Historic Building Details

HB Ref No:
HB17/06/015

Address :
Downshire Arms Hotel 95 Newry Street Banbridge Co Down BT32 3EF

Townland:
Tullyear

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Survey 2:
B1

Date of Listing:
17/05/1976 00:00:00

Date of De-listing:

Current Use:
Hotel

Former Use
Hotel

Conservation Area:
No

Industrial Archaeology:
No

Vernacular:
No

Thatched:
No

Monument:
No

Derelict:
No

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OS Map No:
220/8

IG Ref:
J1238 4556

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Owner Category

Commercial

Exterior Description And Setting

A symmetrical two-storey five-bay coaching inn with outbuildings; built c.1815 and located to the west of Newry Street in Banbridge town centre. Rectangular plan with incentis portico between projecting end bays and two-storey return to rear; large modern extension to south and flat-roof extension to west (of no interest). Hipped natural slate roof with leaded hips and blue/black angled ridge tiles. Rendered chimneystacks having tall clay pots. Cast-iron ogee rainwater goods on projecting eaves. Walling is ruled-and-lined painted render. Windows are 6/6 timber-framed sliding sash with painted projecting sills (unless otherwise stated). The principal elevation faces east; central bay is recessed with three openings to each floor and a full-width portico on fluted columns. To centre is a modern double-leaf timber-panelled door flanked by five-pane sidelights and surmounted by an elliptical -headed timber spider-web fanlight. Left and right wings are hipped with elliptical-headed arched recesses to ground floor containing a window (that to right bay is tripartite, 6/6 with 2/2 sidelights). The south elevation is fully abutted by the modern extension. The west (rear) elevation is abutted to centre by the flat-roof modern extension; right bay is abutted by the two-storey return, which is abutted to west by a modern single-storey annexe (of no interest). The north gable has two windows to first floor. Setting: Prominently sited at the junction of Newry Street and Commercial Road in Banbridge town centre. Large stable yard to rear now in use as a car-park; accessed from Commercial Road via rubble stone square gate piers with modern metal gates. Modern parking area also to south of outbuildings. Yard has a variety of well-preserved rubble stone slated outbuildings with red-brick dressings all having timber casement windows with glazing bars and timber-sheeted doors. Two-storey barn to west has hipped roof and a segmental-headed carriage-arch opening with timber-sheeted doors. Two-storey hipped barn to north with external steps. All are relatively well-preserved making this a fine example of an early nineteenth-century stable-yard. Roof: Natural slate Walling: Ruled-and-lined render Windows: 6/6 timber-framed sash RWG: Cast-iron

