Jonathan Swift House

HARBOUR VIEW 1. 1814 Jonathan Swift House

NX 91 NE 2/200 II 2. House. c1700 and c1800. Red sandstone rubble with some modern brick patching, pebble- dashed, slate roofs. The building is in three sections, two of which appear to be more or less contemporary and one a later addition. South-west section is c1700.T-shaped range but both roofs are contained within a single rectangle One storey and attic. East front has a modern door and window. South front has a single-light window over a two-light, modern casement. West front has a plain sash. North front has a plain chamfered door with a two-light window with chamfered surround and mullion above. Both these features appear to be original. Coped gables with kneelers. Replacement roof with single-gable stack. Interior has suffered a fire. Stone spiral stair. Extremely rough beam spans the kitchen. The roof has been replaced with some survivial of fire-damaged timbers and the top of the stack has been removed. This range has had some rebuilding as is evident from the squared stones with herringbone tooling, a C19 repair on the south-east quoin. North range. This appears contemporary with the first section, but has a lower roof line. Two storeys. West front has a doorway with decayed, moulded surround flanked by small blocked openings. Above are four C19 sashes in chamfered surrounds. These appear to be original openings, perhaps with dropped sills. This range otherwise featureless. Interior. The lower room has a fireplace with an ogee mould shelf, above is an early C19 hob grate with a plain stone surround. The roof has been replaced, but retains one original pegged truss with halved apex and trenches for purlins. This appears to be late C17. The lower room was the beer cellar when this was a public house. East range might be late C18 or early Cl9 and shows patching to the walls. Doorway with plain stone surround on south end. One modern window to each floor on north end. These have chamfered surrounds. The interior is featureless. It is evident that this is one of the oldest surviving buildings in Whitehaven and predates the main development of the town in the early C18. It is certainly the same building clearly seen in the Matthias Read drawing of 1738 and other contemporary pictures. It is not, however, very likely that it is the house stayed in by the infant Jonathan Swift, who, it is claimed, lived there 1668-1671. During the C18 it was an inn known as Bowling Green House and later Flagstaff House and Red Flag. The walled enclosure of the bowling green, now much damaged, survives to the northwest of the house.

Listing NGR: NX9674218158