Killaire House, 22 Killaire Road, Bangor, Co Down, BT19 1EY

Killaire House is a detached, multi-bay, two-storey sandstone ashlar house with attic accommodation, built around 1870 and situated on the south shores of Belfast Lough at the end of Killaire Road, Carnalea. It is a fine and largely intact example of the substantial mansions that Belfast's wealthy merchants and professional classes began building in the Bangor area following the arrival of the railway in the second half of the 19th century.

ARCHITECTURAL DESCRIPTION

The main block is rectangular in plan with gabled end wings and an L-shaped block to the rear. Single-storey canted bays project to the south and west elevations, and there is a single-storey ashlar sandstone extension and outbuildings to the east. The roof is pitched natural slate with blue/black angled ridge tiles. Chimneystacks are ashlar with a dentilled plinth and terracotta pots. Cast-iron ogee rainwater goods are carried on projecting stone eaves, and the gables have decorative bargeboards with fretwork panels to the apex, set on timber brackets. The walling throughout is ashlar sandstone on a chamfered plinth.

Windows are generally 1/1 timber sliding sash with projecting sandstone sills, some with projecting entablatures and moulded cornices. The canted bays feature segmental-arched windows separated by semi-engaged columns with acanthus leaf capitals, under stilted segmental arches with continuous hood moulds; these bays are surmounted by a parapet with decorative cast-iron railing.

The principal elevation faces south. Gabled bays sit to the left and right: the left bay has a bowed bay to the ground floor and paired windows to the first floor; the right bay has a window at attic and first-floor levels and paired windows to the ground floor. The entrance bay features a stilted segmental-arched stairwell window framed by an archivolt supported on semi-engaged columns to the left, above two diminutive leaded stained-glass windows at ground-floor level. To the right of the entrance is a single window to the first floor and paired windows below.

The entrance itself is a doorway with a stilted segmental arch and archivolt, containing a double-panelled timber door with brass door furniture and a transom light above. It is framed by semi-engaged columns with acanthus leaf capitals and surmounted by a heavy cornice hood on twin corbels with a panelled frieze, flanked by a pair of plain ball pinnacles on plinths. A small square window has been inserted above the doorway. The entrance is reached by two stone steps enclosed by dwarf walls, with a painted masonry lion to each side.

The west elevation has a projecting gable to the left containing a bowed bay with paired windows above, and two windows to the ground and first floors to the right. The north elevation has a slightly projecting gabled left end with a tripartite mullioned window to the ground floor and paired windows to the first floor; each cheek has a window at each floor level. The remainder of the elevation has two windows per floor (the ground-floor window to the right being paired). A recessed bay to the far left has three windows asymmetrically arranged, with a multi-paned half-panelled timber door and transom light to the right. The east elevation has a single window to the gable, abutted to left and right by single-storey extensions; the left-hand extension has a half-panelled timber door and replacement windows.

SETTING

The house is set in mature grounds on the south shores of Belfast Lough. A tarmacadamed driveway to the southeast is accessed via decorative sandstone gate piers with iron gates. A substantial stone retaining wall to the west and north carries a low decorative balustrade and is decorated with free-standing stone urns. The grounds are lawned to the front and have a garden with mature trees to the rear. The original coach house and gate lodge to the east, which add to the group value of the ensemble, have been converted into dwellings and are in separate ownership.

HISTORICAL CONTEXT

The coastline to the west of Bangor was open fields as late as the second edition Ordnance Survey map of 1858, but began to be developed following the construction of the Belfast, Holywood and Bangor Railway in 1865. By the time of the third edition OS map of 1901, several substantial mansions had appeared in the area, including Killaire House itself. Residents were able to make use of Carnalea railway station, which opened in 1877.

Killaire House first appears in valuation records in 1871 as the residence of James Alexander Henderson, who leased it from Richard R. Cleland at a valuation of £53 10s. Building work appears to have continued for some time: by 1873 offices, a gate lodge and a pleasure ground had been added, raising the valuation to £108 10s., and by 1874 it had risen again to £120 10s. The architect is not known, though architectural historian J. A. K. Dean has suggested the house looks like the work of Glaswegian architect James Hamilton.

James Alexander Henderson was a figure of considerable public prominence. He became managing proprietor of the Belfast Newsletter in 1845 at the age of 21, on the recommendation of his father, who had been proprietor of the Newry Telegraph. Under his management the paper grew substantially: he purchased new type in 1846, increased weekly editions from two to three in 1851, introduced the first pictures in an Ulster newspaper in 1852 with coverage of the Duke of Wellington's state funeral, expanded the paper to 32 columns by 1854, and appointed the first London correspondent in 1858. The paper moved to Donegall Street in 1861, where it remained for the following 140 years. Henderson became President of the Newspaper Society in 1862 and was a founder of the Press Association in 1868. He served as Mayor of Belfast in 1873 and 1874 — precisely the period during which Killaire House was being completed — and was a magistrate for Belfast and County Down.

Henderson also owned Norwood Tower in Strandtown, where he died in 1883. Killaire House then passed to other members of the Henderson family, and management of the Belfast Newsletter passed to his eldest son James (later Sir James Henderson). For a period around 1888, following James Alexander's death, the house was let to Samuel Davidson of the Sirocco Engineering Works, who later moved to Seacourt; otherwise it remained in Henderson family occupation until at least the 1920s.

By 1900 the recorded occupant was H. Trevor Henderson, grandson of James Alexander and later to become joint manager of the Newsletter with his brother. The 1901 census records the house as a substantial first-class dwelling of 18 rooms, with 12 associated outbuildings comprising a stable, coach house, harness room, cow house, calf house, dairy, boiling house, turf house, potato house, shed, store and laundry. At that time, the head of household was Alexander Mackay Henderson, a Justice of the Peace and former Major in the Royal Irish Rifles, who lived with his wife, son (employed as a clerk), and a staff of three: a cook, a housemaid and a general man. Alexander Mackay Henderson died in 1904; his precise relationship to James Alexander Henderson is unclear, though he was perhaps a younger son. His monogram can be seen in the frosted glass of the inner door.

By 1906 the occupant was Alexander's widow, Susan M. Henderson. The 1911 census records her as a 60-year-old widow living on annuity income, with her son Raymond Leslie Mackay Henderson — by then a newspaper proprietor in the family tradition — a resident niece, and a single 65-year-old cook.

The house has continued in use as a private residence. Although substantially renovated, it retains many of its original features intact.