Historic Building Details

HB Ref No:
HB26/38/004 A

Address :
Fernhill House (Former People's Museum) Glencairn Park Glencairn Road Belfast BT13 3PT

Townland:
Ballygomartin

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Survey 2:
B2

Date of Listing:
24/03/2016 00:00:00

Date of De-listing:

Current Use:
Gallery/ Museum

Former Use
House

Conservation Area:
No

Industrial Archaeology:
No

Vernacular:
No

Thatched:
No

Monument:
No

Derelict:
No

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OS Map No:
129-12

IG Ref:
J3044 7575

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Owner Category

Exterior Description And Setting

Detached three-bay two-storey rendered Classical-revival villa built in 1864 having two-bay two-storey wing extending to south-west c.1910, single-storey entrance porch to east and series of single-storey and two-storey extensions to north. Located on an elevated position to the east of Glencairn Park and approached from the south by tree-lined avenue leading from Glencairn Road. Hipped slate roof with clay ridge tiles, overhanging eaves on scrolled brackets on smooth rendered eaves course with ovolo moulding. Pair of smooth rendered chimneys with string course and moulded cornice with painted pots. uPVC ogee moulded guttering discharging to uPVC circular downpipes. Segment-headed windows throughout unless otherwise stated. Front elevation faces east and is symmetrical with a single-storey Greek Classical-style entrance portico. Paired rendered bands to north-east and south-east corners, rusticated ground floor with raised render band string course. Projecting stone plinth. Moulded surrounds to window openings with raised keystone with cornice to first floor openings; moulded painted sills. Flat roof to entrance porch having projecting cornice; raised parapet with balustrade and moulded cornice. Rusticated rendered walls with paired vertical rendered bands to corners of entrance porch. Square-headed doorway with moulded surround having projecting cornice on scrolled fluted brackets. Timber-panelled entrance door with fanlight over. Series of stone steps with raised stringers approaching entrance. South elevation has single-storey advanced bay with flat roof having projecting cornice and raised cornice piers. Extension to south-east has hipped pyramidal slate roof, rendered walls with single-storey canted bay having hipped roof. West elevation: Not surveyed. North elevation has window to ground floor and pair of windows to first floor with single-storey flat-roofed extension extending north. Setting: Located on an elevated position overlooking Glencairn Park, the building is approached by a series of rendered steps leading to entrance portico. A series of outbuildings (HB.26.38.004B) are located to the north and the complex is enclosed by a stone boundary wall to the west and north with metal fencing to the east and south. Materials: Roof: Slate RWG: uPVC Walls: Smooth render Windows: Original timber sliding sash (1/1)

