Ardnalea House, Apartments 1-3, 71-73 Station Road, Craigavad, Bangor, County Down, BT19 1EZ

Ardnalea House is a grand two-storey house over a basement, built around 1845, situated on the south shores of Belfast Lough at the north end of Station Road, Holywood. It was originally constructed as a single dwelling and is rectangular on plan. The western portion and return of the original house now forms this listing (apartments 1–3), while the eastern side operates as a separate dwelling. The building was subdivided into two dwellings in the mid-20th century, and this western portion has since been further divided into three apartments. The exterior is plainly detailed with restrained, classically styled ornamentation.

The roof is hipped natural slate with tall rendered chimneystacks and moulded caps. The overhanging eaves carry an ogee-profiled cast-iron rainwater system. External walls are rendered and articulated with a cornice, frieze and architrave to each floor, and a cill course at first floor level. Ground floor windows are full-height double-hung timber-framed casements; first floor windows are generally one-over-one horned timber sashes. A lower single-storey extension with attic and basement projects to the south, with its own separate porch entrance. The attic windows to this extension have been raised to form tall round-headed dormers that break the eaves line.

The principal elevation faces west and is symmetrically arranged with five equally spaced openings centred on a wide elliptical-arched entrance with a modern glazed timber door and matching sidelights. The opening to the right forms the entrance to Apartment 2. Both entrances are approached by a perron over basement level, bounded by modern metal railings and finished with modern terracotta tiles. The north elevation, shared across the full width of the original house, has six equally spaced openings to each floor; the two openings to the right side belong to this listing, with Apartment 1 at ground floor and Apartment 2 at first floor. The east elevation is partly abutted by the neighbouring dwelling. The remaining section of the east elevation has two storeys with a mezzanine storey between ground and first floor, is three windows wide, and sits over a basement open to a narrow perimeter channel. Windows throughout this elevation are one-over-one sashes with projecting painted masonry sills, and a string course rises over the mezzanine windows. The rear south elevation is abutted by the lower extension, which is itself further abutted by a modern gabled porch serving as the entrance to Apartment 3. The extension is a single bay deep and two windows wide on both its east and west sides; the south gable is blank apart from the porch, which is of no architectural interest.

Internally, the house originally featured a decorative scheme known as Grottesca, believed to have been executed by Italian artists in the 1840s at the time of construction. This scheme has been overpainted, which significantly reduces the interior's exceptional significance when compared to the neighbouring property, which retains original decoration in a Rococo style. However, portions of the original Grottesca scheme survive beneath wall panels. The subdivision of the interior, carried out in phases across the 20th century, has resulted in a complex and somewhat awkward internal arrangement.

The house first appears on the second edition Ordnance Survey map of 1858, captioned 'Ardnalee Ho[use]', at which time two gate lodges, a landing place, a flagstaff and a formal garden are 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 valuation was set at £77, later raised to £92, and 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. The house appears to have served as a bathing lodge or dower house for Lady Bateson, the wife of Sir Robert Bateson, a Conservative politician and significant landowner who died in 1863 at his home at Belvoir Park.

By 1875 the house was occupied by William Crawford, a member of the family associated with nearby Crawfordsburn. Family notes record that William Crawford of Ardnalea was a Director of the Belfast Bank in Waring Street, a bank founded by Hugh Crawford in 1808. Crawford carried out significant alterations to the house, raising it by a storey and constructing additional outbuildings by 1877, shortly after taking occupation; the valuation was consequently raised to £168. In 1891, labourers' houses were added to the plot with no change in 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 remained in Robert J. Crawford's occupation and was still valued at £168. The valuer's notes from that year describe it as an "old-fashioned semi-basement house" with a "splendid view of Lough" and walls with painted finishes. At that time the accommodation comprised, on the ground floor: a dining room, reading room, inner hall, two drawing rooms, an outer hall, cloakroom, water closet, washbasin, pantry, study and a further water closet. On the first floor were five principal bedrooms, two dressing rooms, a sink room, a bathroom, a sewing room, four maids' bedrooms and a water closet. The basement contained a larder, scullery, kitchen, maid's bathroom, three storerooms, three lumber rooms, a boiler house, cellar, dairy and a disused kitchen. The property also included outbuildings such as a boathouse, fowl houses, byres and hay barns. The house was supplied with water from a well using a gas engine pump with a one-and-a-half horsepower engine, and lit by Holywood gas. Robert J. Crawford appealed his valuation in 1935, noting that the basement, except for the kitchen premises, dairy, storeroom, cellar and central heating store, was empty but necessitated an extra maid to carry coals 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 that the house was sold in 1948 and converted into flats, the conversion possibly carried out by architect Henry Lynn, who was working in Belfast between 1930 and 1972 and whose drawings of the outbuildings survive. A series of Crawford family photographs document the interior as it appeared in 1947. By 1949 the building had been converted into a house and two flats: the main house was occupied by Colonel Vinnycomb and valued at £62; Flat No. 3 was let to Air Commodore Churchman, valued at £39; and Flat No. 2 was let to Mrs V. Grainger, valued at £44. Air Commodore Allan Robert Churchman (1896–1970) was a distinguished RAF officer with a record spanning both World Wars. He received one of the first Distinguished Flying Crosses awarded after their introduction in 1918, and towards the end of the Second World War became Air Officer Commanding of the RAF in Northern Ireland. On retiring from the RAF he served as General Inspector within the Ministry of Health and Local Government in Northern Ireland until 1961. In 1950, a valuer noted that the main block was modernised and in good condition, with the owner retaining full control of the three-acre grounds and enjoying a full view over the Lough. A new motor house was erected for Colonel Vinnycomb in 1951, adding £2 to the valuation.

The house occupies a secluded setting accessed from a private residential lane off Station Road. An expansive lawn to the north provides an open aspect towards Belfast Lough, and there is a gravel parking area to the west bordered by shrubs. A modern garage stands at the south-west corner of the site, reached from the south by a short gravel drive. The setting has been compromised by infill development. As a whole, Ardnalea is a fine and largely original example of its type, displaying its historic development alongside all the characteristics of a suburban villa from the period of Belfast's suburban expansion. Its association with the Crawford family is also of note.