Historic Building Details

HB Ref No:
HB23/03/009

Address :
Royal Ulster Yacht Club 101 Clifton Road Bangor Co Down BT20 5HY

Townland:
Corporation

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Survey 2:
B+

Date of Listing:
05/05/1982 00:00:00

Date of De-listing:

Current Use:
Recreational Club

Former Use
Recreational Club

Conservation Area:
No

Industrial Archaeology:
No

Vernacular:
No

Thatched:
No

Monument:
No

Derelict:
No

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OS Map No:
115/12

IG Ref:
J5114 8260

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Owner Category

Private

Exterior Description And Setting

Two-storey with attic and tower; multi-bay Tudorbethan yacht club, built c.1899 to designs by Vincent Craig. Irregular floor plan with various extensions and alterations carried out c.1930, c.1960 & c.2000. Located on the coast, east of Bangor town centre overlooking Belfast Lough towards County Antrim. Pitched rosemary tile roof with crested ridge tiles and finial stop-ends. Exposed timber rafter tails at eaves level; timber barge boards. Cast-iron ogee moulded guttering with circular downpipes and vent pipes. Tall red bricked clustered chimney-stacks with terracotta pots. Red brick walling, Flemish bond; moulded brick string and plinth course. Timber Tudor-style gabled ends and brackets. Windows generally Arts-and-Crafts segmental arched 6/1 timber sliding sash; 1/1 sliding sash to rear, chamfered brick surrounds; dormers to attic level; squared headed 1/1 to tower, with chamfered sandstone heads and cills. Wide timber panelled doors with cast-iron ironmongery. The principal elevation faces north-west and is asymmetrically arranged. Three-storey projecting gabled bay to right; chamfered ground floor with timber corner brackets, three tall segmental-arched window openings; large tripartite window to first floor flanked by projecting brick piers supporting jettied second floor; Tudor-style timber framed gable head. Modern glazed opening to ground floor of central bays; replacement balcony over with three windows to first floor. Paired dormer windows located on roof. Large modern single-storey extension to ground floor left hand side; above right, first and second floor of gable; above left, first and second floor of left hand bay. The north-east elevation is asymmetrically arranged; gable ended on the right hand side; return with lower ridge level projecting southwards. At ground floor level, on the right is a semi-octagonal projected bay, now forming part of the modern extension (c.2000) projecting northwards. Secondary access door centrally located. Hipped lean-to single-storey projection to the left, with adjoining two-storey cat-slide gable with single –storey canted bay, projecting eastward from rear abutment (c.1930). Various existing windows to the first and second floor. The rear elevation is asymmetrically arranged with 1½ storey half-hipped gable abutment to the right, gabled returns project westward (c.1930). Modern single-storey hipped extension to ground floor. Various window sizes and types throughout. The south-west elevation is asymmetrically arranged. The right hand bay is two-storey gable ended; single window to ground floor; first floor canted oriel bay with replacement windows and terracotta fish-scale tiling; jettied Tudor-style timber framed gable head. Central five-storey tower; three squared headed windows to ground floor, large segmental arched opening to first floor embracing five arched windows and hood moulding over. Staggered single segmental-arched windows into stair well and single narrow square-headed window to fourth floor, surmounted by parapet and small gable-ended stairwell and chimneys. Two-storey diminutive front entrance porch to the re-entrant angle of the central tower, glazed to the upper level; hipped roof. Deeply moulded voussoired sandstone arched entrance with hood moulding over; long-and-short surrounds; segmental-headed door opening with stone arched lintel on corbels with carved panel above: “RUYC”. Vaulted roof porch added c.1990. Setting On an elevated site with uninterrupted views of Belfast Lough towards County Antrim. Large tiered lawn with stone steps embedded into the landscape flanked by two small canons. Curved entrance drive off the Clifton Road leading to large car park to the rear, adjacent to single-storey outbuilding; rosemary tile roof and roughcast rendered walling. South of the building is largely two-storey detached residential. North-east of the site comprises green space, tennis court and car parks adjacent to Ballyholme Yacht Club. Roofing: Tile Walling: Brick Windows: Timber RWG: Cast iron

