Historic Building Details

HB Ref No:
HB23/18/061

Address :
Temora 2 Circular Road West Holywood Co Down BT18 0AT

Townland:
Ballycultra

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Survey 2:
B1

Date of Listing:
01/12/2014 00:00:00

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:
114/16

IG Ref:
J4157 8038

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Owner Category

Private

Exterior Description And Setting

A substantial detached two-storey-with-attic multi-bay house built c.1904 in loose Arts and Crafts style. Complex plan, generally square with a number of full-height gabled projections; large modern L-shaped single-storey extension incorporating a modern garage (2005) abutting to south. The right section of the southwest elevation has also been altered and extended to include a large modern kitchen. Pitched natural slate roof having terracotta ridge tiles and fluted brick chimneystacks in the typical Arts and Crafts style, with multiple clay pots. Decorative bargeboards to gables; some with Tudor-style detailing. Cast-iron ogee rainwater goods on projecting eaves. Walling is mainly Flemish bonded red-brick to ground floor and painted smooth render to first floor. Windows are a variety of metal frames (some replacements), generally camber-headed to ground floor, some with leaded top-lights; all with projecting sandstone sills; canted bays with decorative leaded and stained glass to top sections under dentilled ovolo moulded cornice. The principal (entrance) elevation faces northeast; at left is a two storey gabled projecting bay with two windows to each floor; to centre is a two-storey + attic bay all in redbrick with shouldered gable breaking wrap-around eaves of adjacent two-storey sections; it has paired windows to attic, camber-headed windows to ground and first floor, and a diminutive window at first floor left; the right cheek is abutted by a two storey flat-roofed brick addition with a variety of windows. To right, set further back, is the northwest end, which has no openings. There is a single-storey canted porch addition set at 45° within the re-entrant angle of the left and centre sections; it has a four-panelled timber door in sandstone surround with decorative Deco style keyblock arrangement over, and a narrow leaded window to each cheek. The main elevation is extended to southeast by the single storey extension (sympathetic but of no interest). The southeast elevation has been altered and is fully abutted by the modern extension. The southwest (garden) elevation has three ridge levels: left bay is two-storey and has a window to each floor set at right (semi-canted with leaded top lights to ground floor); to its right, a narrow two-storey + attic bay with decorative timber framing to apex and a window to each floor; the right bay projects beneath deep overhanging eaves and has a bowed bay to ground floor and horizontal window at eaves level to first floor. Extension housing modern kitchen to right. The northwest elevation is a single-bay deep and is rendered to upper floors; fully glazed canted bay on plinth wall to ground floor; stylized Venetian window to first floor; tripartite mullioned window with corbelled sill to attic; decorative half-timbered apex. Setting Set in substantial mature grounds in a quiet suburban street defined by large residences, north of the A2 Bangor to Belfast Road. Large lawned and shrub bed garden to front and rear. Tarmacadam entrance from road with modern red-brick gate piers having sandstone pointed caps. To northeast of the site is a single-storey dwelling; occupying land previously belonging to number 2 and accessed via a shared driveway; boundary fence to east. Entire site is enclosed by mature trees with hedgerow to main entrance. Roof: Natural slate Walling: red brick/render Windows: metal RWG: Cast-iron

Architects

Not Known

Historical Information

Ballycultra began to be developed more intensively during the second half of the nineteenth century and the Griffith’s Valuation map of c1858 shows that the area, formerly the preserve of grand houses in extensive grounds, has been divided into smaller, more saleable plots. The Circular Road is drawn onto this map and by the third edition of 1900-02 several substantial villas, many of which will have been intended for Belfast’s growing mercantile class, have appeared around its circumference. The house is first shown on the 1900-02 edition and enters valuation records in 1902. The house is occupied by James McErvel, who appears to have been the builder, on a plot of land leased from R J Kennedy, local landowner. The architect is unknown but the house is built in an Arts and Crafts idiom that was extremely popular in the Belfast hinterland at this date, its exponents demonstrating varying levels of skill and artistry. The house and outbuildings are valued at £68.5s. James McErvel appears in the 1911 census as a ‘seed and implement merchant’, widowed and living with his four adult children, his widowed mother-in-law and his sister-in-law. The family have a single domestic servant, a cook. Both McErvel’s sons were employed as electrical engineers with premises in Wellington Place, Belfast. (Belfast and Ulster Directory) On the fourth edition OS map of 1919-31, the house is captioned ‘Temora’. James McErvel (1844-1928) was born in Gartree where his father had an extensive farm adjoining Langford Lodge, the residence of the Pakenham family. In the late 1860s he formed, with his brother, a business partnership known as T & J McErvel. The company built premises in Victoria Square in 1893, designed by the architect, W J Gilliland. (www.dia.ie) A 1911 obituary of James’ brother, Thomas McErvel notes that, “Both brothers possessed a keen business insight, allied with qualities of tact, energy and the strictest integrity, and fully conversant as they were with the wants of the farmers, they rapidly built up an extensive connection which developed with the progress of time until the firm had reached the successful and influential position it enjoys today. Messrs McErvel hold the sole agency of many of the leading makers of agricultural and horticultural implements, the large display of which, of the most up-to-date kind, constitute every year a prominent feature of the machinery section of the Royal Ulster Agricultural Society and other Irish shows…An important branch of the trade is devoted to seeds of the best quality and profitable to farmers; the excellence of those dealt in by Messrs McErvel is indicated by the frequency with which they take first prize at the various shows. Their meals and feeding stuffs, which they grind themselves, have also a high and far-reaching reputation”. (Obituary of Thomas McErvel) James McErvel lived at ‘Temora’ until his death in 1928 and the house remains in use as a domestic dwelling. References: Primary Sources 1. PRONI OS/6/3/1/3 – Third Edition OS Map 1900-02 2. PRONI OS/6/3/1/4 – Fourth Edition OS Map 1919-31 3. PRONI OS/6/3/1/5 – Fifth Edition OS Map 1938-41 4. PRONI VAL/12/B/17/11A-D – Annual Revisions (1888-1930) 5. Belfast and Ulster Directory, 1910 6. Obituary of Thomas McErvel, 6th September, 1911 (available at www.lennonwylie.co.uk) Secondary Sources 1. www.dia.ie

Criteria for Listing

Architectural Interest

A. Style B. Proportion C. Ornamentation D. Plan Form H-. Alterations detracting from building I. Quality and survival of Interior

Historic Interest

X. Local Interest

Evaluation

A substantial two-storey-with-attic three-bay detached gabled house loosely in the Arts and Crafts style, built c.1904. The house retains architectural detailing typical of the Arts and Crafts style, including irregular gables, leaded metal-framed windows and feature brick chimneystacks and much original fabric uncompromised by more recent changes. It is an example of the Arts and Crafts style which was popular in the district in the early years of the twentieth century and is one of several noteworthy houses which characterize the Circular Road area and contribute to its overall character. It represent the ongoing development of the area in the latter years of expansion.

General Comments

Date of Survey

16 November 2010