement

Setting:
Located on a corner site at the junction of Antrim Road and Donegal Park Avenue and set back from the road within its own mature grounds enclosed by rubble basalt walling topped by ornate cast iron railings. Matching cast iron gates hung on octagonal ashlar sandstone pillars, with panelled collars, inscribed with the lettering 'Lynn Tara' and swept octagonal capstones.

Historical information

No. 713 Antrim Road, a two-storey Edwardian house located at the corner of Donegall Park Avenue, was constructed in 1908 (according to a terracotta datestone at the site). The Building Application Files at Belfast City Hall record that the house was designed by James St. John Phillips (1870-1935), a Belfast-based architect and son of James John Phillips (the prominent ecclesiastical architect). Phillips became a partner in his father’s firm in 1896 and remained in partnership until c. 1905 when he established an independent practice in the city. The Dictionary of Irish Architects noted that ‘like his father, he received a number of commissions from the Methodist Church and he also did a great deal of commercial and domestic work.’ Phillip’s designed the house in an Arts & Crafts Style with contemporary features such as Art Nouveau patterned windows. Dixon states that the Arts & Crafts movement derived from William Morris’ abhorrence of ‘the mass productions of the machine age [and was an attempt] to return to the irregular but more agreeable qualities of handicraft. Simplicity of decoration and functional planning were the very essence of such houses [and] the most concentrated development of the style was in and around Belfast’ (DIA; Dixon).

No. 713 Antrim Road, which was also known as ‘Lynn Tara,’ was constructed on land leased by Robert Dunlop, a local grain merchant who resided at Chichester Park. The Annual Revisions note that, upon its completion in 1908, Lynn Tara was valued at £50 and occupied by John Walker who was employed as an income tax collector. The building was first recorded on the fourth edition Ordnance Survey map (1920-21) which depicted the building along its current layout. The 1911 census notes that Walker resided at Lynn Tara with his wife Elizabeth and their two daughters. In that year the census building return described the house as a 1st class dwelling that consisted of 13 rooms. John Walker continued to reside at the address until his death in 1925 at which point his widow took possession of the property (PRONI Wills). Elizabeth Walker remained at Lynn Tara until her own death in 1937 at which time the house passed to her daughters Jeannie M. and Evangeline Walker who resided at the house until at least the 1970s. The Dunlop family continued to be recorded as owners of the site under the First and Second General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936-57; 1956-72) which maintained the value of the house at £65. Lynn Tara was listed in 1987. The NIEA HB Records note that the Edwardian house was reroofed in Westmoreland slates in 1996 (NIEA HB Records).

Resources

Primary Sources
1. PRONI OS/6/1/59/3 – Third Edition Ordnance Survey Map (1901-02)
2. PRONI OS/6/1/59/4 – Fourth Edition Ordnance Survey Map (1920-21)
3. PRONI VAL/12/B/43/H/3-6 – Annual Revisions (1906-1930)
4. PRONI VAL/3/C/3/10- First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936-72)
5. PRONI VAL/4/B/7/13 - Second General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1956-72)
6. Ulster Town Directories (1901-1943)
7. PRONI Wills Catalogue (29 Oct 1925; 28 Nov 1937)
8. Census of Ireland (1911)
9. First Survey record – HB26/45/003 (1986)
10. NIEA HB Records – HB26/45/003 (includes Listing File and Belfast City Application)

Secondary Sources
1. Dixon, H., ‘An introduction to Ulster Architecture’ Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 2008.

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

Criteria for listing: historic interest

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

Evaluation

Detached asymmetrical multi-bay two-storey with attic Arts and Crafts brick and rendered house, dated 1908 to the designs of the well respected architect, James St. John Phillips. A substantial early twentieth-century house incorporating an eclectic mix of styles reflecting the contemporary desire to revive craftsmanship and individualism as a backlash against the mass production of the time. The house retains most of its original fabric and detailing both internally and externally and represents a fine example of its era. The original name, Lynn Tara, is inscribed in to the collar of the octagonal stone gate pillars at the Antrim Road entrance. These pillars, together with ornate cast iron gates, matching cast iron railings on basalt stone walling and mature front and back gardens contribute significant architectural interest as the original setting of the house survives intact.