Architects

Young, Robert Henry, T W

Historical Information

Mid nineteenth-century Ordnance Survey maps show the site of Fernhill to have been unoccupied by any building and to have been surrounded largely by open countryside. In the early 1860s a wealthy Belfast merchant, John Smith, built a house here. The Valuation Revision Book beginning in 1863 includes an entry for Fernhill, though not named as such, which was in the possession of Smith; the house and outbuildings were valued at £65. The name of the architect of Fernhill is not known. However, on 17 June 1864 there was a bye-law submission for a gate lodge at Fernhill by the architect, H. Young. It has not been possible to identify H. Young, but if ‘H.’ should really be ‘R.’ then it is possible that the prolific Belfast architect Robert Young was involved. This was of cruciform plan with a part-gabled part hipped roof, and a porch to the western side. The gate lodge was entered in the Valuation Revision Book in 1870, though there was no change to the overall valuation of the buildings. The lodge was demolished post-1964. Fernhill appears in the Belfast and Province of Ulster Directory of 1865 as ‘Fernhill, Ballygomartin’, the residence of John Smith whose business was listed as J. & T. Smith, butter and general merchants, Tomb Street. Smith died in on 16 November 1874 at the age of 71. He was buried in Belfast City Cemetery, his address in the burial register given as ‘Fernhill, Forth River’. The house remained in the Smith family’s possession until 1898 when it was acquired by Samuel Cunningham, a wealthy stockbroker, whose family occupied a prominent position in Belfast’s commercial life. He was the youngest of three sons of Josias Cunningham (d. 1895) who had acquired the neighbouring Glencairn estate in 1855. The house appears on the Ordnance Survey map of 1901 where it is named ‘Fernhill’ and represented as a roughly square block with no apparent additions or extensions. The House and Building return of the 1901 census records that there were 7 windows in the front of the house and that 14 rooms were in occupation. The house was described in 1909 as ‘occupying a commending site 300 feet above the level of the sea, and affording splendid views of the Mourne Mountains to the south and the coast of Scotland to the north-east’. A photograph of the house from this time shows a series of central chimney stacks that are no longer visible. In 1910, the Irish Builder reported that Thomas William Henry had designed additions at Fernhill for the Cunninghams, the contractor being H. Laverty and Sons. This was a library to the rear on the south side of the house. The Cunninghams were leading figures in Unionist politics during the third Home Rule crisis and in 1914 the original Ulster Volunteer Force drilled in the grounds of Fernhill and Glencairn. Fernhill remained in the possession of the Cunninghams until the 1960s before being taken over by Belfast Corporation. From 1975 to 1990 it housed the city’s Parks Department. In 1996 it opened as a community museum. The museum closed c.2008 and the building is currently vacant. References Primary sources 1. PRONI, VAL/12/B/5/3A, 1863-80 2. PRONI, VAL/12/B/5/3B, 1881-89 3. PRONI, VAL/12/B/5/3C, 1890-97 4. PRONI, VAL/12/B/43/M/1, 1897-1906 5. PRONI, VAL/12/B/43/M/3, 1906-15 6. PRONI, VAL/12/B/43/M/7, 1916-1930 7. PRONI, Ordnance Survey 6-inch map, 1901 – OS/6/1/60/3 8. PRONI, Ordnance Survey 6-inch map, 1920 – OS/6/1/60/5 9. Belfast and Province of Ulster Directory, 1865 onwards 10. First Survey Record – HB26/38/004 Secondary sources 1. Belfast and the Province of Ulster in the 20th Century (Brighton, 1909) 2. J. A. K. Dean, The Gate Lodges of Ulster: a Gazetteer (Belfast, 1994) 3. Robert Scott, A Breath of Fresh Air: The Story of Belfast’s Parks (Belfast, 2000) 4. Dictionary of Irish Biography (9 vols, Cambridge, 2009) Online sources 1. Dictionary of Irish Architects: www.dia.ie (which
references Irish Builder, 1910, p. 444) 2. 1901 and 1911 census returns (www.census.nationalarchives.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 J. Setting K. Group value

Historic Interest

R. Age S. Authenticity T. Historic Importance X. Local Interest V. Authorship

Evaluation

A well-proportioned building of considerable architectural and historical significance given its associations with the nineteenth century Belfast merchants John Smith and Samuel Cunningham, a wealthy stockbroker, Chairman of the Northern Whig and a leading member of the Ulster Unionist Council and the Ulster Provisional Government from 1911. Designed in a Classical-style, possibly with connections to the architect Robert Young, the building retains many original external features including the hipped roof, scrolled brackets to eaves and rusticated ground floor, all of which enhance the appearance of the building. The survival of much of the internal decoration such as ornate cornices, ceiling roses and shutters also enhance the historic and architectural value of this building. In more recent times, Fernhill was the location of the announcement of the Loyalist ceasefire in 1994 and in 1996 it opened as a community museum. With an impressive range of outbuildings (HB26.38.004B), with which it has group, value and retaining its original tree-lined avenue approach and elevated setting with extensive views over the parkland, the house and yard form an important group.

General Comments

Date of Survey

15 August 2014