Historic Building Details

HB Ref No:
HB26/16/002 B

Address :
Malone Golf Club former Stables and Outbuildings 240 Upper Malone Road Belfast Co. Antrim BT17 9LB

Townland:
Malone Upper

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Survey 2:
Record Only

Date of Listing:

Date of De-listing:

Current Use:
Recreational Club

Former Use
House

Conservation Area:
No

Industrial Archaeology:
Yes

Vernacular:
No

Thatched:
No

Monument:
Yes

Derelict:
No

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OS Map No:
146/16SE

IG Ref:
J3127 6740

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Owner Category

Exterior Description And Setting

Courtyard complex of two-storey stable buildings built c.1835, located within the grounds of Malone Golf Club on the east side of the Upper Malone Road, directly east of the Club House (formerly Ballydrain House; HB26/16/002A). Square on plan, arranged around a central courtyard; late twentieth-century abutments to north and east. Pitched and hipped natural slate roof, hog-back ridge tiles. Single reconstructed grey brick chimneystack located to south-west corner. Replacement uPVC gutters and downpipes mounted on projecting redbrick eaves course. Walling is rubblestone basalt with red brick quoins. Flat-roofed late-twentieth-century infill block in stretcher-bonded red brick to north-east; first floor south-west corner replaced in grey engineering brick. Generally segmental-headed window openings, red brick block and start surrounds, projecting painted masonry sills. Replacement painted timber top-hung casement windows; some replacement modern metal-framed casements; small number of louvered openings. Generally segmental-headed door openings, red brick block and start surrounds; two segmental-headed carriage arches to south-east and north-east corners, having replacement double-leaf braced planked timber doors. External: Main external elevation faces south, series of high-level openings to ground floor, with variety of window types including one original multi-pane timber window; openings at each floor to either end, inappropriately replaced; coach arch to right side. East elevation has replacement door opening to ground floor, and single window opening to first floor. Abutted at extreme right by the large metal shed. North elevation has door and window openings to west, closed with modern blockwork; right side limewashed. West elevation abutted by taller range which projects to south-west. Internal: Openings are irregularly arranged throughout. Several doors to the courtyard are widened; a number of first floor window openings are infilled with red brick. North-east corner is partially spanned by a brick wall with rectangular opening, to create a covered store. Arcaded block located to north, rubble stone basalt walling with red brick piers and basket-handled arches, openings now closed with modern blockwork. Modern concrete slabs to surface of yard. Setting: Located within the extensive grounds of Malone Golf Club on the east side of the Upper Malone Road, formerly Ballydrain demesne. Entrance from the Upper Malone Road is flanked by replacement quarry-faced basalt walls with rubblestone basalt copings and gate piers, circular in plan. Two original ashlar sandstone gate piers, retained east of modern entrance piers. The building is accessed via a long, tree-lined tarmac driveway. The site slopes gently to the west up to the main club house (HB26/16/002A), now joined to the stable block via a series of modern extensions. Former walled garden and gardener's cottage (HB26/16/002C) located to south. Materials: Roof; slate RWG; uPVC Walls; quarry-faced basalt, brick dressings Windows; varied replacement

Architects

Blore, Edward

Historical Information

Replacing an earlier house, the current Ballydrain House was built c.1835 to the designs of Edward Blore, antiquarian and architect best known for his work on Buckingham Palace, following the dismissal of John Nash, and Lambeth Palace. He completed a limited amount of work in Ulster during the 1830s, including Crom Castle and Boathouse, in County Fermanagh. The first edition OS map shows that the original house was located south west of the current building. The house and lands, owned by farmers and linen merchants, the Stewart family, were purchased c.1835 by Hugh Montgomery, director of the Northern Bank and son of one of the bank's founders. Montgomery demolished the old house and employed Blore to design and build a new one, which was completed around 1843. The house was extensively remodelled in the 1880s to the designs of Thomas Drew and W.H.Lynn. Isabella Montgomery, the last of the Montgomery family to live in the house, died in 1917 passing the house to Hugh Montgomery, the nephew of her late husband Thomas. Hugh sold the house for £18,000 and it remained in private ownership (albeit briefly occupied by American and British forces from 1943 to 1945) until 1961 when it was bought by Malone Golf Club for the price of £90,000. Established in 1895, Malone Golf Club was originally located in Stranmillis. The club then moved to the Harberton estate c.1915, possibly the current location of Balmoral Golf Club. After a fire in the clubhouse in the late 1950s the decision was made to move to the Ballydrain estate. The second edition OS map shows a complex of stables and outbuildings to the east arranged around a courtyard, with an L-shaped block located to the north. According to Hugh Crawford’s history of Ballydrain House, the complex contained a large coach house and harness room comprised of the four blocks framing the central courtyard, along with several horse stalls and loose boxes located in the L-shaped block to the north. Crawford also mentions that a farmyard was located further to the east, of which no trace remains. The stable yard and outbuildings have developed in an undocumented and largely ad-hoc fashion over the years, with widespread evidence of both historic and modern alterations. The stable yard is now connected to the main house to the west by a series of ad hoc modern extensions. Primary Sources 1. PRONI OS/6/1/64/1 First Edition OS map (1832) 2. PRONI OS/6/1/64/2 Second Edition OS map (1859) 3. PRONI VAL/12/B/8/15E General Valuation of Ireland - General Revisions (1892-1897) 4. PRONI VAL/12/B/8/15F General Valuation of Ireland - General Revisions (1898-1908) 5. PRONI VAL/12/B/8/15H General Valuation of Ireland - General Revisions (1917-1928) 6. PRONI VAL/12/B/8/15J General Valuation of Ireland - General Revisions (1928-1930) 7. PRONI D2460/19 History of Ballydrain by Hugh Crawford, 1976 8. PRONI D1954/6/52 Map of Ballydrain, c.1843 Online sources 1. DIA (http://www.dia.ie/architects/view/516/BLORE-EDWARD%23) 2. DIA (http://www.dia.ie/architects/view/1650/DREW-THOMAS%28SIR%29) 3. DIA (http://www.dia.ie/architects/view/3282/LYNN-williamhenry) 4. Archiseek (http://archiseek.com/2013/1838-ballydrain-co-antrim/)

Criteria for Listing

Architectural Interest

Not listed

Historic Interest

Not listed

Evaluation

A courtyard complex of coach and stable buildings, built c.1835 as part of the redevelopment of Ballydrain House (HB26/28/002A), which aslo includes a stable yard and the gardener’s cottage and walled garden to the south (HB26/16/002C). The overall form of the complex remains intact, now serving as the Club facilities of Malone Golf Club. Although a relatively functional example of its type, it is well-constructed in coursed basalt with brick dressings. The complex survives on the fringes of the city, representative of a concentrated period of development of grand houses and demesne lands within Lagan Valley in the late-eighteenth and early-nineteenth centuries. Notwithstanding the historic links of the demesne to the Stewart family, a number of incremental and inappropriate alterations and additions to the outbuildings and stables have resulted in substantial loss of original fabric and character - as a result, the buildings are of insufficient architectural and historic interest to meet the crieria for listing.

General Comments

Date of Survey

21 February 2017