Historic Building Details

HB Ref No:
HB25/13/004

Address :
1 Upper Knockbreda Road Belfast County Antrim BT6 9QH

Townland:
Cregagh Lisnasharragh

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Survey 2:
B1

Date of Listing:
05/07/1993 00:00:00

Date of De-listing:

Current Use:
House

Former Use
House

Conservation Area:
No

Industrial Archaeology:
No

Vernacular:
No

Thatched:
No

Monument:
No

Derelict:
No

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OS Map No:
147/6

IG Ref:
J3678 7141

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Owner Category

Private

Exterior Description And Setting

A gabled three-bay, two-storey-with-attic detached Edwardian house; built c.1910 to designs by Thomas Houston and located north of the Upper Knockbreda Road carriageway, south of Belfast city centre. Rectangular plan with corner windows and gables; single-storey extension to northeast (1930s), also to designs by Houston. Red-tiles to hipped and gabled roofs; roughcast rendered chimneystack with decorative terracotta pots. Half-round cast-iron rainwater goods on overhanging eaves over exposed rafter ends. Walling is painted roughcast render. Windows are original timber-framed casements (unless otherwise stated); dormer window to southwest and northwest. The principal elevation faces southwest with centrally recessed porch; left bay is gabled. Right bay is blank. Left bay is chamfered to ground floor with a corner window at left; double-paned window to first floor and triple-paned window to ground floor. Porch accessed via three red-brick steps with dormer to roof; original timber-sheeted-and-glazed door to left; quarter-pane window to right and larger double-paned window to far right; windows to inner left and right cheeks. The northwest elevation has a triple-paned window at ground floor left and a double-paned casement breaking eaves level at first floor. To left of centre are two diminutive glazed windows. The northeast (rear) elevation is abutted at right by the single-storey extension. To centre of roof is hipped dormer with double-paned window. First floor has a double-paned window to right of centre; smaller quarter-pane window and diminutive window to left of centre. Double-paned window to ground floor. The single-storey extension has a leaded casement corner window to northwest elevation; southeast elevation is abutted by a flat-roof extension, containing modern timber door flanked by leaded casement window and narrower window to right; northeast elevation has a single window. Southeast gable has a cheeked projecting bay to ground floor (partially timber-clad with a tiled sloping roof); containing, from left, timber-sheeted latch door, plate-glass window and four-panelled latch-door. Gable has two double-paned windows to first floor and quarter-pane window to attic. Projecting bay is abutted at right by a roughcast rendered toilet block. Setting: Situated on a mature site, the
setting has altered significantly since the house was built c.1910. Originally surrounded by farmland, the area has been extensively developed since the 1940s. The adjacent A55 carriageway was constructed in 1958 on land previously belonging to the house. Today the house is accessed by Rochester Road to northeast via wrought-iron gates. Bounded to road to southeast by modern timber fence with red-brick piers having masonry caps supporting timber-sheeted gates. Roof: Hipped & gabled red tiles Walling: Roughcast render Windows: Original timber casements RWG: Cast-iron

Architects

Houston, Thomas T

Historical Information

The current house dates from c1910 and is first shown on the fourth edition OS map of 1920-21 captioned ‘The Burn’. At the time the house was built, this part of Castlereagh was beyond the outer reaches of suburban Belfast and largely rural in character, dotted with farmhouses and mansions in substantial grounds. A small river, a tributary of the Loop River, ran beside the house, providing its water supply and lending the house its name. Established near the house at the time of the First World War were ‘Cregagh Garden Plots’, a series of allotments. The house first enters valuation records in 1914 as the residence of Thomas Houston, architect and civil engineer and it is likely that the house was built to his own designs. The land was leased from the Marquess of Downshire and the buildings were valued at £28.10s with £1 for the land surrounding the house. Thomas Houston (1873-1938) was born in Coleraine and served his articles in the offices of Young & Mackenzie in Belfast. After studying architecture in England, he established his own practice in Belfast in 1901, becoming the first tenant of ‘Kingscourt’ at 17 Wellington Place, offices which he occupied for the rest of his life. Although his work included hospitals, churches and commercial premises he was primarily a domestic architect and was responsible for many of the domestic revival houses in the Malone area. Houston added a motor house to the plot in 1924 and this increased the valuation of the buildings to £40. By 1922 Houston had moved out and in 1931 was living in Harberton Avenue, in another house that is likely to have been his own design. Subsequent occupiers of ‘The Burn’ were John James Cox (1922) James Norman Inglis (1923) Herbert Cecil Pearson (1929), Albert Arthur Constable (1931), Robert Liddell (1934) and David R McKinney (1936). In the First General Revaluation of 1933 the house was revalued at £50 and a full description was given in valuer’s notes. The accommodation comprised, a hall, library, drawing room, dining room, kitchen, scullery, pantry, three bedrooms, a maid’s room, bathroom and WC. In the early 1930s the house had no services and water was supplied by pump from the nearby stream. Dimensions and a plan of the building are shown. By 1938 the house had been renamed ‘Merok Burn’ after the river that ran beside it and is so captioned on the OS map of 1938. David Rutherford McKinney, commission agent, died in December 1937 and the house was put on the market. The particulars drawn up by McConnell & Co and correspondence from the sale have survived. The house now had electric light and gas for cooking although water was still provided from the stream, the stream also supplying a small ornamental pond and waterfall. The dining room and cloakroom were panelled and the kitchen had a ‘triplex’ grate, probably coal-fired with a back boiler for the supply of hot water. The house was situated in 2 acres of land. In 1939 the house was sold to Dr J A Corkey for £1,350 and he is recorded as resident there until at least the 1970s. References: Primary Sources 1. PRONI OS/6/3/4/3 – Third Edition OS Map 1902 2. PRONI OS/6/3/4/4 – Fourth Edition OS Map 1920-21 3. PRONI OS/6/3/4/5 – Fifth Edition OS Map 1931 4. PRONI OS/6/3/4/7 – Fifth Edition OS Map 1938 5. PRONI VAL/12/B/17/6A-FH– Annual Revisions (1863-1930) 6. PRONI VAL/12/F/4/4/2 – Annual Revisions (1930-35) 7. PRONI VAL/3/C/4/9- First General Revaluation (1936-1957) 8. PRONI VAL/3/D/4/4E/17 – Valuer’s Notebook (1933-57) 9. PRONI VAL/4/B/3/22- Second General Revaluation (1956-1972) 10. PRONI D2964/J/188 – Correspondence McConnell & Co estate agents 11. PRONI Will of David Rutherford McKinney, died 29th December 1937

Criteria for Listing

Architectural Interest

A. Style B. Proportion C. Ornamentation D. Plan Form I. Quality and survival of Interior J. Setting

Historic Interest

R. Age S. Authenticity V. Authorship X. Local Interest

Evaluation

A well-preserved gabled three-bay, two-storey-with-attic detached Edwardian house; built c.1910 to designs by Thomas Houston and located north of the Upper Knockbreda Road carriageway south of Belfast city centre. Built to designs by Thomas Houston for himself, the house is a good example of his domestic work; well-proportioned and detailed in a typically Edwardian style. Although the setting has been much altered, now characterized by mid-twentieth-century semi-detached housing and carriageway to south, the house retains much of its architectural detailing and external character with a mature garden to north. The house has a well-preserved interior with detailing characteristic of the period. It is of considerable architectural and historic interest.

General Comments

Date of Survey

05 May 2011