Whitegate Lodge, 24 Bay Road, Gartree, Crumlin, Co Antrim, BT29 4QP

Whitegate Lodge is an early to mid-19th century gate lodge, built in the Tudor Revival style, that has since been converted into a two-storey dwelling house. It first appears on the Ordnance Survey map of 1858, recorded simply as "Gate Lodge", and was built to serve the entrance to Langford Lodge estate when it was owned by the Pakenham family. The architect is not recorded, but the lodge has been tentatively attributed on stylistic grounds to Richard Morrison, or possibly his son William Vitruvius Morrison, though James McBlain of County Down was recorded in the 1830s as architect of the main house at Langford Lodge. The building retains the proportions, ornamentation, and plan form characteristic of its original type and period, and is of local interest as a relic of the 19th-century development of the Langford Lodge estate.

The lodge is laid out on an asymmetrical plan, with gabled roofs and a central group of octagonal chimneys. The main entrance faces south.

South elevation

The south-facing entrance front consists of a two-storey block with a two-storey gabled bay to the left of a projecting single-storey porch, and a lower 1½-storey block extending to the right. The roofs are covered in Bangor blue slates laid in regular courses, with lead covering to the ridges. The timber gables overhang, fitted with elaborately cusped barge boards painted white; those to the main gable are recent replacements approximating to the original design. The walls are of roughly coursed basalt rubble with raised rusticated quoins at the extremities. The quoins may originally have been sandstone; they are currently painted black, with the walling between the long quoin blocks painted light grey, though some quoins are recent replacements in smooth render, also painted. There is a projecting smooth-rendered plinth, painted dark grey. Window dressings are of grey sandstone with red brick segmental relieving arches and spandrel panels. The windows are rectangular PVC side-hung casements with fixed side lights and fixed top lights: three lights to the ground floor of the gabled bay, two lights to the first floor of the gabled bay and to the ground floor of the lower block to the right. The chamfered stone surrounds are painted dark grey and have PVC panels fixed to the reveals, with projecting stone cills also painted dark grey. A satellite dish is fixed to the left-hand side of the gabled bay by an iron bracket.

The gabled porch is of ashlar sandstone with a projecting plinth, all painted dark grey, and its roof is slated to match the main roof. The shaped barge boards to the porch are original. A PVC gutter is fitted to the east side of the porch with a cast iron downpipe; the west side has a damaged cast iron gutter with a cast iron downpipe. Each side wall of the porch contains one narrow round-headed window with a continuous chamfered edge, containing a recessed fixed light. The main entrance is a semi-elliptically arched opening with a chamfered edge, containing a pair of arch-headed double doors, each of three panels, raised and fielded, set in a wooden surround. The projecting doorstep has modern tiles. PVC gutters and downpipes are fitted to the main two-storey block and to the lower block to the east, with the downpipe from the main block discharging into the gutter of the porch.

West elevation

The west elevation presents a symmetrical arrangement of two slightly projecting gabled two-storey bays, with blank walling to each side and between them. The walling treatment matches the entrance front, including quoins to the extremities of the bays. The main block roof is slated as before. A slightly off-centre chimney stack carries a group of four tall pots: original octagonal moulded pots painted light grey, two to each face. The chimney stack is smooth cement-rendered with a plain projecting cornice, painted light grey. The roofs of the projecting bays are slated to match, with similar shaped barge boards that are recent replacements approximating to the original form. PVC gutters are fitted to the sides of the bays and to the main roof, with three cast iron downpipes and shaped moulded three-quarter octagonal cast iron hoppers. Each bay has one window per floor: PVC, three lights to the ground floor and two lights to the first floor, matching those on the entrance front, with similar surrounds. Window heads throughout are of flat-arch type, appearing to be smooth cement render, lined and painted dark grey. Extending to the left-hand side and set slightly back is a lean-to single-storey block projecting from the north elevation. Its walls are smooth cement-rendered and painted, with a timber barge board. The west face contains one rectangular timber fixed light of two panels.