Architects

Not Known

Historical Information

The Downshire Arms Hotel is an 1816 remodel of an earlier building, and is considered the best surviving example in Ulster of a Georgian coaching inn. (McCutcheon) Among the Downshire estate papers is an estimate by Robert Sharland of Hillsborough for repairing and rebuilding the old inn on the same site in 1804. Elevations by Charles McBlain and Charles Lilley dating from 1810 can also be found among the papers. However, the surviving drawings do not accord with the present building which therefore remains unattributed. (Brett) The early growth of Banbridge dates from the middle of the eighteenth century when Lord Hillsborough encouraged building in the town by granting plots at nominal rents in perpetuity to which were added ‘town parks’ or small farms in the immediate neighbourhood of the town. The first hotel is said to have been built in Banbridge in 1768 on the site now occupied by the Town Hall, but the current building is later in date and was extensively remodelled in the early nineteenth century. (Linn) For some years a ‘Bunch of Grapes’ sign hung over the entrance to the Downshire Arms. This had been recovered from the earlier hotel when it was demolished in 1833/4 to build the Town Hall. (Journal of Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 1911; Young and Quail) The Downshire Arms was built as a posting inn where mail-coaches would stop to change horses and let travellers rest and refresh themselves. A post-horn would signal time to depart on the next stage of the journey to Dublin. (Dillon) The Inn was a central marketplace for linen trading in the early nineteenth century. A traveller in Ireland in 1824 (Glassford) noted that cottars and labourers wove webs on hand looms in their houses and brought the webs to market at Banbridge. The webs were sold at inns in the town to the bleaching merchants who then sent them to towns and fairs or exported them. On a typical market day in Banbridge more than 300 pieces of ‘green linen’ were sold at the Downshire Arms Hotel. For almost two centuries, the Downshire Arms has been central to the social and commercial life of Banbridge. From the introduction of gas lighting in 1852, to the opening of railway lines in 1859 and 1863, to the unveiling of memorial tablets on the Downshire Bridge in 1892, the participants customarily repaired for a celebration at the Downshire Arms. The hotel has been the scene of numerous auction sales of land and houses, cattle shows from 1877 and even accommodated a travelling dentist who fitted artificial teeth on several occasions in 1890. (Belfast Newsletter) High-ranking army officers stayed at the hotel on their migration from Belfast to the Curragh, also County Court judges and Lord and Lady Arthur Hill who were popular and frequent guests. (Banbridge Chronicle) The Downshire Arms Hotel appears, uncaptioned, on the first edition OS map of 1833 and is shown on what are then the outskirts of Banbridge town. The hotel is a rectangular building with two projecting wings and has a large stable yard to the rear, enclosed on all sides. Gardens are depicted to the south of the hotel. The plan form of the hotel and stableyard remains largely unchanged through subsequent editions although a gradual expansion of the town takes place along Newry Road during the course of the twentieth century. It is not until the fourth edition of 1903-18 that the hotel is captioned, mistakenly, “Devonshire Arms Hotel”. The Townland Valuation of 1828-40 gives dimensions for the inn, offices and yard which are together valued at £46. The outbuildings include cellars, a turf house and stables and the proprietor is initially Mrs Margaret Boyle. The inn was taken over by Alexander and Robert Rule in the 1830s. (1841/2 Directory) By the time of Griffith’s Valuation the proprietor was James Young, who had taken over from the former landlord, a Mr Leech. Young leased the building from the Marquess of Downshire together with slightly over 2 acres of land. A ‘hotel farm’ of some 30 acres is also alluded to in the valuation record. The buildings, which included ‘two large rooms for dinner parties’ were valued at £70 and the 2 acre plot of land at £5. Dimensions are given for the hotel, ‘flanks’ and returns and a number of outbuildings including cellars, harness room, a total of six stables, a barn loft, piggery and poultry house, coach house and loose boxes. In 1863/4 James Young was mentioned several times in the pages of the Belfast Newsletter as the host of the Downshire Arms and is said to have served dinners ‘in excellent style’ which ‘reflected great credit on the establishment’. The inn continued to prosper and in 1871 a billiard room and a further coach house were added with a consequent rise in the valuation to £75. However, a turn in fortunes came about and in 1886 the billiard room was deleted from the hotel description and the valuation reduced to £70 and then £60 in 1889. The valuer commented in 1894 that there was ‘not much business at present’ and that the owner had complained of the valuation. However, the valuer judged the valuation to be moderate since it had been reduced some years earlier. James Young died on 28th December 1894 and the hotel was then taken over by his unmarried daughter, Sarah Beardmore Young. (Will of James Young died 28th December 1894)A dinner ‘admirably served by Miss Young’ was provided to a Farming Society meeting in 1898. (Belfast Newsletter) However, Sarah Young suffered from ill health and eventually decided to sell the hotel which was advertised in the Belfast Newsletter in 1900. The hotel with commercial and private sitting and dining rooms, bedrooms and billiard room was to be sold together with the extensive outbuildings, described as ‘all two-storey high’ including stabling for forty-four horses, and a byre for ten cows. Also included were over an acre of well-planted garden and paddocks, and a thirty-six acre farm immediately adjoining the town. The rent for the hotel was then £116 per year including the license, goodwill and bar fittings. Attention was drawn to Banbridge’s central location and its noted horse fairs and markets leading to an ‘extensive and lucrative’ hotel and retail spirit business. (Belfast Newsletter) The hotel was duly purchased by Hugh L Chambers, veterinary surgeon and the 1901 census allows us a detailed glimpse of the household then occupying the hotel. Hugh Lemon