Innisfail, 5 Church Road, Helens Bay, Bangor, County Down, BT19 1TP

Innisfail is a two-storey detached villa with attic, built around 1890 on Church Road in Helens Bay, County Down. It stands on an asymmetrical plan with three bays to its principal elevation, which faces west. The house was one of the earliest buildings erected in the newly-established settlement of Helens Bay, which developed largely through the patronage of the 1st Marquess of Dufferin towards the end of the nineteenth century. It is possible the house was among the first six villas built in the area around 1898 by builder Mr Kerr, who also constructed Helens Bay Presbyterian Church nearby.

The house is constructed with ruled-and-lined rendered walling enriched with stucco quoins, string courses and cill courses. It has a pitched and hipped natural slate roof with clay ridge and hip tiles and terracotta chimney pots. Cast-iron ogee-moulded gutters and circular downpipes serve the roof. Timber barge boards, fascia boards and soffits complete the eaves. The principal west-facing elevation is asymmetrically arranged with hipped roofs projecting over the left and central bays. The left bay comprises a two-storey canted bay with windows to each face on each floor. The central bay contains the main entrance, a four-panelled bolection-moulded timber door with glazed upper panels and a fixed light above, surmounted by a glazed canopy on timber brackets, with a single first-floor window above. The right bay is a slightly recessed two-storey canted bay matching the left. Windows throughout are timber sliding sash with horns to the ground floor, featuring label moulds and drip courses; upper floors have segmental arched windows with hood moulding and stops, diminished multi-paned upper sashes and single-pane lower sashes.

The north elevation is asymmetrically arranged with three irregular window openings across ground and first floors, with label moulds above the ground-floor and stair half-landing windows. The rear east elevation is asymmetrically composed, rising two-storey to the left with a slightly projecting two-and-a-half-storey gable to the right. A projecting chimney stack (removed above eaves level) abuts a lean-to greenhouse on the left bay. The right gable bay has single-storey lean-to outbuildings with various windows and a window centred on the gable at attic level. Two further single-storey lean-to abutments contain various outbuildings and greenhouses. The south gable elevation is asymmetrically arranged with a projecting chimney stack left of centre breaking through the eaves, ground and first-floor windows to the far left, and a single-storey canted bay to the right with multi-paned glazed timber door and window above.

The house is set within well-maintained gardens accessed through a decorative wrought-iron gate fixed to concrete piers. It is secluded, with views largely obscured by perimeter hedging. A rear yard enclosed by outbuildings and a tall wall contains a greenhouse to the east and timber garage to the north. The setting is predominantly suburban, with similarly-scaled two-storey detached houses in the vicinity.

The house first appears on the third edition Ordnance Survey map of 1900-02 as one of a handful of villas in the newly-established settlement. The house served residential and professional purposes throughout the twentieth century. It was the residence of Dr Lennon from the 1930s, followed by Dr Northey. During the Second World War it served as a Sergeants' Mess for the Royal Army Medical Corps. Subsequently the Blair family occupied it, with Dr Blair operating a surgery from the premises. Although of local social interest for its early development history and use, and a well-maintained example of a late Victorian villa typical of its period and style, the house does not meet the statutory and policy tests as a building of special architectural or historic interest.