Sir Samuel Kelly Memorial Eventide Home, 39 Bangor Road, Holywood, County Down, BT18 0NE

Sir Samuel Kelly Memorial Eventide Home, 39 Bangor Road, Holywood, County Down

This is a much-modified two-storey, four-bay former house built around 1923–24 in a loose Scots-Baronial style, designed by the Belfast architects Blackwood & Jury for Sir Samuel Kelly JP CBE. It stands south of Bangor Road on the edge of what is now Ballymenoch Park, Holywood, and has since been converted into a residential home. Substantial alterations and extensions have been made in connection with that conversion, significantly compromising the original design and proportions.

Architecture and Exterior

The building is a large double-fronted block, U-shaped in plan and facing gardens to the west, with additional gabled projections to the east entrance front that together create an H-shaped footprint. The entrance front faces east and is flanked by later gabled wings, the right-hand one having been further extended to the rear. The whole building is abutted to the north by a V-shaped modern residential extension of no architectural interest.

The roof is pitched and covered in natural slate, with raised and moulded sandstone verges, kneelers, and ball finials to some gables. Ashlar chimneystacks run along the ridgeline, though some have been removed, and a large stepped sandstone chimneystack rises from the wall to the west. Rainwater goods are cast iron with an ogee profile, carried on ovolo-moulded sandstone eaves; the decorative cast-iron hoppers have crenellated caps and a fleur-de-lys motif. The walls are roughcast render with sandstone dressings. Windows throughout are a variety of replacement timber-framed casements set in lugged ashlar sandstone mullioned and transomed surrounds. There are two-storey canted bay windows to the west and a single-storey canted bay to the south, all with crenellated parapets.

Entrance (East) Elevation

The east elevation is symmetrically arranged, with a central entrance bay flanked by projecting gables. Between these gables sits a single-storey sandstone portico of chamfered sandstone columns forming three Tudor-arched openings, topped by a pierced parapet. This portico has since been enclosed by glazed walling and fronted by a modern canopy. There are two windows above. The original entrance door is located on the inner face of the right projecting gable: a Gothic-headed twelve-panelled timber door set in a chamfered sandstone reveal with carved corner panels, flanked by chamfered semi-engaged columns surmounted by a plain entablature with a crenellated frieze. The right gable has two windows to each floor, those on the right side being narrower. The left gable features a large multi-paned stairwell window with a stepped sill and an oculus beneath at the left. The inner faces of the gables are otherwise blank. Outer flanking gables project still further and each has one window per floor. The elevation is extended to the north by a more recent two-storey addition of little architectural interest.

South and West Elevations

The south elevation is abutted by the south gabled wing, with a further gabled breakfront to the south incorporating a modified ground-floor window. The west section of this elevation has a window to the right at first-floor level and a fire exit at ground-floor level. The exposed section to the left has a wide transom and mullioned window at first-floor level over a bowed bay with a crenellated parapet.

The west (garden) elevation is symmetrically arranged, with a central entrance bay flanked by full-height gabled bays, each containing a two-storey ashlar sandstone canted bay with a crenellated parapet. The windows in these bays have been modified to incorporate doors. The central bay is fronted at ground-floor level by a projecting sandstone porch with three recently glazed openings divided by square columns, surmounted by a plain entablature and a balustrade stepped up at the centre. The central first-floor window is framed in an ashlar sandstone surround that extends upward to form a shouldered chimneystack directly above.

North Elevation

The north elevation is largely obscured by a series of later accretions, including the substantial recent extension, which are of little or no architectural interest.

Setting

The building stands on a large, mature site south of Bangor Road, approached by a long tarmacadam driveway with car parking to the north and east. To the north is a modern single-storey dwelling. The site is bounded to the road by a tall rubble stone wall with modern pebbledash square gate piers and timber fencing to the northeast. The twenty-one acres of pleasure gardens that once formed the demesne became a public park in 1953.

