Historic Building Details

HB Ref No:
HB19/16/008

Address :
Wallace Memorial Castle Gardens Castle Street Lisburn Co. Antrim

Townland:
Lisnagarvy

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Survey 2:
B1

Date of Listing:
08/10/1981 00:00:00

Date of De-listing:

Current Use:
Memorial

Former Use
Memorial

Conservation Area:
Yes

Industrial Archaeology:
No

Vernacular:
No

Thatched:
No

Monument:
No

Derelict:
No

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OS Map No:
165/06

IG Ref:
J2702 6434

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Owner Category

Local Govt

Exterior Description And Setting

Free-standing Gothic stone monument, dated 1892, located at the southern end of Castle Gardens overlooking the Castle garden terraces and the river Lagan. Erecred by Robinson & Son of Belfast. Restored c.2007. Tall square-plan granite and sandstone memorial comprising three octagonal-plan rock-faced granite steps supporting a square granite plinth base with a granite shaped bollard to each corner; tall sandstone ashlar core with decoratively carved trefoil-headed carvings forming a panel to each side, flanked by polished pink granite colonettes. Each side is flanked by taller polished black granite colonettes supporting a full canopy with pinnacles to the corners flanking gablets to each side. The four sided canopy complete with crockets tapers to a full fleur-de-lis finial. To the north panel is a polished granite plaque inscribed: “To perpetuate the memory of one whose delight it was to do good, and in grateful recollection of his generous interest in the prosperity of the town, of which it possesses so many proofs. This monument is erected to Sir Richard Wallace, Bart., K.C.B., some time M.P. for the borough of Lisburn, by the inhabitants of the town and neighbourhood. Obit. July XX., MDCCCXC.” Above the plaque is a bronze relief portrait of Richard Wallace.

Architects

R Robinson and Sons

Historical Information

The ‘Wallace Monument’ is first shown on the 1900-02 town plan of Lisburn. The Irish Builder of May 15th 1892 carries a note about the newly-placed memorial to Sir Richard Wallace in Castle Gardens; “The memorial in the Castle Gardens, Lisburn to perpetuate the memory of the late lamented Sir Richard Wallace Bart, K.C.B. is now receiving the finishing touches from Messrs Robinson and Son, Belfast. It is a very graceful structure, rising to a height of 40 ft., and is a conspicuous object from Castle street, as well as from the County Down side of the town. The following is the inscription on side of memorial which faces Castle street:- “To perpetuate the memory of one whose delight it was to do good, and in grateful recollection of his generous interest in the prosperity of the town, of which it possesses so many proofs. This monument is erected to Sir Richard Wallace, Bart., K.C.B., some time M.P. for the borough of Lisburn, by the inhabitants of the town and neighbourhood. Obit. July XX., MDCCCXC.” (Burns, www.oxforddnb.com) Sir Richard Wallace is reputed to have been the illegitimate son of the fourth Marquess of Hertford and Eliza Agnes Wallace, daughter of Sir Thomas Dunlop Wallace of Ayrshire. However, Lord Hertford never acknowledged his paternity and Wallace himself claimed that he did not know who his father was. His mother, who was estranged from her husband, Samuel Bickley when she gave birth to Wallace, but later returned to live with Bickley, took Wallace to Paris when he was a young child and left him with his father and grandmother. Wallace lived in Paris from 1825 until the early 1870s when he began to divide his time between Paris and England. (Burns, www.oxforddnb.com) Lord Hertford, an avid art collector, employed Wallace as his secretary and saleroom agent, and when Hertford died in 1870, Wallace became the heir to his father’s art collections and to his unentailed properties in London, Paris and Ireland, Hertford’s title passing to a legitimate heir. Newly rich, he endeared himself to the people of Paris by remaining in the city during the Prussian siege and giving £12,000 towards the cost of a field ambulance and subscribing £4,000 towards victims of the shelling. When peace returned, Wallace was rewarded for his philanthropy by a baronetcy from Queen Victoria and the Legion d’honneur. He presented 50 drinking fountains to the city, many of which are in place today. (Burns, www.oxforddnb.com) Wallace then moved most of the collection, which he had extended with some of his own purchases, to Hertford House in London, putting the collection on show from 1872-5. He spent his remaining years between Hertford House and Bagatelle in Paris but also had a country residence, Sudbourne Hall, in Suffolk. Following litigation, he established his right to Lord Hertford’s Irish estates and visited Lisburn in 1873, to a tumultuous welcome, when he became Conservative MP for the constituency. He gave Lisburn a public park and c1880, built Castle House (HB19/13/04). He was a commissioner for the Paris Exhibition (1878) and was made a KCB the same year. He was also a trustee of the National Portrait Gallery and the National Gallery and lent generously to special exhibitions. (Burns, www.oxforddnb.com) He died in 1890 at Bagatelle, having failed in his attempt to have his baronetcy transferred to his illegitimate son, and was buried in Père Lachaise Cemetery. He had considered leaving his collection to the nation, but the government could not find a suitable home for it and it was eventually left to the nation by his widow, Lady Wallace, and is now housed in their former home, Hertford House. (Burns, www.oxforddnb.com) References: Primary Sources 1. PRONI OS/8/17/1 – Lisburn Town Plan 1859-61 (rev.1875-6) 2. PRONI OS/8/17/2 – Lisburn Town Plan 1876 3. PRONI OS/8/17/3 – Lisburn Town Plan 1900-02 4 Irish Builder, Vol 34, 15 May 1892, p.117 Secondary Sources Burns, JF “The Life and Work of Sir Richard Wallace Bart MP” in Lisburn Historical Society Journal Volume 3, 1980 (available at www.lisburn.com) www.oxforddnb.com – Oxford Dictionary of National Biography online

Criteria for Listing

Architectural Interest

A. Style B. Proportion C. Ornamentation J. Setting K. Group value

Historic Interest

V. Authorship X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Free-standing stone gothic revival memorial situated in Castle Gardens. This highly prominent stone monument commemorates Lisburn’s most revered former resident and patron Sir Richard Wallace. Recently restored, the elaborate Gothic styling of this structure forms a conspicuous focal point to Castle Gardens visible from both Castle Street and the main traffic arteries below the terraces to the south. It has group value with the other listed structures in Castle gardens.

General Comments

Date of Survey

01 April 2010