Historic Building Details

HB Ref No:
HB19/10/005

Address :
East Gate Lodge Lissue 29 Ballinderry Road Lisburn Co Antrim BT28 2SL

Townland:
Teraghafeeva or Lissue

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Survey 2:
Record Only

Date of Listing:

Date of De-listing:

Current Use:
Gates/ Screens/ Lodges

Former Use
Gates/ Screens/ Lodges

Conservation Area:
No

Industrial Archaeology:
No

Vernacular:
No

Thatched:
No

Monument:
No

Derelict:
Partially

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OS Map No:
165/5 SW

IG Ref:
J2337 6456

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Owner Category

Public Body

Exterior Description And Setting

A single storey three-bay stuccoed building with hipped roof, laid out on an L-shaped plan, with a small walled yard to the rear. Main entrance faces south-east. South-east elevation symmetrical with a central entrance flanked by one window each side: hipped roof of Bangor blue slates in regular courses; dark toned ridge tiles; overhanging eaves with painted flat soffit on paired projecting shaped brackets; pvc gutter; central chimney, smooth rendered, with moulded cornice; two modern red pots. Walling looks like stucco render, painted; with projecting plinth, projecting frieze, and corner pilasters to extremities; moulded caps to pilasters. Central door and flanking windows are set in projecting segmental arched mouldings all resting on the plinth: original segmental-arched timber panelled door in two leafs, set in a segmental-arched recess; original sandstone doorstep. Windows are modern rectangular timber fixed lights with top-hung vents, but now boarded up, each set in a segmental-arched opening with plain reveals, each with a projecting cill supported on a pair of moulded corbels with a raised and fielded panel below. South-west elevation: roof, guttering, and walling material all as previous to entrance front; one square section pvc downpipe to right-hand end. Symmetrical two-bay elevation with one window to each side of a central pilaster. Walling to right of central pilaster is patchy, with a cracked surface to paintwork, while walling to left of central pilaster is smooth rendered, lined and blocked. Rear elevation comprises rear wall of main front block, to the left, with a rear return projecting to the right, to the left of which a yard wall sits forward. Roofing, guttering, and walling all as previous except only the corner pilaster has a plinth, and eaves soffit is tongued and grooved sheeted; one square section pvc downpipe. Walling is lined and blocked to end of rear return and south-west face of yard wall. Rear face of yard wall is smooth rendered: contains a rectangular doorway, later closed with concrete blockwork. North-east elevation comprises end elevation of original block, one bay wide, with a blind yard wall set back slightly to the right-hand side. Original block has roofing, guttering and walling all as previous to entrance front, except eaves soffit is tongued and grooved sheeted. One window centrally placed between corner pilasters. Blind wall to right is plain, of smooth cement render, painted, with overhanging concrete coping. SETTING: The building stands within the grounds of Lissue House just inside the main entrance gateway, facing onto the main driveway but set back slightly from it. It sits at an angle to the main road, with its north-west corner sitting close to the boundary. Grassed areas to each side and rear, with a tarmac pathway along the south side. Main entrance gateway comprises modern smooth cement rendered piers with modern galvanised steel gates and railings, all set back from the main road with a tarmac area in front, leading into the tarmac drive. Boundary to north formed by old iron railings of plain design, damaged, with a hedge, continued by a barbed wire fence. To the west stands a modern house beyond a barbed wire fence. Driveway bounded to east side by mature hedge and trees.

Architects

Jackson, Thomas

Historical Information

Built as a gate lodge to Lissue House, to the designs of Thomas Jackson, architect of Belfast, as part of his work at Lissue for James N. Richardson; precise date not known, but may probably be dated c 1850 due to stylistic reasons. It appears for the first time on the OS map of 1857, along with a corresponding gate lodge to the south-west of Lissue House; in later OS maps they were marked as ‘East Lodge’ and ‘West Lodge’ respectively. Lissue House was originally built c 1807, or shortly afterwards, for Robert Garrett; enlarged by Thomas Jackson c 1850 for James N. Richardson, whose descendants lived on at Lissue until well into the 20th century; in 1941 offered by the then owner, Colonel Lindsay to the Belfast Hospital for Sick Children as a refuge from the 2nd World War air raids of that year; and in 1947 the house and demesne were given by Colonel Lindsay to the hospital as an outright gift; main house used by the hospital as a convalescent home for children until it closed in 1988. The main house appears to have been very much altered in the 20th century and is no longer recognisably a work of Jackson (notwithstanding
references which give it as his work), but the lodges retain exterior elevations which are recognisably works of Jackson. In two changes of ownership, in 1995 and 1998, the East Lodge has remained in association with the main house, although vacant; the West Lodge is in separate ownership, now cut off from the demesne. References – Primary Sources 1. OS Map 1857, Co Antrim 68 (marked as ‘Gate Lodge’). 2. OS Map 1858, Co Antrim 67. 3. OS Map 1933, Co Antrim 67. 4. OS Map 1939, Co Antrim 68 (marked as ‘East Lodge’). 5. Building News, 15 August 1890, p 234 (lists Lissue, Lisburn, for James Richardson, as one of T. Jackson’s works). Secondary Sources 1. H. Dixon, ‘Honouring Thomas Jackson, 1807-1890 (Architect)’, Belfast Natural History and Philosophical Society Proceedings and Reports, Second Series, Vol 9 (Belfast, 1978), p 29. 2. J.A.K. Dean, The Gate Lodges of Ulster (Belfast, 1994), pp 20-21. 3. C.E.B. Brett, Buildings of County Antrim (Belfast, 1996), p 97 (reference to Lissue House but not to the gate lodge).

Criteria for Listing

Architectural Interest

Not listed

Historic Interest

Not listed

Evaluation

This is a building of modest architectural pretension designed by a prominent Irish architect, Thomas Jackson, but it has not only lost some original exterior features, and has no original interior features of interest, but its original setting has now been spoiled by the loss of the original gate piers and gates to the demesne. The demesne to which it belongs has also been diminished by the separation from it of the corresponding lodge to the west. Its value as an integral part of a country house estate has been diminished, while its interest as an independent work of historic architecture is also limited.

General Comments

Date of Survey

15 November 2003