Chestnut Hill, 640 Shore Road, Jordanstown, Newtownabbey, BT37 0PR

Chestnut Hill is a detached two-storey dwelling built in the mid to late 1940s, located on the west side of Shore Road, Jordanstown, on an elevated site overlooking Belfast Lough. It is a characteristic inter-war domestic building constructed of red brick with pebbledash detailing and a flat bitumen-covered roof.

The house is rectangular in plan with a flat-roofed garage extension to the rear and a single-storey flat-roofed kitchen extension to the north. The roof features overhanging painted cast concrete eaves, brown brick chimneys with corbelled caps, and a rectangular brick water tank housing. The walling comprises red brick stretcher bond at ground floor, with pebbledash to the first floor, separated by a painted cement cill course and soldier course brick eaves. Rainwater goods are painted plastic.

The principal elevation faces east with a projecting right bay. The left bay has three openings to each floor: a corner window, French doors with side lights and transom accessed by three diminishing concrete steps, and a three-paned window at ground floor; the first floor has a corner window, a two-pane casement, and a three-pane casement. The right bay features a corner window to the first floor and is fully glazed at ground floor with a projecting cast concrete canopy extending around a semi-circular projection at the north end. Central double doors are accessed by three wide concrete steps with brick breakfront centres. Corner windows are divided at external angles by cast concrete piers with filleted reveals and horizontal incised bands.

The south elevation is arranged in two bays with a garage extension at left. The right bay projects and has corner windows at each floor. The left bay has a corner window at first floor; the ground floor features a recessed open porch partially enclosed by a pebbledashed dwarf wall, accessed by three tiled steps to a tiled threshold. A replacement glazed timber door with transom is positioned to the right side, with a high-level horizontal window to the left, all with cast concrete lintel divided by truncated cast concrete half-engaged fluted columns on concrete cill. A continuous canopy covers the porch and south elevation of the garage. The garage is surmounted by a balcony to the right side, enclosed by a timber sheeted balustrade.

The rear elevation is largely abutted by the garage extension at ground floor, with a glazed flat-roofed sunroom to the first floor; the exposed first floor has corner windows. A pebbledashed kitchen extension extends north at ground floor left. All ground floor extensions are pebbledashed. The glazed sunroom has a timber sheeted eaves board and apron. The north elevation has a semi-circular projection to the left end, glazed over a brick plinth with a continuous curved cill course and cast concrete canopy partially glazed with glass bricks and uPVC windows; a large three-paned window and projecting concrete block flue lie to its right, with a corner window at the right end. The first floor has corner windows and two small windows to centre.

Windows throughout are uPVC replacements divided into large panes with painted concrete cills. The walling treatments and linear emphasis provided by concrete canopies are defining features. A number of contemporary buildings in the immediate area reflect the stylistic detailing of this house.

The interior layout remains intact with strong natural light throughout, though many original features have been lost to alteration and modernisation. Although representative of inter-war and mid-twentieth-century domestic architecture, the house is not a particularly good example of the genre, having been compromised by significant alteration.

Historically, the site formed part of the grounds of Abbeyville, a large residence recorded on the second edition Ordnance Survey map of 1857. One of several large single dwellings along this part of Shore Road set in extensive landscaped grounds with a gate lodge, the property was valued in Griffiths Valuation as a single entry at £66 and occupied by Gilbert Vance. The adjoining estate directly to the east was developed in the early twentieth century as Circular Road. First survey records indicate the flat roof was previously enclosed by a metal railing, now removed.

The house is set in a small sloping garden at east, bounded by hedges, with modern housing developments to the immediate west and south, and a modern house positioned at the foot of the hill to the east.