Historic Building Details

HB Ref No:
HB23/14/016

Address :
Glenbank House 118 Princetown Road Bangor County Down BT20 3TG

Townland:
Corporation

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Survey 2:
Record Only

Date of Listing:

Date of De-listing:

Current Use:
House

Former Use
House

Conservation Area:
No

Industrial Archaeology:
No

Vernacular:
No

Thatched:
No

Monument:
No

Derelict:
No

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OS Map No:
115/12

IG Ref:
J4977 8242

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Owner Category

Private

Exterior Description And Setting

A large two-storey multi-bay Victorian house built c.1890 to designs by Young & Mackenzie and located in the Bangor West area adjacent to listed building Seacourt (HB23/14/005A) with views overlooking Belfast Lough towards Bangor Esplanade. Principally a rectangular plan form with two large wings projecting towards the rear, with further additions and abutments. Natural slate pitched and hipped roof with leaded ridge and hips; overhanging timber moulded eaves with panelled soffits. Gable ends have decorative fretted barge boards with sexfoil and pentafoil detailing; projecting purlins and brackets. Cast-iron ogee moulded gutters with circular down pipes. Red brick chimneystacks stretcher-bonded with cement rendered base and surmounted by reconstituted stone cornice with circular terracotta pots. Red brick walling, Flemish Bond, with cement panelled long-and-short quoins; cement plinth; reconstituted moulded cill and string course. 1/1 timber sliding sash windows with horns; reconstituted stone moulded surrounds with central key-block; continuous cill course to ground floor with console brackets to first floor cills. Palladian style front door embraced by a single-storey portico, partially in antis. Timber replacement door with arched fixed light over; flanked by a pair of arched side lights; pilaster surrounds rising to dentiled cornice, moulded head with corbelled key-stone. Sandstone Ionic columns flanking the steps leading into portico. The principal elevation faces north-east and is symmetrically arranged; comprising a central bay surmounted by a gablet; flanked by two slightly projected gabled bays. The central bay has paired ground floor windows centrally located with matching diminished windows over. Side bays comprise two-storey canted bays; smooth cement rendered with matching surround details rising to a cornice corbel course with hipped roof over, all beneath the gable barge boards. The south-east elevation is two-storey two-bay asymmetrically arranged and is entirely abutted at ground floor by a flat roofed single-storey abutment having balustraded parapet running the full width of the facade. At first floor, the left bay has a slightly projecting gable with paired arched windows; single square-headed window to right. Abutment comprises former principal entrance behind portico to the left; single window to right with three closely positioned windows to the curved easternmost corner; southwest face comprises arched window to left with square-headed opening to portico to right. The rear (south-west) elevation is abutted by two returns and is partially enclosed by a walled yard with outbuildings (partially incorporated into the house). The exposed central section has a casement window to ground floor with arched window over. The right return has a hipped south-west face and is abutted to left by single storey lean-to outbuilding and has two windows to right surmounted by a window to right and a broad arched window to far left; north west face comprises door to right with window to left on each floor. The left gabled return is abutted to southwest by a two-storey extension (added c.1920); the exposed section has a window on the right to each floor; projecting hipped south-east face comprises three windows on each floor. The extension is detailed as the main block with moulded string between floors; gabled south-west face has two windows on each floor; south-east face has two windows to first floor, ground floor obscured; north-west face is abutted entirely by a further extension (added c.1920). The north-west elevation is asymmetrical and comprises two-storey segmental bow-bay (lit by three windows at each floor) located on the left; three further ground and first floor non-uniformly arranged windows to right. Modern single-storey hipped porch located at the re-entrant of the projecting extension; modern door and surround to north-west face, single window to north-east. Two-storey extension to far right has a notable rounded ground floor corner on right with first floor supported on a bracket at 45 degrees and comprises two windows to first floor and one to ground floor on north-west face; window on right at ground floor and casement window at left at first floor on north-east face; south-west face has two windows on each floor. Setting Much of the land to the front of the house has been developed. To the rear of the site is a tennis court and small pavilion installed c.1930. To the north-west is a row of 6 garages five of which have retained original timber doors. Further to the rear of the site adjacent to the present entrance, is located a former chauffeurs house, now under separate ownership, and a formal arched entrance, no longer in use, dated 1890. The current entrance gates are robust stucco moulded piers surmounted with finials. Small patio adjacent to front lawn which slopes down towards a bungalow erected c.1990 at the front of the site. Large rendered brick wall to the SE of the site, adjacent to Marine Gardens. General
setting is large detached and semi-detached houses erected during a period of much development of Bangor West from c.1880 and thereafter. Roofing: Natural slate Walling: Brick Windows: Timber RWG: Cast-iron

