Historic Building Details

HB Ref No:
HB16/12/005 A

Address :
St Joseph's Home Seaview Warrenpoint Newry Co Down BT34 3NQ

Townland:
Ringmackilroy

---

Survey 2:
B1

Date of Listing:
12/01/1982 00:00:00

Date of De-listing:

Current Use:
Residential Home

Former Use
Hotel

Conservation Area:
No

Industrial Archaeology:
No

Vernacular:
No

Thatched:
No

Monument:
No

Derelict:
No

---

OS Map No:
277-9 SE

IG Ref:
J1449 1796

---

Owner Category

Church - RC

Exterior Description And Setting

Large prominent 19thC hotel on the corner of Prince’s Street and Seaview. It is in two distinct blocks - that to left is largest, three and half storeys high and has a tower on its left corner; that to right is a lower three-storey building detailed as a pair of typical sea front villas. (1) The left block. This block is three and half storeys high/ three bays wide. Steeply pitched natural slate roof with overhanging eaves supported on slender timber eaves brackets. Moulded metal rainwater goods. Wide rendered chimney between the central and right bays. Front elevation faces SE. Walls are rendered and painted; band rusticated (V-channelled) with moulded cill course between each floor and a moulded hood course over the windows. The prominent attic gable to front right is smooth rendered and painted with coped gable and roundel inset to its apex. It has a tall rendered chimneystack rising from eaves of its right (E) pitch. The right bay at ground and first floor has a chamfered right corner. The right bay at second floor is inset and so too is the dormer above. The flat roof over the first floor right bay is concealed behind a moulded parapet. The left bay is the octagonal tower. It clasps the left corner of the building and has five canted faces (remaining three sides are where it clasps main block), each with a window. It has a steeply pitched octagonal roof, natural slated with iron cresting and eaves as main block. Below the eaves each face has a recessed decorative panel. Walls and details as façade. Main entrance is contained within a broad single storey porch at ground floor right. Its front corners are chamfered. Its walls have a chamfered basecourse and are band rusticated to lower level and smooth over a hood mould course which runs to spring of arch level of the large semicircular headed doorway to front. The doorway spandrels and chamfered corners are each inset with a small roundel with hood mould and foliated stops. Flat roof is concealed behind a quatrefoil fretted masonry parapet. Religious statue of Mary rests on parapet coping. Doorway has a pole moulded and chamfered reveal and its archivolt is painted ‘STAR OF THE SEA PRAY FOR US’. All windows are 1/1 segmental headed sliding sashes with unpainted granite cills. There is one to each exposed cheek of the tower, those to first floor opening onto an iron veranda with fine wrought iron balustrade. There is a single window to each floor of the central bay. There are three to first floor right (over entrance); they are grouped together and narrower than all the others. There is a pair of windows to second floor right and another pair in the attic gable at right, these ones having a shelf cill on three decorative brackets. The right (NE) elevation of this block is abutted by the lower three-storey block (see later). The left (SW) elevation of this block is two bays wide. The roof here is pitched and natural slated and there are two small dormers, one to centre and one to right. Each has a hipped natural slate roof and a pair of timber casement windows. Cheeks are slated. On this pitch to left is a tall rendered chimneystack, parallel with this elevation and with V channels running down its length delineating four flues. It has a moulded coping and to its rear is a supporting slated gable. The right bay is abutted to right side by the clasping tower (see front elevation). Its cheeks all have windows except the left ones to first and second floors which contain doors. From here are metal escape stairs leading off the balcony. The remaining elevation has three windows to each floor. Rear (NE) elevation is abutted by a number of returns and additions. All have pitched roofs, rendered and painted walls and mostly sliding sash windows. There is a small internal yard, a glazed link to the rear extensions and a modern garage. Abutting the right side is a single storey block, with its right cheek in line with the SW elevation of main block. It has a pitched roof aligned parallel with the rear elevation and canted and hipped to the SW end. Walls as before. Its canted SW end has a large segmental headed window opening on each cheek. Each contains a two paned casement window with transoms over. (2) The right block This block is symmetrical and looks like a pair of typical sea front villas (minus front doors). Its front elevation is a continuation of the left block and also faces SE. Four bays wide, the central two being narrower than the remaining two. Pitched natural slate roof with a rendered chimney with moulded copings to either side of the central bays. Overhanging eaves carry half round metal rainwater goods. Walls are band rusticated and have a moulded stringcourse between each floor. Windows are 2/2 sashes with stop-end-chamfered reveals and head, unpainted granite cills. Those to second floor are slightly diminished in height. The left and right bays have three storey canted bay windows with a window to each cheek and a canted natural slate roof, which ties into the main roof. The central bays share three ground floor windows. At first and second floors there is a single window to each central bay. The left one has a window to left and the right one has a window to right. The left (NE) gable of this block is abutted by the taller left block. The rear (NW) elevation of the right block is abutted to left side by a three-stage return (see later). Its remaining wall is abutted by the other various rear returns. The return is in three stages. None of its right cheeks were inspected. Its left cheeks are discussed following the right gable of the main block from which they are a continuation (see below). The right gable of the right block fronts onto Princes Street. It continues as a narrow bay to right under a return roof from rear (see above). Gable has a highly decorative timber bargeboard the heavy frame of which is supported on three large wall mounted granite corbels. Frame is chamfered, has Gothic lancet panels and curving braces. Wall as façade. Each floor to the end gable has three windows (as those to façade). Continuing to right is the left cheek of the first stage of return. First stage of the rear return is narrow and has a pitched artificial slate roof aligned N-S. It has a rendered chimney on its end gable and a plain bargeboard. Its left cheek (to Princes Street) ties in with the right gable of the right block and is narrow. It is similarly detailed to the right gable and has a doorway at ground floor flanked by narrow 1/1 fixed leaded sidelights; pair of glazed timber doors with leaded transom over. There are two narrow windows to each upper floor. Its end gable is abutted by the second stage of the return, which is slightly lower. The second stage of the return has a pitched natural slate roof aligned N-S and with a rendered chimney on its N end. Its left cheek (to Princes Street) is a continuation with the left cheek of the first stage of the return and is similarly detailed (however windows and stringcourses step down). It has three windows to each floor (bars to ground floor ones). The heads of those to first floor are contained within gabled wall-head dormers with pitched artificial slate roofs. The third stage of the return is taller than the second stage and its pitched artificial slate roof is aligned W-E. The E gable has a decorative bargeboard, timber framed and inset with Gothic roundels. Rendered and painted chimney to each end gable. Its left cheek is flush with the left cheek of the second stage of return (however windows and stringcourses step up). It has two windows to each floor (bars to ground floor ones). Those to its gable are paired together. The end (N) elevation of the third stage of the return is abutted to ground floor by a rear hall (see later). Wall above is lined rendered with band rusticated quoins to left corner (wrap around from the left cheek). Each upper floor has a single 2/2 central window. The head of the second floor one is contained within gabled wall-head dormer with pitched artificial slate roof and timber bargeboard. The hall abutting to rear has a hipped natural slate roof aligned N-S. It has a modern skylight on its left pitch (facing onto Princes Street) and a high parapet wall to this elevation also. Left elevation is band rusticated and parapet has a plain coping. The left end has a doorway. Four-panelled door is varnished timber, top two panels are glazed and there is a two paned transom over. Deep stop-end chamfered reveals and head. The rest of this elevation has five large equally spaced windows. Each has two large fixed panes with a pair of narrow transoms over. Painted concrete cills. Its end (N) wall faces into the back yard and was not inspected. (3) Extensions The rear extension is in two stages and joined to the main block by the glazed link. Its roof is aligned NE-SW. Its first stage to NE end is modern (late 1970s-early 1980s) and has concrete roof, rendered walls and modern windows. The second stage (late 1990s) is constructed in a very sympathetic style to the house. It has a pitched natural slate roof, rendered walls, a corner tower and segmental headed sash windows. In garden to SW is a small timber garden shelter (HB16/12/005B). Setting Front garden is wide and extends to SW and curves with Seaview. It is enclosed by a rendered dwarf wall carrying railings with foliated finials and alternating hoop tops. Gate piers, a pair to either end of front elevation, are octagonal with canted conical copings (left piers are taller than the right ones). Gates are gone to left and infilled by railings. Decorative wrought iron gates to right end.

