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ULSTER ARCHITECTURAL HERITAGE SOCIETY Page 2

No. BUILDING Category DATE TYPE, ARCHITECT, ETC. REFERENCES
1 CHRIST CHURCH
CATHEDRAL		   Foundation stone (immediately after the fire) 1708; vestry I728; very tall slim fine octagonal spire added 1804-1807 by David McBlain, "of Limavady", (son of the builder of Hillsborough spire) who had supervised Ballyscullion House in 1787 for the Earl-Bishop of Derry; galleries added 1824; clock and bell presented by the Marquis of Hertforde hour is proclaimed very loquaciously with eight tongues"; chancel added 1889; Bishop's throne, 1893, by Jones & Willis of Birmingham. Bayly Carmody
Lewis T. D.
IB 1888 114
IB 1893 97
      The Cathedral is admirably sited in a precinct behind a screen of shops and houses between the Market Square and the Castle Gardens. The stone exterior is not particularly distinguished (apart from the spire) though surrounded by many excellent headstones. The interior is long, tall, dark and very effective, though the gallery added after the completion of the Church was inserted a little clumsily. The well-painted organ-case (by Robson) in the gallery closes the west end very effectively. The dark and simple roof is Victorian.  
      There are many excellent memorials, especially that to William Dobbs (obit 1778) with the vigorous naval action - with Paul Jones off Carrickfergus - in which he was killed, in progress (unsigned); General Nicholson's martial memorial, by John Foley; the Jeremy Taylor memorial of 1827; a charming memorial of 1826 to Rowley Hall, attorney, which says he was "more studious to prevent litigation than to derive emolument"; Mrs. Alice Smith of 1751; and a number of memorials and standards with military associations.  
2 CHRIST CHURCH,
(C. of I. )
Hillsborough Road		   Charles Lanyon. Cost £4,800, "Built of black I Green stone, chiselled from a design by Mr. Lanyon.
The Tower is a very beautiful structure, 72 feet in height, it is of the ancient Gothic school of architecture, surmounted by castillated turrets." South and North transepts and gallery added 1859. The exterior, though the blackstone is a little gloomy despite freestone dressings, is fine; the interior rather disappointing.		 Green
3 ST. PAUL'S,
(C. of I.)
Moira Road 		  1964, Gordon McKnight. Rustic brick, well-laid; a
tall plain modern-Lombard campanile; frosted glass
bathroom windows; curious gazebo baptistry with spike on top. Interior not seen.		  
No. BUILDING Category DATE TYPE, ARCHITECT, ETC. REFERENCES
4 FIRST PRESBYTERIAN
CHURCH
Market Square 		A Like the Cathedral, originally tucked away behind shops and houses off the Market Square, behind an attractive ironwork gateway of early c 19th date. Shops, houses and gateway all demolished or removed in 1968/9.

1710; rebuilt 1768; galleries s added c. 1830; enlarged and remodelled 1873. A fine plain church of random blackstone with sandstone quoins: two rows of roundheaded windows with brick heads; under one of the windows, a stone inscribed "I. F. " - perhaps John
Fulton, Overseer of Works in 1768. Inside, very fine box pews; good U-shaped gallery on cast-iron Tuscan columns, the concave underside of the gallery ornamented with appliqué snowflakes and anthemia; pitch pine ceiling; good divided staircase from ante room to gallery; a pair of good stained-glass East windows by Mayer of Munich c. 1875.