North elevation

The north elevation shows a two-storey gable to the right, with the rear wall of the two-storey entrance block set back to the left and one window wide. The lower 1½-storey block extends further to the left, and a gabled single-storey block projects forward from it. The walling of the two-storey gabled block is brick painted light grey, with raised rusticated stone or rendered quoins painted dark grey. The walling of the 1½-storey block is masonry similar to the entrance front, with a small area of red brick infill. The gabled single-storey block is of basalt rubble without quoins, with the south gable partly painted light grey and brick dressings to its window, painted light grey. Roofs are slated throughout; gutters and downpipes are PVC. Shaped timber barge boards to the gables are recent replacements as before.

The two-storey gable to the right has one first-floor window: rectangular PVC in surrounds matching the other elevations. A lean-to single-storey block projects forward from this, with a corrugated iron roof, a PVC gutter on a timber fascia, and one window in the south face containing rectangular timber two-light casements with small panes. There is a door in the east side of this lean-to: a rectangular timber ledged door in a timber surround.

The rear wall of the entrance block has one first-floor window: rectangular PVC, two lights, in surrounds as before. The single-storey gabled block has one window in its gable: a rectangular PVC fixed light with a top-hung vent, with light grey painted brick dressings, a concrete lintel, a dark grey painted projecting concrete cill, a light grey painted brick relieving arch, and brick spandrel fillings. To the rear of this block is a single chimney with a smooth cement-rendered base with angled haunches, a light grey brick stack with plain concrete courses, and a modern red clay pot. The original yard or space between the gabled blocks has been roofed over, with a white painted wooden fascia. The walling in this area is of brickwork painted light grey and contains a rectangular PVC glazed two-panel door, with a projecting open porch of corrugated perspex on a steel post and timber frame, and PVC rainwater goods.

East elevation

The east elevation is dominated by the east gable of the 1½-storey block, with the single-storey rear return extending to the right. The gable walling matches the entrance elevation, with shaped timber barge boards as before. There are two windows, one to each floor, both PVC two-light; the ground-floor window has top lights, the first-floor window does not, with surrounds and relieving arches as on the entrance elevation. The single-storey rear return to the right is of blank masonry matching the rest but without quoins, with PVC gutter and downpipe.

Setting

The building stands near a corner of the main road but is set back from it within its own garden, facing toward a side road that was formerly a driveway into Langford Lodge estate. A concrete path runs around the base of the house. The front boundary is formed by a low vertically slatted timber fence; the east boundary by white timber horizontal fencing between grey concrete brick piers with concrete copings, with a mature hedge behind. A vehicular gateway to the east has a pair of vertically slatted timber gates painted white, and a pedestrian gateway to the front has low vertically slatted double timber gates. To the rear of the house is a field bordered by hedges.

Adjoining the front boundary fence is a large vehicular gateway that formed the original entrance to Langford Lodge. It consists of a pair of bulky masonry piers with a stuccoed finish, painted dark grey, and fitted with a pair of later ornamental wrought iron gates painted white, which are not the original gates. Each pier face carries a raised lozenge motif that replaces the original laurel wreaths.

Historical context

The lodge was built as part of the Langford Lodge estate under the ownership of the Pakenham family. The adjacent entrance gate piers were built earlier, around the 1820s, as an entrance for General Hercules Pakenham; these have also been attributed on stylistic grounds to the Morrisons, either Richard or his son William, though James McBlain was recorded in the 1830s as architect of the main house built contemporaneously.

The history of Langford Lodge itself stretches back to the 18th century, when it was a small fishing lodge owned by the Honourable Hercules Langford Rowley. This was replaced in 1785 by a castellated structure for the grandfather of Sir Hercules Pakenham, which was itself replaced in 1821 by a three-storey Classical country house for Sir Hercules Pakenham, with James McBlain of County Down as architect. That 1821 house was demolished in around the 1950s. During the 1940s the estate was used as an American military base, and subsequently it was put to industrial and agricultural use. The former entrance gateway adjacent to Whitegate Lodge now leads to a small housing development.

An old photograph in the Green Collection at the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum shows that the smaller chimney stack to the east of the lodge originally comprised two tall octagonal chimneys similar to the surviving main stack. The same photograph shows that the adjacent entrance gateway originally had smaller secondary gate piers containing pedestrian gates, extending to railings on a plinth wall along the road-side boundary of the gate lodge.