Architects

Young & Mackenzie

Historical Information

Glenbank’ is first shown, captioned, on the third edition OS map of 1901. This area of Bangor, formerly owned by Viscount Bangor, began to be developed in the latter half of the nineteenth century as Bangor became a fashionable resort and commuter town. The promontory, at Wilson’s Point, was the chosen site for the two most substantial mansions of the area, ‘Seacourt’ (HB23/14/005A) and ‘Glenbank’, both built by the Connor family. The house was built to designs by Young & Mackenzie and first enters valuation records in 1890 and is valued in 1891 at £127. The occupier is ‘Miss Connor’, Emily Jane Connor, an unmarried daughter of Foster Connor. Foster Connor, linen manufacturer, was the builder of the neighbouring mansion ‘Seacourt’ but he had died in 1881 leaving Seacourt to his son Charles C Connor, who was living in the house at the time that ‘Glenbank’ was built next door. (Annual Revisions) The records of Young & Mackenzie contain a bill of quantities relating to the construction of the house in 1890, and an archway in the grounds of the house bears the date 1890. (Bill of Quantities) Emily Connor, known as ‘Bangor’s Lady Bountiful’ was active in her local community and is noted to have opened Bangor Golf Club in 1904 and laid the foundation stone of Bangor Hospital in 1909, where a wing was named after her. (Haines, p.139; Wilson, p.60) By 1901 the house had been taken over by William FCS Corry, aerated water manufacturer, Emily Jane Connor having moved to Raglan Road (HB23/14/15A). An 1880 street directory notes that the company had been established in 1850 and that their gold-medal rated beverages were produced ‘exclusively from the Limpid Waters of C & Co’s celebrated Cromac Spring…Corry & Co are the original Manufacturers for Exportation of the world renowned Belfast Ginger Ale”. (Belfast and Ulster Street Directory) The 1901 census shows that William Corry lived at the house with his wife, four daughters and a son who was also in the aerated water business. Two servants lived at the house, a cook and a Liverpudlian housemaid. Corry died in 1906, but his family continued to live at Glenbank for some years, the 1911 census listing three of his daughters as resident together with a cook and a parlour maid. (Will of William Corry; 1911 census) By 1913 the house had become the property of Frederick George Maguire, the son-in-law of Samuel Davidson of the Sirocco Works, who was resident at Seacourt at the time. (Annual Revisions) Maguire was a Director at the Sirocco Works and served with Davidson’s son in the Royal Irish Rifles Ulster Division, having earlier served with him in the North Down regiment of the UVF (Haines, p.86). Maguire immediately made improvements to Glenbank, including the addition of conservatories, valued in 1913 and a signalling station valued in 1914, both now gone, which together raised the valuation to £160. It appears that it was Maguire who added the single storey extension including a new entrance to the eastern facade of the house, which is first shown on the fourth edition of 1919-26. On his return from military service, Maguire continued to make additions and improvements and the valuation is raised further in 1921, 1926 and 1928, to £185. The valuer notes that a chauffeur’s cottage and a motor house have been added by 1928 and it seems that Maguire may also have added the tennis courts and associated pavilion which are first shown on the fifth edition of 1939. Maguire died at Glenbank on 31 July 1933. (http://pigott-gorrie.blogspot.com) The building has remained in use as domestic accommodation and now comprises six separate apartments. References: Primary Sources 1. PRONI OS/6/3/2/3 – Third Edition OS Map 1901 2. PRONI OS/6/3/2/4 – Fourth Edition OS Map 1919-26 3. PRONI OS/6/3/2/5 – Fifth Edition OS Map 1939 4. PRONI VAL/12/B/23/7A-K – Annual Revisions (1866-99) 5. PRONI VAL/12/B/23/9A-S – Annual Revisions (1900-1930) 6. PRONI D2194/19/4 – Bill of quantities relating to construction of house at Glenbank 1890 7. Belfast and Ulster Street Directory, 1880 8. Will of William Corry, died 18/11/1906 9. 1901 census online 10. 1911 census online Secondary Sources 1. Haines, K “North Down Memories, Photographs 1860s-1960s” Belfast: Blackstaff Press, 2000 2. http://pigott-gorrie.blogspot.com 3. Wilson, I “Bangor, Historic Photographs of the County Down town” Belfast: Friar’s Bush Press, 1992

Criteria for Listing

Architectural Interest

Not listed

Historic Interest

Not listed

Evaluation

A large two-storey multi-bay Victorian house built c.1890 to designs by Young & Mackenzie and located in the Bangor West area adjacent to listed building Seacourt (HB23/14/005A) with views overlooking Belfast Lough towards Bangor Esplanade. The building displays many external characteristics typical of the style and proportions of a building of this type. Large grounds although much of the front has been relinquished for modern development. Internally sub-divided into six apartments resulting in alteration of the internal layout and loss of some detailing although the surviving internal fabric is of very high quality, displaying great craftmanship. Of local and historical interest owning to its connection to adjacent listed structure Seacourt HB23/14/005A. Good setting in a prominent location adjacent to Wilsons Point, with panoramic views to Bangor.

General Comments

Within Bangor West Area of Townscape Character

Date of Survey

05 November 2010