 Craig Bayly
  PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
Railway Street 		B 1863; side galleries and Lecture hall, 1889. A granite Carson composition with round-headed windows, and triple- Green opening arched porch - somewhat " Welsh-Baptist" in feel. Internally, a plain broad preaching-house, with gallery borne on unusual simplified acanthus-pattern cast-iron columns; paterae in coffered ceiling. Carson
Green
6 PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
Sloane Street 		  1900, Henry Hobart of Dromore; cost £ 3, 000; neo-Georgian front, of rustic brick with excessive eaves, added 1955. Carson
1894 I B L30
7 ST. PATRICK'S
(R. C. )
CHURCH
Chapel Hill 		B 1900; on site of earlier church of 1794. The exterior rather disconcerting: the striped spire (later) grey stone with paler dressings, but below roof-level, grey stone with red sandstone dressings; an uncomfortable change of gear. The interior much better, lofty and dignified simplified Romanesque with very robust capital carvings; good high altar and reredos; painted circular lunettes of saints, with full-lengths of Sts. Malachy and Columbanus flanking East Window. Green IB 1900 402
Plans for Chapel and spire in possession of Lisburn Historical Society.
8 Next door,
ST. JOSEPH'S HALL. Chapel Hill 		B 1889; A rather exuberant stucco building, the ground floor rusticated, the first floor with six Corinthian pilasters upholding a curlicued pediment surmounted by Saint Joseph; round-headed windows and balustrade. Carson
No. BUILDING Category DATE TYPE, ARCHITECT, ETC. REFERENCES
9 CONVENT OF SACRED HEART
Castle Street		  

 

A

 Opened as Convent 1902, but partly earlier; stucco buildings of 1870's in style of William Batt; and incorporating an earlier house.

Chapel, 1967; McLean & Forte. A strikingly original and wholly successful design. Due to shortage of space, the chapel is perched in mid-air on angled concrete columns, at second-storey level, overlooking the Castle Gardens and the wooded valley. The groundfloor contains school accommodation; above it there is a paved first-floor play-space, with a geometrically coffered ceiling, amidst the columns; on top, as naturally as could be, rests the chapel. The design makes superb use of a steeply-sloping and difficult site, and while entirely contemporary harmonises admirably with the early 19th century frontage buildings. 

Inside, the chapel is equally successful: there is admirable abstract blue-and-clear stained glass: the altar is indirectly lit by a red glass window: there is an excellent geometrical ceiling: the walls are plainest white, with simple Stations of the Cross in pale carved wood: the overall effect is of a rich simplicity, stopping short of Puritanism.		  
10 FRIENDS' MEETING HOUSE,
21/23 Railway Street		 B The original thatched church of 1674 escaped the great fire of 1707, but was rebuilt and enlarged in 1793; parts of this church may have been incorporated in the present building, which dates from 1853. It has round-headed windows, and a U shaped gallery on plain Tuscan cast-iron columns; pleasant pews and restrained panelling. At the side, a small, charming, and very unusual burial ground with head-stones, set out in a long row, to thirteen Richardsons, and one other. The exterior of the church is of painted stucco and quite seemly. Carson
11 METHODIST CHURCH, Seymour Street   1875; A tall barn-church, of red brick with yellow brick relief; tall arched windows, with simple geometrical rose-windows in each gable; triple porch with short columns and foliated capitals. 'I he interior rich in good pitch-pine of its period, especially the heavyweight pulpit and organ-surround. Carson
12 SALVATION ARMY CHURCH,
Market Place		 A plain whitened building of indeterminate date with round-headed windows, glazing bars, and slate roof.
No. BUILDING Category DATE TYPE, ARCHITECT, ETC. REFERENCES
15 CASTLE GARDEN A An attractive garden on the bluff, between the main road and the steeply wooded banks running down to the Lagan, laid out after the great fire of 1707 within the area bounded by the walls of the Castle. The area within the walls is tolerably well tended; the potentially charming slope below the walls is disgracefully neglected and is inaccessible. The western wall incorporates a dated stone gateway of 1677, the only surviving part of the Castle built by Sir Fulke Conway in 1622, much neglected and blocked with bright green corrugated iron sheeting - a long-standing disgrace to the town.

