Bush House, Bush Road, Antrim, Co Antrim, BT41 2QB

Bush House is an early to mid-19th century house, built in 1835 for James Arthur in a late Georgian tradition, with architect unknown. It stands in a rural area of County Antrim, set well back from a minor road within extensive grounds. The house has retained many of its original exterior and interior features, though it has lost some domestic character through conversion and extension over more than half a century — initially for institutional use and later for administrative and office functions. It was purchased in 1934 by Holywell Mental Hospital to house paying female patients; a rear return extension was built around 1939 as wards, and the former stables were converted to a nurses' home at the same time. The building ceased to be under the control of Holywell Hospital in 1991, becoming the headquarters of the United Hospitals Trust. The listing covers the house, courtyard, walled garden shelter, and gatescreen.

MAIN HOUSE

The house is two storeys, with a long two-storey rear return. The main entrance faces west. The west (entrance) elevation is symmetrical, with a central entrance set within a projecting single-storey porch, flanked by two windows on each side. The walls are of snecked basalt with square basalt quoins at the corners, and red brick block surrounds to the windows and entrance doorway. The hipped roof is covered with Bangor blue slates laid in regular courses, with overhanging eaves finished in white-painted timber soffit carried on shaped timber brackets, and a moulded cast iron gutter.

The porch is of similar walling to the main block, with a moulded granite cornice and plain blocking course. The door itself is a modern rectangular glazed and panelled type, set within a glazed and panelled timber screen with sidelights and a fanlight. The doorstep is concrete, approached by a later tarmac ramp flanked by curving plinth walls surmounted by iron railings. The side walls of the porch are blank; the left-hand side wall carries a cast iron downpipe and moulded cast iron hopper. Above the porch is a central triplet of semi-circular arcaded windows — semi-circular headed timber sliding sashes, vertically hung, 3 over 2 with margin lights and horns, set in smooth cement-rendered reveals. To each side of the porch and to each side of the first-floor triplet are rectangular timber sliding sashes, vertically hung, 6 over 6, with horns, set in smooth cement-rendered reveals with projecting stone cills and flat arched brickwork heads; the extreme left window on the ground floor has been rebuilt with a soldier course of rustic brick.

The north end of the front block is two storeys, of similar walling, roof, and eaves, with a PVC downpipe to the right-hand side. There is one window to each floor: rectangular sliding sashes as on the entrance front, in similar surrounds, except that the ground-floor window has no brickwork to the head and appears to have a painted concrete lintel.

To the left of the main front block, set back and abutting the rear corner, is a basalt rubble screen wall to the rear yard, linking with a gabled two-storey outbuilding. This screen wall has a sandstone coping and contains a rectangular ledged timber door set in a wooden frame with a new red brick surround; to the right of the doorway are two small, high-level rectangular timber fixed lights with brick block dressings, sandstone lintels, and cement-rendered recessed cills.

To the right of the main front block extends a single-storey flat-roofed block in two stages, built of coursed basalt with red brick dressings to openings, and a concrete coping at eaves level. It has two small rectangular metal-framed windows with concrete lintels, and a rectangular doorway opening to the right of the windows giving access to a recessed open porch with a concrete floor and smooth rendered walls, and a rectangular 4-panel door. Abutting the side of this single-storey block and extending to the south is a long basalt rubble garden wall.

REAR ELEVATION AND RETURN

The rear of the main house is slated as previously described, with similar soffit and shaped brackets to the overhanging eaves. There are two chimneys, smooth cement-rendered, with moulded cornices, each carrying two original octagonal-section earthenware pots. The wall to the right of the rear return has smooth cement render to the upper portion above basalt rubble, and lean-to single-storey outbuildings against the yard screen wall obscure the ground floor of the front block.

The rear return is two storeys, comprising a long double-pile block with a later hipped-roof extension to the east. The north elevation of the original return has a slated roof with sprocketed eaves and two chimneys: one of red brick with a projecting stone cornice and blocking course carries two original octagonal earthenware pots; the chimney on the east gable carries three modern red terracotta pots. Walls are of basalt rubble with brick block dressings. Guttering appears to be cast iron, with a mixture of cast iron and PVC downpipes and cast iron soil pipes. At first-floor level there are seven windows, all rectangular timber sliding sashes: the leftmost is 1 over 1 with horns; the next five are 6 over 6 with horns; the rightmost is 6 over 6 without horns. At ground-floor level there are three windows, all pairs of coupled rectangular timber sliding sashes, 1 over 1, with horns, set in segmental brick arches. Between the first and second windows from the left is an elliptically arched recess with brick dressings, containing a rectangular timber glazed and panelled door set in smooth cement-rendered walls and ceiling with a concrete floor.

