Edenmore Care Home, 646 Shore Road, Whiteabbey, Co Antrim, BT37 0PR

Edenmore Care Home

This building has been demolished and modern apartments have been constructed on the site. The following description relates to the demolished building.

An asymmetrical two-storey three-bay Italianate house with additions, built around 1850, stood to the east of Shore Road and was latterly in use as a nursing home. The house was square-on-plan with a projecting right bay to the south and a full-height bowed bay to the east. An L-shaped two-storey return extended to the west with a single-storey addition to the rear. Fronting the return and part of the main block, accommodating the entrance porch, was a single-storey extension dating from around 1890 with a campanile tower. This was further extended to the west by a modern flat-roofed addition of around 1970 with no architectural interest. Attached outbuildings formed a courtyard to the northwest.

The roof was hipped natural slate with a central valley to the main block; ridges and hips were leaded. Eight large rendered chimneystacks featured cornice-caps and discs in place of pots. The return had a taller two-stage chimneystack with decorative circular vents, double cornice and a round-headed aperture to the shaft, with an ornate wrought-iron finial. The tower carried a leaded pyramidal roof. The single-storey extension was lit by a pitched glazed lantern, which had previously illuminated a ballroom.

Overhanging eaves throughout carried large plain modillions, possibly of iron, supporting a moulded frieze. Ogee cast-iron guttering featured a regular lion's head embossed motif, with cast-iron downpipes; plastic rainwater goods served the tower. The walling was painted rendered with ruled-and-lined finish and rusticated stucco quoins throughout, with a tall moulded plinth course. The extension featured a decorative balustraded parapet resting on a plain frieze and deep moulded cornice, which extended around the main block as a moulded string course between floors. The extension was embellished with rendered pilasters flanking all openings and blind roundels.

Window openings were generally segmental-headed to the first floor and square-headed to ground floor, with moulded stucco architraves. The first floor had 6/6 timber sash windows without horns, with keystone and moulded corbelled sills. The ground floor had 1/1 horned sashes with continuous moulded sill course featuring corbels and apron panels beneath openings. The extension featured round-headed 1/1 horned sashes with architrave surrounds and moulded sill courses between pilasters. Windows to the bowed bays had corresponding bowed sashes. Windows to the right of the principal entrance had been replaced by fixed-pane timber-framed windows. The tower had three round-headed timber casement windows to all sides, flanked by engaged Doric columns on plinth bases supporting an architrave and panelled frieze.

The principal elevation faced south-southeast. The main block had a projecting right bay; the central and left bays were fronted by the entrance extension. Each bay had a window to the first floor, and the right bay had a window to the ground floor; the central bay window was double. The extension accommodated the recessed principal entrance to the right of centre, with a bow containing a triple window to its right, a double window to its left, a further bow with triple window to the extended left side, and a narrow timber entrance door in a round-headed recess to the extreme left. The principal entrance was round-headed with a moulded architrave and original door-case comprising double oak doors with decorative panels, dentilled timber lintel cornice with a carved crest and a plain glazed fanlight. The door opened onto a tiled platform accessed by three tiled steps. The campanile tower displayed two visible stages, with round-headed windows to the higher stage and a square-headed window in a decorative stucco surround to the lower stage.

The east elevation, facing the garden, was symmetrical with a window at each floor either side of the central full-height bow. The north elevation of the main block was abutted by a modern single-storey pre-fabricated addition. The exposed ground floor (left) had two 2/2 horizontally divided sashes; the first floor had three 6/6 windows, and the right side had two blind round-headed niches at mid-level and a number of diminutive modern openings. The west elevation of the main block was almost entirely abutted by the return and a modern brick outshot to first floor centre; the exposed first floor right had a window matching others. The return was almost entirely abutted at ground floor by the extension to the south, the addition and outbuilding to the north, and a slightly lower former service range to the west. The exposed first floor featured a number of square 1/1 sash windows with plain stucco surrounds and moulded sills, as did the addition.

The house was fronted by a bitumac parking area. An attached courtyard of original outbuildings to the northwest featured pitched natural slate roofs, rendered chimneystacks and rendered walling. A curvilinear gable marked the end of the south service range where it abutted the west range, which also had a defined north gable rising above the later range of outbuildings. An additional range of outbuildings from around 1940 extended considerably in a northwest direction. The former grounds have since been developed and now accommodate several housing estates.