The gardens contain, in addition to fine trees, a delightful blue painted fountain with three white egrets with red beaks and three red flowers; a Crimea cannon taken at Sebastopol in 1858; a "Wallace" drinking fountain (see below); and a rather disappointing stone Gothic memorial of 1892 (by Robin son & Son, Belfast) to Sir Richard Wallace.		 Chart

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1892 IB 117
l6  WALLACE PARK A 25 attractive and well-wooded acres presented to Lisburn in 1884 by Sir Richard Wallace, who paid for the building at that date of the bandstand, entrance gates, lodges, and approaches; lodges since enlarged and modernised. Carson
17 "WALLACE"
DRINKING FOUNTAINS
in Castle Garden and
Wallace Park 		A According to the Director of the Wallace Collection, "Immediately after the Siege of Paris, M. Richard Wallace' (as he then was) had fifty drinking fountains designed in the French Renaissance style by the sculptor Charles Auguste Lebourg, and presented them to the city . . . These fountains had the distinction of adding a new word - 'Wallace' - to the French language . Many of those street monuments have been removed from their original sites. Within a few years it is likely that they will have disappeared entirely. Fortunately . . . there are several in Rotterdam, two in Sir Richard Wallace's former parliamentary constituency at Lisburn in Northern Ireland (where three were sacrificed to the wartime demand for scrap metal), another is at Ilfracombe," - one at Grandy in Canada, one at Laurenco Marques in Mozambique, one at Recife in Brazil - and one in the Wallace Collection, London.

The fountains are dated 1872, signed Val d' Osne, Chateau le Bourg, have four caryatids, and are painted blue.		 Times Literary Supplement 16th January,
1969, p. 63
18 WALLACE HOUSE,
Castle Street 		B 1880; two-storey red brick, stone dressings and Carson aedicules, Mansard roof, now part of Technical College,
but originally Sir Richard Wallace's residence; built by him at cost of over £20, 000 and acquired by the town in 1914.		 Carson
19 TOWN HALL,
Castle Street 		  Formerly Sir Richard Wallace's rent office; red brick and stucco c. 1850.  
20 R. U. C. BARRACKS,
33 Castle Street 		A A particularly good three-storey red brick house with quoins and glazing-bars, and with a most attractive early doorcase with broken pediment: perhaps c. 1750.  
No. BUILDING Category DATE TYPE, ARCHITECT, ETC. REFERENCES
21 NICHOLSON STATUE B 1920, by F. W. Pomeroy R. A. , with two plaques depicting surrender of sepoys, and Nicholson's death at the storming of the breach, aged 35; a very vigorous piece of work. The general appears to be fighting his way savagely, with both sword and revolver, out of the traffic jam by which his statue is always surrounded. The Shell Guide erratically attributes this statue - which is clearly signed and dated - to J. H. Foley, the author of the memorial to Nicholson in the Cathedral.
22 ORANGE HALL,
Railway Street 		B 1871. Sides blackstone rubble, with brick window surrounds; front, pedimented stucco with Italianate triple windows divided by cast iron barley-sugar columns and two large (four small) ornamental floral composite pilasters. Carson
23 MASONIC HALL,
34 Castle Street 		A Three-storey, five-bay building, rendered fairly recently with Ionic porch and pediment and extremely good cast iron fanlight; 1969, for sale, and in grave danger, important (all else apart) as part of the frame for Castle Gardens.  
24 LAGAN VALLEY
HOSPITAL 		Part 1830's, part 1840's, incorporating the Fever Hospital and Union. The original Board of Works Poorhouse, probably by Jacob Owen. The front block, dating from 1840, demolished 1967. Two-storey blackstone range, end blocks three-storey with triple central dormers; well-painted and far from unattractive.

The new block alongside has been rather skilfully scaled so as to fit in with the old, and is of above average design.
  25 S TA TI ON,
Railway Street
(formerly Jackson's
Lane). 		A Single-storey yellow brick, replacing the original station of 1839, with excellent detailing. Pleasant trees in the station yard.