The east gable of the original return shows a short section of basalt rubble. The later two-storey eastern extension is built of purple brick with red brick block dressings to windows and a double eaves course of angled red brick, under a hipped roof of Bangor blue slates. Two roof ventilators of octagonal section have semi-circular headed alternate panels and openings, ogee domed tops, and ball finials. Guttering and downpipes are moulded cast iron, with rectangular cast iron hoppers ornamented with a raised quadrant motif. Windows are rectangular timber sliding sashes, vertically hung, with horns: 1 over 1, 6 over 6, and 4 over 4 to the ground floor; 6 over 6 and 4 over 4 to the first floor; all with projecting concrete cills.

On the north side of this extension is a lean-to entrance porch of matching purple and red brick, with a slated roof and moulded cast iron gutter on an angled brick eaves course; the downpipe is partly cast iron and partly PVC. The front face of the porch has a rectangular timber glazed and panelled door with a plain rectangular fanlight, and a window to the right sashed 4 over 4. To the left of the porch is a projecting first-floor-level link block connecting to the gable of the north wing of the outbuildings return, of similar brickwork to the eastern extension, with a deep beam of pink-tinted concrete or smooth render and a smooth-rendered underside. The link block has a slated roof with red ridge tiles, and one window in each face: rectangular small-paned timber fixed lights in red brick block dressings with projecting concrete cills. At the eastern extremity of the north elevation is a later small single-storey projecting block of similar purple and red brickwork, with a flat concrete slab roof and one rectangular metal fixed light with a top-hung vent in the north end.

The east gable of the eastern extension is two storeys, of purple brick with angled red brick eaves courses and red brick block dressings to two doorways — one on each floor — with the upper one reached by a steel fire escape stairway. Both have modern flush panelled and glazed doors with plain rectangular fanlights.

SOUTH ELEVATION

The south elevation runs from left to right across the south end of the main front block, the two-storey return, and the two-storey extension block. The south end of the main front block is similar to the north end, with a matching first-floor window, but the ground floor is partly covered by a later single-storey porch to the rear of the small toilet block on the entrance front. The walls here are of smooth cement render, lined, with a projecting plinth and a flat concrete slab roof with a cast iron downpipe from a secret gutter. There is one window in the south face — rectangular metal-framed fixed lights and a side-hung casement with horizontal pane divisions — and one doorway in the east face: rectangular timber, glazed and panelled, with a plain rectangular fanlight.

The south elevation of the original rear return is two storeys and seven windows wide, with a higher two-storey extension to the east. The original return walls are of roughly coursed snecked basalt rubble, with the same slated roof as the main front block. Three chimneys sit on the ridge, each of red brick with a plain projecting stone cornice and blocking course; the first stack from the west has three original octagonal earthenware pots, and the other two stacks each have two similar pots. Windows are rectangular timber sliding sashes, 6 over 6, without horns, except for the sixth window from the west on the ground floor which is 8 over 8, and the seventh window from the west on the ground floor which has horns. All windows have smooth cement-rendered reveals and projecting painted stone cills, with original brick block surrounds and flat arched heads. The roof overhangs with a plain flat-sheeted soffit, timber eaves board, cast iron gutter, and cast iron downpipe.

The south elevation of the later two-storey extension has basalt rubble walls with angled red brick eaves courses, a moulded cast iron gutter, cast iron downpipe, and cast iron waste pipes with rectangular cast iron hoppers ornamented with a raised quadrant motif. The hipped roof is slated as previously, with the brick eaves course ramped up on the left to meet the eaves line of the original return block. Projecting from this elevation is a canted five-sided two-storey bay of purple brick with angled red brick eaves course, red brick window dressings, and a terracotta finial to the bay roof (now painted black). All windows to this bay and elevation are rectangular timber sliding sashes, 6 over 6, with horns, and projecting concrete cills. There are two doorways: the one to the left of the projecting bay is a rectangular timber glazed and panelled door with glazed and panelled sidelights and a three-pane rectangular fanlight, set in red brick block dressings with a soldier course to the head; the one to the right of the bay is a pair of modern glazed and panelled doors surmounted by a three-pane fanlight in a similar brick-dressed opening. A concrete area runs along the full south face of the rear return, bordered by a gravel path, with a large lawn beyond in the walled garden.

