24 Victoria Road, Holywood, Co Down, BT18 9BG

A two-storey-with-attic, three-bay semi-detached Victorian house with neoclassical detailing, built around 1850 and located on the north side of Victoria Road in Holywood, County Down.

The building is L-shaped on plan with a single-storey flat-roof extension to the rear. The original entrance porch faces southwest and is now abutted to the left by a modern conservatory (which replaces an original greenhouse) and to the right by a twentieth-century entrance lobby. The pitched roof is covered in natural slate with chimneystacks topped by clay pots on moulded plinths. Cast-iron ogee rainwater goods sit on deep overhanging eaves with timber soffits and paired corbel brackets. The walling is painted roughcast render with smooth render raised plat-band.

The principal entrance elevation is notably detailed in the neoclassical style. The original projecting entrance porch has a large window with moulded architrave and is finished with corner pilasters surmounted by a plain entablature and cornice. Above the porch at first-floor level sits a neoclassical-styled niche with bead-moulded surround, panelled pilasters and decorative scrolled console brackets beneath an ovolo-moulded dentilled cornice. The original timber entrance door comprises four raised-and-fielded panels with beaded muntin and brass door furniture, topped by a transom light and framed by a moulded architrave with corner pilasters.

Windows are mainly 2/2 margin-paned sliding sash. Those to the first floor are set in moulded surrounds with lugs and pediments (a rounded pediment crowns the window above the canted bay). The canted bay features dividing Doric pilasters surmounted by moulded architrave with plain entablature and cornice. The southeast (rear) elevation includes a segmental-headed multi-paned window to the attic, a window to the first floor and a replacement timber-framed window to the ground floor, with a segmental-headed multi-paned stairwell window in the right bay. The northeast elevation is abutted by the adjoining building (HB23/20/062A). The northwest elevation displays two openings with a slightly projecting gabled bay to the right; a canted bay occurs at ground floor with a diminutive segmental-headed multi-paned window serving the attic above.

The house is set back from Victoria Road and accessed via Victoria Lane to the northwest through a tarmacadamed driveway. The original entrance from Victoria Road to the west features squared stone gate piers. A lawned garden lies to the north and a small yard to the south, enclosed to the north and west by a roughcast boundary wall and mature hedgerow. A modern outbuilding to the south is of no architectural interest.

Historical Background

Following the opening of the railway in 1848, Holywood became increasingly attractive to prosperous merchants and professionals who built homes in spacious grounds surrounding the town. In the early 1850s, William Bankhead Esq commissioned three structures on this plot at High Holywood. Thomas Turner, a noted architect, was engaged to design the buildings, which were initially intended as a mansion, outbuildings and porter's lodge. Correspondence of 1854 between Turner and Bankhead, along with documents of 1852 held at the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland, demonstrate Turner's involvement in designing alterations including outbuildings.

The three structures on the site were originally collectively known as 'Hillbrook'; two subsequently became known as 'Glenburn' and 'Donnybrook', while the remaining structure retained the 'Hillbrook' name. All three buildings first appear on the second edition Ordnance Survey map of 1858, captioned 'Hillbrook'. There is evidence that Hillbrook was used as a school in the 1850s and 60s by John Turpin, though the specific building is unclear owing to the subsequent changes of name. According to local historian Auld, the current house was the mansion designed by Turner and was later divided into two semi-detached dwellings.

According to Griffith's Valuation (1856-64), the property was occupied by John Anderson, who leased it from William Bankhead. The house, offices and yard were valued at £42. The valuation fell to £37 by 1885 and the property lay vacant by 1887. John Anderson was a Justice of the Peace and partner in the firm Young & Anderson, manufacturers and wholesale warehousemen with premises in Donegall Street, Belfast. The house was noted vacant in 1901 with no census return identified; the valuation dropped further to £22 by 1903. Robert Erskine Junior was resident in 1908, followed by Robert L Kemp by 1909. In 1911, the house was home to Thomas Little Kemp, a steamship manager, and his wife, who employed a general domestic servant from Monaghan.

A substantial increase in valuation to £51 10s occurred in 1922, likely following improvements including the addition of garages to the rear and additional land to the plot. The valuation was reduced to £45 in 1924, probably following an appeal. According to local historian Auld, until his death in 1955, the house was home to Claud Henfrey, an ice-cream manufacturer credited with introducing choc-ices to Ireland and a collector of early Holywood photographs, though it remains uncertain which of the two semi-detached houses was his residence.

The setting has been compromised by the recent construction of a group of two-storey dwellings to the north, to which these houses now share access, and by the imminent development of land to the west. The two semi-detached houses, though forming a pair with similar preservation standards, are not among the finest examples of the type built for the professional classes during Holywood's mid-nineteenth-century expansion.