Chambers, a 34-year-old vet was the head of the family and his wife Aida G Chambers, the proprietress of the hotel at the young age of 25. The couple had two young children, a baby and a toddler of 18 months and managed a resident staff of five, a housemaid, cook, waiter, groom and a ploughman who no doubt worked on the hotel farm. The building itself was designated first class and had sixteen rooms, its extensive outbuildings numbering nineteen. In 1905 Hugh L Chambers complained of the valuation and the consequent valuer’s notes give a full plan and dimensions of the hotel and outbuildings, showing a series of single and double storey outbuildings surrounding the rear courtyard. The majority of the buildings are of rubble masonry and slate but additions had been made to the south wing of the hotel in brick and wood. It is at this period that a traveller commented that an imaginative mind could easily re-people the hotel ‘with the travellers by stage-coaches, Irish Mr Pickwicks, Sam Wellers and Tony Wellers’ (McCarthy) The Chambers family continued in residence at the hotel until at least 1957 and are recorded once again in the census of 1911. By this time Hugh and his wife are the parents of six children between the ages of three and eleven and the domestic staff now comprised a housemaid, two general servants and a driver. Hugh Lemon Chambers died on 13th July 1930 and the hotel passed to his wife and then his eldest son James Glenholme Chambers in 1941. A younger son, also called Hugh Lemon Chambers, took over the hotel in 1943. Dillon notes that one of Mrs Chambers’ daughters was a doctor who used the lower right-hand apartment as a surgery. (Young and Quail) In the First General Revaluation of 1933/4 the hotel was revalued at £58 and £8 for agricultural buildings. The accommodation comprised six bedrooms, a bathroom and four receptions (hotel) and in the family residence to the rear were four bedrooms, a room, kitchen, pantry, scullery, larder and wash house. The valuer commented that the hotel was an ‘old fashioned commercial and residential hotel now doing very little business. Has not been modernised and is in very poor condition throughout. The son of the proprietress farms land in the vicinity and uses the outbuildings as farm offices. Though licensed the licence is not used there being no bar and no stock of liquors kept on the premises’. Only the ground floor and one bedroom had electric light. The exterior was judged ‘unattractive’. In 1942 part of the outbuildings were converted into a flat and occupied by a veterinary surgeon called V A Drake who paid a rent of £1 per week. The valuation of the flat which comprised two rooms, a bathroom and a small surgery was £8.10s. The building was listed in 1976 and in the 1980s was owned by Mr Barry Heslip and his wife Amy who were the third generation of his family to run the hotel. Renovations were being carried out and it was noted that the hotel was one of few remaining hostelries to boast a hanging sign, that two of the three original fireplaces were still in use and the roof and windows had been restored to their former pattern. (Belfast Telegraph) In the closing years of the twentieth century the hotel underwent a major extension and refurbishment programme costing £1.365m. The designers, Manor Architects of Moneymore, added a new wing to the hotel almost doubling the frontage. An extension was also added to the rear leaving the stable courtyard largely intact. (HB file) References: Primary Sources 1. PRONI OS/6/3/27/1 First Edition OS Map 1833 2. PRONI OS/6/3/27/2 Second Edition OS map 1860 3. PRONI OS/6/3/27/3 Third Edition OS Map (c1900) 4. PRONI OS/6/3/27/4 Fourth Edition OS Map 1903-18 5. PRONI VAL/1/B/348A Townland Valuation (1828-40) 6. PRONI VAL/2/B/3/64D Griffith’s Valuation (1856-64) 7. PRONI VAL/12/A/3/16 Valuer’s notebook 1905 8. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/6A-H Annual Revisions (1864-1929) 9. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/8A-C Annual Revisions (1899-1930) 10. PRONI VAL/12/F/4/1/1 Annual Revisions (1930-35) 11. PRONI VAL/3/C/4/4 First General Revaluation (1936-57) 12. PRONI VAL/3/D/4/2/B/11 First General Revaluation (1933-57) 13. PRONI Will of James Young died 28th December 1894 14. Street Directory 1841/2 15. Belfast Newsletter 19th March 1852 16. Belfast Newsletter 8thJanuary 1862 17. Belfast Newsletter 29th August 1877 18. Belfast Newsletter 10th August 1890 19. Belfast Newsletter 9th May 1892 20. Belfast Newsletter 4th April 1900 21. Journal of Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 1911 22. Banbridge Chronicle 30th October 1970 23. Banbridge Chronicle December 6th 1974 24. Belfast Telegraph 15th July 1983 25. NIEA HB file Secondary Sources 1. Brett, C.E.B., Dunleath, Lady “List of Historic Buildings, Groups of Buildings, Buildings of Architectural Importance in Borough of Banbridge” Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, April-July 1969 2. Dillon, A “Images of Ireland, Banbridge”Dublin: Gill and Macmillan, 1997 3. Glassford, J “Notes of three tours in Ireland in 1824 and 1826” Bristol: Strong and Chilcott, 1832 4. Linn, Captain R “A History of Banbridge” (edited by W S Kerr) Banbridge Chronicle Press, 1935 5. McCarthy, Michael John Fitzgerald ‘Rome in Ireland’, 1904 6. McCutcheon, W.A. “The Industrial Archaeology of Northern Ireland,” London: HMSO, 1980. 7. Young, A F and Quail, D “Old Gilford, Scarva, Loughbrickland and Lawrencetown” Stenlake Publishing, 2002

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

Historic Interest

Z. Rarity X. Local Interest Y. Social, Cultural or Economic Importance

Evaluation

Downshire Arms Hotel is a symmetrical two-storey five-bay coaching inn with outbuildings; built c.1815. A rare example of a Georgian coaching inn, likely to be among the best surviving examples of its type in the region. Acting as a staging post for coach traffic between Belfast, Newry and Dublin, the hotel represents the continued growth of Banbridge into the early nineteenth-century. Although large modern extension to south has doubled the size of the original floor-plan and the original interior has lost some detail, the hotel is a significant example of the type. Externally, most architectural detailing is largely intact, with some later alterations and the almost intact stable-yard to rear adds to the historic interest of the site.

General Comments

Date of Survey

19 January 2012