WALLED GARDEN

The walled garden is enclosed by a basalt rubble and field-stone wall with rough cement coping. There are three doorways in the wall: one in the west wall has a flat concrete lintel and old brick dressings to the jambs; one in the east wall has a segmental brick arch with brick jambs and contains a corrugated iron panelled sliding door to the outside; and a third in the south wall, at the south-east corner, leads into a small garden store projecting on the outside face of the garden wall. This store has a rectangular ledged timber door in old and new brick-dressed jambs with a flat arch head, and a window to the left — a rectangular timber sliding sash, 3 over 3, without horns. The shed itself is a simple store with rubble walls, a cement floor, and a lean-to rafter roof.

Standing in the centre of the garden is a gabled garden house of 1930s appearance: open-fronted to each long side and containing bench seats, with red tiled roofs, rendered walls with dry dash finish, and ocular windows in the gables with unusual horseshoe-like rendered surrounds.

OUTBUILDINGS

Single-storey outbuildings are built against the screen wall to the north of the main front block. They have a roof of Bangor blue slates, PVC gutter and downpipe, and walls of basalt rubble, with three rectangular timber ledged doors in wooden frames with red brick block dressings; one window to the left is a rectangular timber sliding sash, 6 over 3, without horns, with exposed sash boxes. The end wall of this single-storey range is basalt rubble with a red brick gable above. Between the end of this block and the two-storey wing of outbuildings to the north is a steep fire escape stairway from the two-storey block.

The two-storey outbuildings wing to the north of the rear yard is slated, with original flush rooflights on the north side. Walls are of roughly coursed basalt rubble with angled brick eaves course, moulded cast iron gutter, and cast iron downpipes and soil pipe. Windows are rectangular metal-framed casements with horizontal pane division, set in modern brick block surrounds with flat arched brick heads and projecting concrete cills. There is a rectangular flush timber glazed door in the centre of the west gable, set within a modern open porch of red brick walls and a flat concrete slab roof.

Projecting from the north side of this wing is a single-storey gabled projection with smooth cement-rendered lined and blocked walls, a red brick chimney on the gable, buttresses to the corners and centre of each side, and metal-framed windows as elsewhere. At the east end of the wing is a wide rectangular opening leading into the yard, with rounded brick jambs and a pink-tinted concrete or rendered lintel.

The south elevation of the wing is of similar character to the north. The wing returns southwards at the east end, forming a lower two-storey block of basalt rubble with brick dressings. Windows in this return are a mixture of new rectangular timber fixed lights with top-hung vents (which have horns attached to give the appearance of sashed windows), later small-paned fixed lights, and original sashes. The east and south walls of the return are finished with a dry dash of blackstone chippings.

The eastern extension of the outbuildings wing is gabled and slated with original rooflights. The south wall is plain red brick; the north wall and gable are roughly coursed basalt rubble with crude brick dressings to the openings.

Standing detached to the north of the outbuildings wing is a twin-gabled single-storey building: the eastern portion is smooth-rendered, lined and blocked; the western portion is in red brick with segmental arched openings containing a central door and segmental-headed sashed windows of 2 over 2 panes. There are red brick chimneys, a canted bay to the north gable of brick block construction, and a lean-to roofed extension to the south gable containing a rectangular metal window.

SETTING AND APPROACH

The building stands in a rural area facing a minor road, set well back within its own extensive grounds, with a large lawn to the front bordered by mature trees. The approach is by a driveway from an entrance gateway, curving up to a tarmac parking area immediately in front of the building; the driveway continues around the north side to an extensive car park to the north. The grounds at the rear merge into the grounds of a new hospital. The walled garden to the south of the house is surrounded by a thickly wooded area. To the east of the rear return are single-storey gabled sheds of basalt rubble and concrete blockwork with corrugated iron roofs, which are of no architectural interest.

GATESCREEN

A set of decorative cast iron railings and end piers forms the entrance screen. Each length of railing is shaped as a double curve, terminating at each end in an open square column of upright bars on a moulded base with lattice-work to top and bottom. The gates are missing. The gatescreen was presumably erected at the same time as the house, or soon afterwards — at least by the mid-19th century.