Ardnalea House, 69 Station Road, Craigavad, Bangor, County Down, BT19 1EZ

Ardnalea House is a mid-19th century two-storey house with basement, built around 1845, situated on the north side of Station Road, Holywood, at Craigavad. It was originally a large detached residence and is now divided into four separate dwellings, a subdivision that first took place in the mid-20th century. The portion addressed as No. 69 has functioned as a single dwelling since that time, comprising the eastern part of the original house. The exterior is plainly detailed with restrained ornamentation of classical proportions, while the interior is of particular significance in the context of Northern Ireland for its exceptional and unusual Rococo-style detailing. The house is a fine and largely intact example of the suburban villa type, reflecting the expansion of Belfast's suburbs in the Victorian period. Its setting has been somewhat compromised by infill development, though the house retains an open aspect northward over Belfast Lough.

The building is rectangular on plan, attached and two-bay on its principal elevation. The roof is hipped natural slate with tall rendered chimneystacks fitted with moulded caps. Eaves are finished with an overhanging cornice, and rainwater goods are ogee-profile cast iron. The external walls are rendered, with a cornice, frieze and architrave articulating each floor, and a cill course at first-floor level. Windows to the ground floor are double-hung metal-framed and timber casements; the first floor is generally glazed with 1-over-1 horned timber sashes, except for a 2-over-4 timber stairwell window to the rear, which is flanked by 2-over-1 (horizontally divided) lights. Basement windows have been replaced in uPVC. Projecting painted masonry cills appear throughout. The door is a modern timber panelled replacement fitted with sidelights and a transom.

The principal elevation faces north and comprises six equally spaced openings at each floor across the full width of the original house. No. 69 occupies the four openings to the centre and left; the two openings at the right belong to the separately listed portion (HB23/16/006B), which is converted into three apartments. The east elevation has an exposed basement; a canted bay rises from basement to ground floor level, with three openings at each level, including a door to the basement. To the left of this elevation at ground floor is a blind niche, above a basement window. The first floor of the east elevation has three windows. The rear, south-facing elevation has asymmetrical fenestration across two floors above an exposed basement, and contains the main entrance, which is sheltered by a painted masonry canopy. This elevation is abutted to the left by a former return, now part of the separately listed portion. There is no west elevation. The house is reached via a gravel lane from the south, set within a secluded residential setting accessed from a lane off Station Road. An expansive lawn to the north provides an open outlook over Belfast Lough, with small gardens bounded by a hedge to the rear.

The house first appears on the second edition Ordnance Survey map of 1858, captioned as 'Ardnalee Ho[use]', with two gate lodges, a landing place, a flagstaff and a formal garden also marked. Griffith's Valuation of the same period records it as a house, offices and land, occupied by Lady Bateson and leased from William S. Mitchell, a linen merchant and minor landowner who lived at nearby 'Olinda'. The house was valued at £77, later raised to £92. The valuer described it as "an elegantly finished cottage in very good repair... somewhat against it, basement dark. 15 years built," which places construction at around 1845. Dimensions recorded at that time indicate a single-storey structure with a gate lodge. Lady Bateson was the wife of Sir Robert Bateson, a Conservative politician and significant landowner, who died in 1863 at his home in Belvoir Park. The house appears to have served as a bathing lodge or dower house for the Bateson family. Notes preserved by the Crawford family, who were subsequent occupiers, suggest that the interior decoration was carried out by Italian artists in the 1840s at the time of the house's construction.

By 1875 the house was occupied by William Crawford, a member of the family who owned nearby Crawfordsburn. According to family records, William Crawford of Ardnalea was a Director of the Belfast Bank in Waring Street, a bank founded by Hugh Crawford in 1808. Crawford substantially altered the house, raising it by a storey and adding further outbuildings by 1877, shortly after taking possession. The valuation was consequently raised to £168. In 1891, labourers' houses were added to the plot without any change to the assessed value. Crawford died in 1907 leaving a considerable fortune, and the property passed to his son Robert J. Crawford.

By 1933 the house was still occupied by Robert J. Crawford and continued to be valued at £168. The valuer's notes from this period describe it as an "old-fashioned semi-basement house" with a "splendid view of Lough," with painted walls and water supplied from a well via a gas engine pump, lit by Holywood gas, with a 1½ horsepower gas engine driving the water pump. The recorded accommodation at that date was extensive: the ground floor contained a dining room, reading room, inner hall, two drawing rooms, outer hall, cloakroom, WC, washbasin, pantry, study and a second WC. The first floor held five principal bedrooms, two dressing rooms, a sink room (noted as HM, purpose uncertain), bathroom with washbasin, sewing room, four maids' bedrooms and a WC. The basement contained a larder, scullery, kitchen, maid's bathroom, three store rooms, three lumber rooms, boiler house, cellar, dairy and a disused kitchen. Outbuildings at this time included a boathouse, fowl houses, byres and hay barns.

Robert J. Crawford appealed his rating in 1935, arguing that the basement, apart from kitchen premises, the dairy, storeroom, cellar and central heating store, lay empty, and that its existence required an additional maid to carry coal and other goods upstairs. The valuation was reduced to £155. In 1940 the mansion house and three acres of curtilage were requisitioned by the military, with Crawford retaining six and a half acres.

Family notes indicate the house was sold in 1948 and converted into flats, a conversion possibly carried out by Henry Lynn, an architect working in Belfast between 1930 and 1972, whose drawings of the outbuildings survive. A series of Crawford family photographs dating from around 1947 record the interior at that time. By 1949 the house had been divided into a house and two flats. In November of that year the main house was occupied by Colonel Vinnycomb and valued at £62; Flat No. 3 was let to Air Commodore Churchman at a valuation of £39; and Flat No. 2 was let to Mrs V. Grainger at £44. Air Commodore Allan Robert Churchman (1896–1970) was a distinguished RAF officer who served in both World Wars, was among the first recipients of the Distinguished Flying Cross following its introduction in 1918, and towards the end of the Second World War served as Air Officer Commanding of the RAF in Northern Ireland. On retiring from the RAF he became General Inspector within the Ministry of Health and Local Government in Northern Ireland, a post he held until 1961.

Valuer's notes from 1950 remark that the main block of the house, occupied by Colonel Vinnycomb, had been modernised and was in good condition, was the best situated part, and enjoyed a full view over the Lough, with the owner retaining control over all grounds extending to three acres. In 1951 a new motor house was erected for Colonel Vinnycomb, adding £2 to the valuation.