Architects

Not Known

Historical Information

The lower three-storey block to north is the earlier building and is first cited in the 1885 Valuation revision book. Then known as the Beach Hotel, it had been erected by Henry Stanley at a cost of over £3000. It had a rateable value of £115 at that time. It is described in an 1891 book as “a magnificent three-storey structure covering an area of fully half an acre, with an additional half acre laid out as lawn-tennis courts. The situation of the hotel is most pleasant and convenient; the entrance hall is spacious, lofty, and well appointed. The dining room is a large and well-proportioned apartment capable of accommodating a large number of guests. The drawing-room is most luxuriously furnished, as also are the billiard room, smoke room, suites of private apartments, lofty and comfortable bedrooms, the lavatories, bath-rooms supplied with salt and fresh water, the spacious kitchens, and cellars, the usual domestic offices, and all the accessories of a large and thoroughly-organised establishment”. This enterprise may not have been a success, as the hotel lay vacant between 1887 and 1889. It was taken over by a syndicate of Newry and Warrenpoint businessmen in 1889. Its 1890 valuation is £95, but this increases to £205 in 1896. This suggests a major addition, almost certainly the turreted and gabled three-storey section at south. It was renamed the Highlands Hotel in 1897. The complex was purchased by the Great Northern Railway Company in 1899 and renamed the ‘Great Northern Hotel’. The railway company was also responsible for the nearby pavilion in the school grounds (HB16/12/035). A postcard (c1900) shows this building prior to the erection of the metal fire stair on the left elevation. The front porch is painted ‘GREAT NORTHERN HOTEL’ and the central window at ground floor on the right block seems to be a doorway. The bay windows to the right block have wrought iron hip finials. The Sisters of Mercy bought the site in 1922. It is unknown how the railings survived the WW2 scrap iron drive, although it is rumoured the nun’s buried the front gates to avoid their loss. This building was used as a set for the 1998 film “The Butcher Boy”. Primary sources 1. Valuation revision book (PRONI: VAL 12B/22/23C, p.208; /23E, p.210). 2. ‘Great Northern Hotel, Warrenpoint’, Reliable Series Postcard c1900. Secondary sources 1. ‘Industries of Ireland, part 1: Belfast and the towns of the north’ (Belfast, 1891). 2. Warrenpoint Historical Group magazine, vol.16, autumn 1990.

Criteria for Listing

Architectural Interest

A. Style B. Proportion C. Ornamentation D. Plan Form H+. Alterations enhancing the building I. Quality and survival of Interior J. Setting

Historic Interest

Y. Social, Cultural or Economic Importance X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Substantial late 19thC hotel complex, the most striking feature on Seaview. It remains substantially intact both inside and out. Its grounds are enclosed by railings on a dwarf wall and contain a small garden shelter (HB16/12/005B). Also of interest, to rear in now separate grounds on Princes Street, is the former hotel pavilion (HB16/12/035).

General Comments

Date of Survey

01 November 1999