Garden Lodge Veterinary Practice, 397 Old Holywood Road, Holywood, Co Down, BT18 9QH

Garden Lodge is a detached, symmetrical five-bay two-storey rendered house of mid-19th-century date, evolved from an earlier single-storey structure. It stands on the west side of Old Holywood Road in Holywood, Co Down, with its main elevation facing south towards landscaped gardens, while a concrete-paved yard with single-storey outbuildings (now converted for veterinary use) occupies the rear.

The house is L-shaped in plan with a pitched natural slate roof fitted with black clay ridge tiles. Rendered profiled chimneystacks rise to either gable end, decorated with timber bargeboards. The eaves feature ogee-moulded cast-iron guttering with plastic downpipes. The walls are painted roughcast render with rusticated render quoins.

The south-facing front elevation is five windows wide, with square-headed window openings containing 6/6 timber sash windows, painted masonry sills, and moulded architrave surrounds. Some retain original cylinder glass. A cornice moulding runs between the floors and continues at the eaves. The central entrance comprises a portico with a pair of Doric piers supporting an oversized plain entablature, with corresponding engaged piers glazed with fixed-pane lights to the cheeks. The doorway itself has an architrave surround, oversized console brackets, and a pair of replacement timber glazed doors opening onto a red sandstone step. A modern timber-frame conservatory abuts the front elevation.

The west side elevation is blank and abutted by a quadrant screen wall with a round-headed pedestrian opening. A 1.5-storey rendered outbuilding abuts the return along this elevation. The rear north elevation comprises a pair of two-storey gabled returns at either end and a central diminutive two-storey gable housing the stairhall, abutted by a single-storey gable-fronted rear entrance porch. The entire north elevation contains 6/6 timber sash windows, except for a round-headed stairhall window fitted with a 4/4 timber sash window and coloured margin lights. The east side elevation is largely blank; the east elevation of the return is abutted by a single-storey three-sided canted bay with a steel frame, leaded overlights, and replacement double-leaf glazed doors.

The property is set behind a tall rendered wall accessed via a short concrete paved drive that opens into a yard along the rear elevation. Modern commercial buildings front onto this yard, with a further enclosed small yard behind the house. The front garden is landscaped and includes a tennis court and bitumac parking area.

Historical Context

The house appears, uncaptioned, on the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1834 and was listed in the Townland Valuation of 1834 as a house and offices valued at £6 8s, occupied by Mr Jackson. The Jackson family apparently gave their name to Jackson's Road, which runs north of the property. A Mr Jackson is mentioned in the Ordnance Survey Memoirs as agent to J Kennedy Esq., proprietor of Holywood and Knocknagoney townlands, and the house likely served as his residence.

A travel guide of 1950 asserts that the Jackson family emigrated from this house to the United States and produced General Stonewall Jackson, who distinguished himself on the Confederate side during the American Civil War. John Jackson, the general's ancestor, is said to have emigrated from Ulster in 1748, though numerous claims across Ulster associate with the Jackson family, and the authenticity of this particular claim could not be established.

On the second edition Ordnance Survey map of 1858, the house is captioned 'Garden Lodge'. Griffith's Valuation of 1856-64 lists it as the residence of George Jackson, who leased it from John Harrison. It is recorded as a house, offices, and land with buildings initially valued at £7, rising to £17, perhaps indicating rebuilding or remodelling at this time. The valuation describes it as a thatched house with return and stone-finished front, accompanied by several outbuildings including a thatched cow house. The valuer's notes read: "Neat cottage, good aspect, a large quantity of roofing to repair…A very neat farm house all in good repair." A large farm attached to the property was valued at £142.

George Jackson died apparently childless in 1883, and the property passed to Robert G Dunville, owner of the nearby Redburne House. Though listed as occupier until 1916, Dunville appears to have let or lent the house to relatives and friends, some recorded in street directories. In 1890 it was home to Mrs Chaine (possibly Dunville's mother-in-law; he had married Jeannie Chaine), and in 1901 to Captain Swan. After acquiring Garden Lodge, Dunville also built a gate lodge to his own residence on land formerly belonging to the Jacksons, increasing the plot's valuation to £30. In 1914 the Dunvilles demolished some old outbuildings and constructed new ones, increasing the valuation to £40. Valuer's notes from this period record a plan and dimensions of the property. The property passed to John D Dunville in 1916.

The house retains most of its historic fabric and is a good example of a developed mid-19th-century semi-rural residence of the type that pre-dates Holywood's expansion following the arrival of the railways. While modern commercial buildings have been added to the rear yard, the front elevation, with its landscaped grounds, better reflects the original symmetrical design and character of the property.