The Boyne Bridge, beyond the Courthouse, replaced the original level crossing in 1877.		 Carson
26 LAGAN BRIDGE,
(Moo re's Bridge)
Hillsborough Road 		 A 1824. A fine 3-arched bridge of dressed stone, with long abutments and rounded cutwaters; later blackstone parapet; a fine piece of stonework well-placed, just above island with rath; part of the new Lisburn Hillsborough turnpike road of that year. E. R. R. Green
Industrial
Archaeology
of C. D. p. 61
27 UNION BRIDGE
 		 B 1880. A replacement for the earlier and narrower Carson bridge over the Lagan - the principal crossing between
Co. Antrim and Co. Down until the opening of the Hillsborough Turnpike.		 Carson
28 SEYMOUR STREET
Nos. 11 & 13 		A The old Lisburn hospital: good three-storey red brick late Georgian. Very old two-storey I8th century houses with carriage archway and cottage at rear under the arch.  
29 Group:
CASTLE STREET
and
SEYMOUR STREET
 		 This whole street, from the Methodist Church corner to the Cathedral, would enormously repay overhaul and appropriate redecoration. It could easily be a delightful introduction to the town.
No. BUILDING Category DATE TYPE, ARCHITECT, ETC. REFERENCES
21 NICHOLSON STATUE B 1920, by F. W. Pomeroy R. A. , with two plaques depicting surrender of sepoys, and Nicholson's death at the storming of the breach, aged 35; a very vigorous piece of work. The general appears to be fighting his way savagely, with both sword and revolver, out of the traffic jam by which his statue is always surrounded. The Shell Guide erratically attributes this statue - which is clearly signed and dated - to J. H. Foley, the author of the memorial to Nicholson in the Cathedral.
22 ORANGE HALL,
Railway Street 		B 1871. Sides blackstone rubble, with brick window surrounds; front, pedimented stucco with Italianate triple windows divided by cast iron barley-sugar columns and two large (four small) ornamental floral composite pilasters. Carson
23 MASONIC HALL,
34 Castle Street 		A Three-storey, five-bay building, rendered fairly recently with Ionic porch and pediment and extremely good cast iron fanlight; 1969, for sale, and in grave danger, important (all else apart) as part of the frame for Castle Gardens.  
24 LAGAN VALLEY
HOSPITAL 		Part 1830's, part 1840's, incorporating the Fever Hospital and Union. The original Board of Works Poorhouse, probably by Jacob Owen. The front block, dating from 1840, demolished 1967. Two-storey blackstone range, end blocks three-storey with triple central dormers; well-painted and far from unattractive.

The new block alongside has been rather skilfully scaled so as to fit in with the old, and is of above average design.
  25 S TA TI ON,
Railway Street
(formerly Jackson's
Lane). 		A Single-storey yellow brick, replacing the original station of 1839, with excellent detailing. Pleasant trees in the station yard.

The Boyne Bridge, beyond the Courthouse, replaced the original level crossing in 1877.		 Carson
26 LAGAN BRIDGE,
(Moo re's Bridge)
Hillsborough Road 		 A 1824. A fine 3-arched bridge of dressed stone, with long abutments and rounded cutwaters; later blackstone parapet; a fine piece of stonework well-placed, just above island with rath; part of the new Lisburn Hillsborough turnpike road of that year. E. R. R. Green
Industrial
Archaeology
of C. D. p. 61
27 UNION BRIDGE
 		 B 1880. A replacement for the earlier and narrower Carson bridge over the Lagan - the principal crossing between
Co. Antrim and Co. Down until the opening of the Hillsborough Turnpike.		 Carson
28 SEYMOUR STREET
Nos. 11 & 13 		A The old Lisburn hospital: good three-storey red brick late Georgian. Very old two-storey I8th century houses with carriage archway and cottage at rear under the arch.  
29 Group:
CASTLE STREET
and
SEYMOUR STREET
 		 This whole street, from the Methodist Church corner to the Cathedral, would enormously repay overhaul and appropriate redecoration. It could easily be a delightful introduction to the town.

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