Former gate lodge

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Detached three-bay single-storey asymmetric Italianate-style gate-lodge on ‘L-shaped’ plan, built c.1885, architect unknown but possibly to the designs of Robert Young or Charles West and having series of single-story extensions to south-west. The building is set back from the Antrim Road and adjacent to a private access road leading to Cavehill Country Park. Stone and rendered boundary wall encloses site to south and east with outbuilding to north-west.

Hipped and pitched slate roof with rooflights having terracotta roll-top ridge tiles and exposed scrolled rafter ends; overhanging eaves with painted soffit. Half-round cast-iron gutter discharging to circular downpipes. Pair of three-stage lined and ruled rendered chimney stacks with cornice coping. Semi-circular headed openings with raised smooth sandstone dressings and integral sill with one over one timber sliding sash windows, unless otherwise stated.

Front elevation faces north-east and is three-bay with projecting gable to east and central entrance door. Walling comprises of rock-faced coursed basalt having dressed margins with smooth sandstone plinth course. Venetian window to projecting gable with replacement timber sliding sash windows. Raised and fielded six-panelled timber entrance door set within semi-circular opening having cut-stone moulded surround.

South-east elevation comprises of three projecting gables having rock-faced coursed basalt walling to east, smooth lined and ruled rendered walling to central bay and timber-framed glazed wall set within smooth rendered walling to west.

South-west elevation comprises of four-bays having smooth rendered walling. Square-headed openings with smooth rendered plaster band and one over one timber sliding sash windows.

North-west elevation is four-bay with square-headed openings, smooth sandstone dressings and one over one timber sliding sash windows.

Setting:
Building is set back from the Antrim Road and adjacent to a private access road leading to Belfast Castle(HB26.51.001) and is enclosed by stone boundary wall to south and east and outbuilding to north-west. Outbuilding has pitched and hipped slate roof with saw-tooth terracotta ridges tiles, smooth cement rendered walls and square-headed opening to double timber sheeted doors. Mature hedge and tree boundary to north-east and north-west, lawns to south. Approached from north-east via stone steps leading to entrance door with rendered retaining wall forming garden to east and gravel pathway leading to south. Square-plan gate piers with cement coping set within stepped rendered boundary to north-east forming gateways to outbuilding and entrance door with decorative metal gates inset. Rock-faced coursed basalt boundary wall on curved plan to south having three-stage rendered piers inset with flat coping.

Roof: Natural Slate
RWG: Cast-iron
Walls: Basalt & Render
Windows: One over one timber sliding sash

Historical information

No. 702 Antrim Road, a single-storey Italianate building located at the northern entrance to the Belfast Castle estate (HB26/51/001), was constructed in c. 1885. The building is the second gate lodge to have stood on the current site. The first lodge of c. 1840 was built as the entrance to Martlett Towers (now demolished) whilst the current lodge was erected following the acquisition of Martlett Towers by the Shaftesbury family in the 1880s.

Martlett Towers was constructed in the 1840s as the residence of the Magill family, local linen manufacturers. Joseph Magill had married into the Nash family and had been granted the plot of land on the slopes of Cave Hill by his father-in-law Andrew Nash (who resided on land to the immediate south of Martlett Towers). The first edition Ordnance Survey Map records that the townland of Green Castle remained predominantly rural in character by the 1830s and that only Nash’s dwelling had been constructed by that time. Martlett Towers was constructed in c. 1840 and was depicted on the second edition Ordnance Survey map of 1857 as a rectangular-shaped dwelling that possessed an L-shaped gate lodge located at the Antrim Road entrance. The contemporary Griffith’s Valuation (1859) set the joint value of the house, its outbuildings and the first gate lodge at £130.

The Irish Builder records that Martlett Towers was rebuilt or enlarged in 1868 to designs by Sherry & Hughes, a short-lived local architectural partnership which had been formed in c. 1868 between Charles Acton Sherry (former chief assistant to W. J. Barre) and Robert Hughes. The alteration of Martlett Towers was one of the earliest contracts carried out by the firm before the untimely death of Sherry in 1871. The work resulted in an increase in the value of Martlett Towers and its outbuildings to £155 (Irish Builder, p. 273; DIA). The Cave Hill Conservation Campaign records that Joseph Magill continued to reside at Martlett Towers until he was made bankrupt in c. 1875. Following the bankruptcy, Martlett Towers and its land was absorbed into the estate of Belfast Castle (constructed in 1868-70 – see HB26/51/001). In the 1880s the Earl of Shaftesbury converted Martlett Towers into accommodation for his estate workers and had the current Italianate gate lodge constructed as the new northern entrance to his estate.

