Eden Lodge, 129 Circular Road, Jordanstown, Co Antrim, BT37 0RE

Eden Lodge is a detached Arts and Crafts house designed by R.H. Gibson in the Voysey style, built in 1926 and located on the east side of Circular Road in Jordanstown. The house is set back slightly from the road with its principal garden elevation facing east, and sits within approximately one acre of private landscaped grounds.

The building is rectangular on plan and comprises four bays across two storeys, with full-height canted bays to the east, a single-storey extension to the south with a gambrel roof, and a full-height off-centre projection to the north. The exterior is finished in painted rough-cast render with weather-slating in green natural slate. The roof is of Westmoreland natural slate with a hipped form, overhanging eaves, terracotta ridge rolls, lead valleys and gablets. There are three abutting gables rising from the main pitch to the west elevation, a hipped projection to the north, and a pitched single-storey roof to the south with blind gable. Two projecting gables to the east elevation, supported on large timber brackets with timber dowels, cover the full-height canted bays. All gables have weather-slating in green natural slate with terracotta ridge roll finishes. Tall red brick chimneystacks feature ogee-moulded cornices, terracotta pots and lead flashings. Cast-iron rainwater goods include decorative box-hoppers with floral motifs. A central square bronze sun-dial adorns the east garden elevation.

Windows throughout are square-headed with flush mullioned timber frames and iron casement windows with leaded glazing. Ground floor windows have a projecting terracotta drip course; first-floor windows abut the eaves. There are no window sills. A single bipartite window to the right of the front entrance has a flush sandstone ashlar surround and central sandstone mullion. The pair of double-height canted bays to the east garden elevation have continuous mullioned windows with weather-slating between floors and a lead drip course to the first-floor windows only. All windows feature timber dowels and bronze casement stays and latches. The single-storey sun room to the south has a double-leaf iron frame patio door with leaded glazing.

The east garden elevation is symmetrical, with full-height bays to either side and a central bay containing a single window to ground floor and two windows to first floor, with French doors to the extension. The south elevation is abutted by the extension, with windows at each floor on the left side. The west elevation has a recessed left bay with windows to each floor, and the main section contains the principal entrance offset to the right of centre, a large window lighting a half-landing, and various other windows.

The principal entrance is centrally recessed within a deep recess of ruled and lined cement render with a segmental head. The original oak panelled door is glazed to the upper section in decorative green crown glass and features a decorative bronze letter box. It opens onto a white marble and Kilkenny limestone step. A segmental-headed sandstone ashlar canopy, supported on a pair of large sandstone corbels, shelters the entrance. The door opens onto a red concrete footpath through a small garden area leading to the road via an original oak pedestrian gate with timber dowels and cast-iron furniture and hinges mounted on a pair of timber posts.

The north elevation comprises the main block with a single ground-floor window and a projecting north bay which is blank except for a vertically-sheeted timber door set in a square-headed recess. The left cheek of this projection has two windows to each floor. This door opens onto a concrete platform and steps enclosed by a vertically-sheeted timber balustrade within an enclosed yard set behind a gate screen wall and the front of the garage. The gate screen wall abuts the north end of the front elevation, finished in painted pebbledash render with concrete coping. A pair of tall piers supports an original pair of timber vehicular gates with timber dowels and open grille, with a further pedestrian door of vertically-sheeted timber.

A single-storey detached garage fronts into the small yard to the north of the house. It has a hipped natural slate roof with overhanging eaves, cast-iron rainwater goods and painted pebbledash rendered walls. A square-headed vehicular opening contains a pair of vertically-sheeted timber doors with a further pedestrian door opening into the rear garden. The south side elevation of the garage has three windows detailed as per the main house and a further square-headed door opening with a vertically-sheeted timber door.

The setting comprises private landscaped grounds of approximately one acre. The rear elevation is defined by a raised gravel area with stone steps leading down to a large square lawn enclosed on three sides by mature trees. The west elevation fronts onto Circular Road with a hedge and a bitumac parking area providing vehicular access. An NIE sub-station is positioned within the grounds with a steel gate and concrete wall fronting onto Jordanstown Road. A concrete boundary wall, dating to circa 1980, continues along the entire north boundary of the site.

The house is architecturally assured, unusually symmetrical and relatively restrained in its external detailing for the Voysey style. All its stylistic features and materials remain intact. The interior has undergone subtle, sympathetic upgrading to modern standards without the removal of important detailing. Eden Lodge possesses the essential character of a suburban Arts and Crafts residence and is a relatively rare survival of this type. The building first appears on the Fifth Edition Ordnance Survey map of 1932.