Historical Background

The site has a long and layered history. A house called Ballymenagh House appears on the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1834, and there may have been a dwelling here as early as 1611, when the Plantation Commissioners recorded that Sir James Hamilton was preparing to build a house at Holywood. A branch of the Hamilton family is said to have occupied the house until the end of the 18th century, after which it became the residence of the Holmes family, who appear to have rebuilt or remodelled the building. It is the Georgian mansion they constructed that is depicted in an illustration of 1832 in Proctor's Belfast Scenery.

In 1802 the estate was acquired by Cunningham Greg (1762–1830), a successful Belfast merchant with interests in sugar refining, wine distribution, and banking. On his death, the house passed to his son Thomas Greg, who is listed as the occupier in the Townland Valuation of 1828–40, at which time the house, offices, steward's house, and porter's house were valued at £82. Thomas Greg was a traveller and collector, and it was he who brought back from Thebes the mummy of Takabuti, which remains a prominent exhibit at the Ulster Museum. By the time of Griffith's Valuation of 1856–64 the house had risen sharply in value to £200, suggesting it had been substantially rebuilt in the intervening period — an impression confirmed by the second edition Ordnance Survey map of 1858, which shows the building considerably enlarged compared to the first edition. From 1864 Thomas Greg and later his representatives let the house to Mary Gordon.

In 1890 Mrs Gordon was succeeded by Sir Daniel Dixon (1844–1907), a timber merchant, shipowner, and Lord Mayor of Belfast, who may have purchased the property outright — valuation records are ambiguous on this point. An increase in valuation at the time Dixon took over the house may indicate some additions or improvements were made. The third edition Ordnance Survey map of 1900–02 shows a house of slightly altered plan, and it is captioned, for the first time, as Ballymenoch House. Sir Daniel Dixon lived there until his death in 1907, after which the house was occupied by his widow for some years.

In July 1914 Ballymenoch House was gutted by fire in an arson attack carried out by the Women's Social and Political Union, the militant suffragette organisation founded in England in 1903 by Emmeline and Christabel Pankhurst. A branch of the WSPU had been established in Belfast in September 1913, following an unfulfilled pledge by unionists to grant votes for women. When efforts to persuade Edward Carson, the unionist leader, to honour that pledge proved unsuccessful, a campaign of arson was launched, targeting mainly unionist-owned property but also including some public buildings such as Lisburn Cathedral. Ballymenoch was among eleven buildings attacked, apparently because of its association with the Dixons, a prominent unionist family, notwithstanding that Sir Daniel had died several years previously. Curiously, the destruction is not clearly reflected in valuation records: the house merely drops slightly in value in 1918, due to the separation of a chauffeur's house and gate lodge from the overall valuation. This may suggest the damage was less severe than some secondary sources have indicated.

The property briefly passed to Nathaniel Tughan, a solicitor practising in Belfast and Dublin, before being purchased by Sir Samuel Kelly. In January 1923 the Irish Builder published an invitation to tender for the erection of a residence at Ballymenoch, Holywood, County Down, for Sir Samuel Kelly JP CBE, to plans and specifications prepared by Messrs Blackwood & Jury, architects, Belfast. A fireplace in the house bears the monogram SK and the year 1924, suggesting that date as the likely completion of the new building. The fourth edition Ordnance Survey map of 1919–31 confirms that this was a complete rebuild rather than a remodelling, showing the new building close to, but on an entirely different orientation from, the former house. Sir Samuel Kelly was a shipowner and coal importer and an active supporter of many Holywood organisations, including the yacht club.

Following Sir Samuel Kelly's death, Ballymenoch House was donated to the Salvation Army and became the Salvation Army Sir Samuel Kelly Eventide Home, providing residential accommodation for forty elderly men and women, including frail older people and those living with dementia. In 1953 the twenty-one acres of pleasure gardens were opened to the public as Ballymenoch Park.