Historic Building Details

HB Ref No:
HB26/38/004 B

Address :
Fernhill House Outbuildings 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:
Outbuildings

Former Use
Outbuildings

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 7576

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Owner Category

Exterior Description And Setting

Series of outbuildings forming courtyard complex and consisting of multi-bay two-storey outbuilding to west, three-bay single-storey outbuilding building to north with three-bay single-storey outbuilding adjoining to south, enclosed within boundary wall to south and east, built c. 1880 and now vacant. Located on an elevated position overlooking Fernhill House (HB26/38/004A) to south and Glencairn Park to east. Pitched replacement slate roof, overhanging eaves with exposed rafter ends, uPVC moulded guttering discharging to uPVC circular downpipe. Timber bargeboard. Monopitched slate roof to single-storey outbuildings. Square-headed openings throughout having brick surrounds and headers and painted stone sills, unless otherwise stated. Coursed rubble sandstone walls with red brick quoins. Series of segment-headed and square-headed openings to ground floor with red brick surrounds and headers. Front elevation faces east and has a pair of segment-headed openings on red brick pilaster with painted stone at plinth and at impost level. South elevation has door opening with moulded brick surround and header with opening to first floor having metal casement window. Coursed rubble boundary wall adjoining to east with rendered coping stone, semi-circular arch, red brick surround with stone at plinth and at impost level. Square-plan rock-faced piers with dressed margins to south-east on sandstone plinth with pyramidal coping. Coursed rubble stone walls to single-storey outbuilding within courtyard. Rendered and painted wall inset with painted brick dressings to single-storey outbuildings facing south and west. East elevation has coursed rubble boundary wall. North elevation has series of square-headed openings. West elevation not surveyed. Setting: Located on an elevated position overlooking Fernhill House (HB26/38/004A) which lies to the south and Glencairn Park to the east, the courtyard is surrounded by mature planting and vegetation, now overgrown to west and north. Materials: Roof: Replacement slate RWG: uPVC Walls : Coursed rubble stone with red brick dressings Windows : n/a

Architects

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. 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, better 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 outbuildings are marked for the first time on the 3rd edition 6-inch Ordnance Survey map. They are shown to the north of the house and represented as a main block of the outbuildings is shown running north-south; opposite it, to the east, is a shorter block, not quite half its length; these two blocks are joined at their north ends by another short block. The courtyard was, therefore, enclosed only two thirds of the way round. The Return of Out-Offices and Farm-Steadings of the 1901 census records that the outbuildings attached to this property comprised: stable, coach house, harness room, cow house, calf house, dairy, fowl house, boiling house, barn, shed and store – 11 in all. Samuel Cunningham's keen interest in horse racing meant that the stable yard was stocked with racehorses, the most notable being ‘Tipperary Tim’ which won the 1928 Aintree Grand National. Fernhill remained in the possession of the Cunninghams until the 1960s before being taken over by Belfast Corporation. Original chimneys indicated in first survey photograph no longer extant (NIEA). 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 Secondary sources 1. Belfast and the Province of Ulster in the 20th Century (Brighton, 1909) 2. Robert Scott, A Breath of Fresh Air: The Story of Belfast’s Parks (Belfast, 2000) 3. Dictionary of Irish Biography (9 vols, Cambridge, 2009) Online sources 1. 1901 census returns (www.census.nationalarchives.ie) 2. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00z0h5g —information by Eamonn Phoenix. Accessed December 1, 2011.

Criteria for Listing

Architectural Interest

A. Style B. Proportion C. Ornamentation H-. Alterations detracting from building J. Setting K. Group value

Historic Interest

X. Local Interest V. Authorship

Evaluation

An intact courtyard of architectural and historic interest due to its associations with Fernhill House (HB26/38/004A) which lies to the south of the complex. The 1901 census records that the outbuildings comprised of stable, coach house, harness room, cow house, calf house, dairy, fowl house, boiling house, barn, shed and store. Owned during the early 20th century by Samuel Cunningham, the prominent Belfast stockbroker, the stableyard was stocked with racehorses, the most notable being ‘Tipperary Tim’ which won the 1928 Aintree Grand National. Some of the architectural detailing has survived including the coursed rubble-stone walls, red brick dressings and stone piers which provide an interesting contrast with the Classical-Revival mansion adjacent. Retaining its original tree-lined avenue approach and elevated setting with extensive views over the parkland, the house and yard from an important group and contribute to the heritage of the area.

General Comments

Date of Survey

08 August 2014