The Annual Revisions note that new gate lodge was constructed in c. 1885. The original gate lodge to Martlett Towers was demolished soon afterwards and was not depicted on the Ordnance Survey map of 1901-02. The architect of the new gate lodge is not known with certainty. Dean suggested that the building may have been designed by Robert Young (of Young & Mackenzie) or by Charles West, however this cannot be confirmed. Dean described the new gate lodge in the following terms: ‘Restrained Italianate design with low-pitched roof, gables supported on carved purlin ends. Walls in coursed squared quarry-faced basalt with smooth sandstone dressings to narrow semi-circular-headed openings. To the parlour a Venetian window. Fine raised and fielded door’ (Dean, p. 22). The new gate lodge was valued at £5 by the Annual Revisions and was depicted as an L-shaped building on the Ordnance Survey map of 1901 02 (the building has been extended a number of times in recent decades). The gate lodge continued to be utilised as the main northern entrance to the Belfast Castle estate until c. 1892 when nos 694-696 Antrim Road became the new entrance (see HB26/51/001E). The Annual Revisions note that during the 1890s No. 702 Antrim Road was leased by the Earl of Shaftesbury to Thomas McWhirter, an agricultural labourer who worked on his estate. In 1901 the census building return described the gate lodge as a second class dwelling that consisted of three rooms.

The Shaftesbury family resided at Belfast Castle until 1934 when the 9th Earl of Shaftesbury granted the building and the 200 acre estate to Belfast Corporation. Having been utilised as a private dwelling for only 65 years, Belfast Castle passed to the Corporation on 1st February 1935 and was officially opened to the public by the Lord Mayor on 9th July 1937. Belfast Castle became one of the city’s most picturesque venues, utilised for wedding receptions, public dances and afternoon teas. The Corporation also acquired the former gate lodge at No. 702 Antrim Road which they continued to lease out to tenants employed on the estate. Under the First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936-57) William Kirkwood, a chauffeur, resided at the lodge, which had been increased in value to £10. Kirkwood remained at No. 702 Antrim Road until at least the end of the Second Revaluation (1956-72) at which time the value of the building stood at £10 and 10 shillings.

Field inspection of No. 702 Antrim Road, carried out as part of the Second Survey, has found that the former gate lodge to Martlett Towers and Belfast Castle is currently utilised as a private dwelling. The construction of single-storey extensions to the south-west side of the formerly L-shaped building has greatly increased its size.

References

Primary Sources
1. PRONI OS/6/1/57/1 – First Edition Ordnance Survey Map (1832-33)
2. PRONI OS/6/1/57/2 – Second Edition Ordnance Survey Map (1857)
3. PRONI OS/6/1/57/4 – Third Edition Ordnance Survey Map (1901-02)
4. PRONI OS/6/1/57/5 – Fourth Edition Ordnance Survey Map (1931)
5. PRONI OS/6/1/57/5 – Fifth Edition Ordnance Survey Map (1936-38)
6. PRONI VAL/2/B/1/21C – Griffith’s Valuation (1859)
7. PRONI VAL/12/B/5/8A-8F – Annual Revisions (1862-1897)
8. PRONI VAL/12/B/43/F/1-7 – Annual Revisions (1897-1930)
9. PRONI VAL/3/C/3/3 – First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936-57)
10. PRONI VAL/4/B/7/1 – Second General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1956-72)
11. Irish Builder (1 Nov 1868)
12. Ulster Town Directories (1852-1943)
13. Census of Ireland (1901; 1911)
14. First Survey Record – HB26/51/008 (No Date)

Secondary Sources
1. ‘The Cave Hill Campaigner’ Belfast: Cave Hill Conservation Campaign, 2002.
2. Brett, C. E. B., ‘Buildings of Belfast: 1700-1914’ Belfast: Friar’s Bush Press, 1985.
3. Dean, J. A. K., ‘The gate lodges of Ulster: A gazetteer’ Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1994.
4. 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

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

Italianate-style gate lodge, built c. 1885, architect unknown, located at the north entrance to Belfast Castle estate (HB26/51/001A-E). Erected on the former site of the Marlett Towers which was constructed in the 1840s as the residence of the Magill family(now demolished), the site was incorporated into Belfast Castle estate c.1880. The building retains some features characteristic to the Italianate-style including a Venetian window, a shallow hipped roof and rock-faced walling. Although of interest, the building has been extended and there are better examples of this building type listed.

General comments

Previoulsy recorded as HB26/51/008.