Boat House Restaurant, 1a Seacliff Road, Bangor, Co Down, BT20 5HD

Boat House Restaurant

A two-storey single bay rubble masonry boat and watch house, built around 1865, located at the south-east corner of Bangor Marina where Victoria Road and Seacliff Road meet. The building stands north to south and originally sat at the water's edge before the marina's construction. Although recently converted to a restaurant, its distinctive architectural form and external character have been retained. The building is of historical interest as one of the few surviving representations of mid-19th century maritime activity in Bangor and was associated with the nearby Coastguard station that occupied the Tower House.

Architectural Features

The roof is hipped with natural slate and features an eaves board along exposed rafter tails with downlights affixed to the eaves soffit. The original chimney has been replaced in brick with sandstone coping and a chamfered yellow plinth course. Half-round metal gutters and circular metal downpipes drain the roof. The walls consist of roughly-dressed blackstone brought to courses and embellished with replacement stepped cut sandstone quoins. All openings are square-headed and trimmed with cut sandstone.

The north gable, facing seaward, has a wide segmental-headed doorway now fitted with double glazed doors and a glazed canopy. Above this is an 8-over-8 sliding sash window in front of which is a small cantilevered balcony supported on two timber beams. Historical photographs show a small slipway formerly ran in front of this gable to the water, though no traces now survive.

The west elevation features a flight of external stone steps with a vertically-barred metal handrail leading to a first-floor doorway with a replacement sheeted timber door. To the right of this door is a 2-over-2 sliding sash window with a cut sandstone cill. Beneath the stairway is a 2-pane timber window with a dressed granite cill and vertical metal security bars.

The south gable is partly cut into the slope so only the first floor is visible externally. A semicircular-headed opening to the centre contains a 2-over-2 sliding sash window.

The east elevation has a 2-pane window to the ground floor matching the west elevation's details, and two 8-over-8 sliding sash windows to the first floor, both with sandstone cills.

Historical Development

No boathouse appears on either the 1834 or 1858 Ordnance Survey maps. The Office of Public Works Archive contains a contractor's drawing of 1865 showing the boathouse with a watch house on the floor above. The building was associated with the nearby Coastguard Station. It is captioned as a watch house on the 1901 Ordnance Survey map. The building was subsequently used as an office by the Bangor Harbour Master before its conversion to a restaurant in the 1990s.

Setting

The building now sits in a tarmacadam car park at the south-east corner of Bangor Marina, adjacent to the listed Tower House to the north and overlooking Bangor Bay. The surrounding car park has been built on made ground, obscuring the former slipway. Modern steel railings guard a retaining wall around three sides of the building. The setting has been somewhat compromised by the raising of ground level to form the marina car park, however the building retains considerable historical and industrial archaeological interest as an indicator of Bangor's mid-19th century maritime heritage.

The listing extends to the boathouse, steps and gate piers.