Architects

Craig, Vincent

Historical Information

The Ulster Yacht Club was founded in Bangor in 1806 but by 1866 was no longer active. In this year the future Marquess of Dufferin and Ava, an experienced yachtsman, decided to revive the club and in 1870 it received a Royal Charter, becoming the centre for yachting on Belfast Lough. (Patton, p.52) Valuation records show that the club took over a villa on the site of the present building in 1879, renting the property from Richard Patterson. (Annual Revisions) In 1889 the architect Vincent Craig became a member and was eventually commissioned to produce a new club house, the decision being made to purchase the land already occupied by the club in July 1897. (www.ruyc.co.uk) On April 15th, 1899, the Irish Builder announced the opening of the new clubhouse with a long descriptive passage commenting favourably on the building and offering ‘hearty congratulation[s]’ to Vincent Craig, as the architect. The clubhouse is described as being in the ‘old English style of architecture, built with red Lagan Vale facing bricks, tuck jointed and roofed with Peake’s red pan roofing-tiles. The building is surmounted by a tower, which rises to a height of over 70 ft above the ground level. The tower is bounded by parapet walls with white stone copings. These, with the neatly-pointed gables and gablets, and the numerous ornamental chimney stacks, set off most admirably the grouping of the several sections of the building’. (Irish Builder) A photograph in Patton’s historical gazetteer of Bangor shows the clubhouse shortly after its completion, and several other photographs of the club in its early years have survived. (Patton, p.ii) The builders were McLaughlin and Harvey and the cost was £6396, painting being executed by Mr A Thompson and ‘decorations’ by Messrs Ward and Partners. ‘Musgrave’s patent heating apparatus’ was installed and sanitary arrangements were entrusted to Messrs J Lowden and Co (Patton, p.52, Irish Builder). Initially, the property was valued at £178 but this was raised to £194 in 1904, indicating that some improvements or additions were made at this date. (Annual Revisions, www.ruyc.co.uk) Tennis courts, garages and car parking were laid out on additional land purchased in 1905 and caretakers’ apartments were added to the rear in the 1930s. (www.ruyc.co.uk, owner information) A drawing of the clubhouse was exhibited at the Irish International Exhibition, Dublin in 1907. (www.dia.ie) In 1962 a modern glass extension was added to the front of the building to provide a bar facility. The extension entailed the removal of part of the front facade, and, although of its time, was ultimately deemed inappropriate in style. A replacement was designed by Consarc and completed in 2002 (owner information, www.ruyc.co.uk). The use of this part of the building was then changed to a dining facility. 2002 also saw the addition of a small rear extension to provide changing facilities for ladies, who had not been catered for in the original design of the club. New gentlemen’s changing rooms and showers were added to the rear in 1978 and in 1990 a covered area was added to the front porch during renovation work. (www.ruyc.co.uk) The internal layout of the club has caused some difficulties, according to the club history. The dining room was initially downstairs but moved upstairs to the drawing room before the First World War, meals being brought up from the kitchens in a hoist. In the 1970s the dining room was moved downstairs to be nearer the kitchens and in 2002 to its present position at the front of the building. (www.ruyc.co.uk) Internal accommodation initially included a billiard room, a card room, a gentlemen’s locker room and changing room and ten bedrooms. There was also a ‘Strangers Room’ for the use of non-members. The usage of many of these rooms has changed, the locker room and changing room becoming a back bar and some bedrooms being converted into offices. The card room is now the ‘Lipton Room’ after Sir Thomas Lipton who established the Lipton tea brand. Lipton was refused admittance to the Royal Yacht Squadron and entered the America’s Cup from the Royal Ulster Yacht Club. His efforts to win the race received a great deal of publicity, making Lipton’s tea famous in America. (www.ruyc.co.uk, Patton, p.55) References: Primary Sources 1.PRONI OS/6/3/2/3 – Third Edition OS Map 1901 2.PRONI OS/6/3/2/4 – Fourth Edition OS Map 1919-26 3.PRONI OS/6/3/2/5 – Fifth Edition OS Map 1939 4.PRONI VAL/12/B/23/7A-K – Annual Revisions (1866-99) 5.PRONI VAL/12/B/23/9A-S – Annual Revisions (1900-1930) 6.PRONI VAL/12/E/129/2 – Annual Revisions Town Plans (1898-c.1916) 7.PRONI D2747/1/3 – Minute book of Royal Ulster Yacht Club Feb 1880-May 1892 8.Irish Builder, Vol 41, 15 April 1899, p.46 9.Building News, Vol 78, 30 March 1900, p.439 10.Spectator, 20 April, 1989 11.Hogg collection, photograph 17 12.Lawrence collection, photographs 2361, 3876, 9533 13.Welch collection, photographs 36 to 40 Secondary Sources 1.Owner information 2.Patton, M, “Bangor, An Historical Gazetteer” Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1999 3.www.dia.ie – Dictionary of Irish Architects, online 4.www.ruyc.co.uk – Website of Royal Ulster Yacht Club

Criteria for Listing

Architectural Interest

A. Style B. Proportion C. Ornamentation D. Plan Form H-. Alterations detracting from building H+. Alterations enhancing the building J. Setting

Historic Interest

V. Authorship X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Two-storey with attic and tower; multi-bay Tudorbethan yacht club, built c.1899 to designs by Vincent Craig. An imposing building overlooking Belfast Lough. The character of the building is distinguished by its style and proportions, exhibiting features typical of the architect that have largely been retained. The ground floor extension to the front, replacing an earlier extension, does not significantly detract from the special interest of the building. It is a good example of its type and is of note owing to its relationship to Sir Thomas Lipton, as well as being a major example of the work of a notable local architect.

General Comments

Date of Survey

13 September 2010