The Gate Lodge, Bridge House, 8a Killaire Avenue, Bangor, Co Down

The Gate Lodge, Bridge House

A symmetrical single-storey two-bay gate lodge in the neoclassical style, built between 1871 and 1873 and located at the entrance to Bridge House on Killaire Avenue, Bangor. The lodge was constructed as part of the Elsinore estate, developed by Daniel Joseph Jaffe, a linen merchant and founder of Belfast's Jewish congregation. The building is rectangular on plan with a projecting gabled porch and rear return. It has been extended in modern times with a flat-roof extension and conservatory to the north and rear, and is abutted by a modern octagonal timber pavilion to the rear with a part-glazed link block.

The roof is hipped natural slate with blue and black angled ridge tiles. A prominent cantered chimneystack with corbelled plinth and two terracotta pots rises from the main block; a smaller chimneystack to the rear carries decorative tall clay pots. Cast-iron ogee rainwater goods are set on corbelled eaves. The walling is painted smooth render with raised quoins and plinth, beneath a moulded string course. Windows are timber-framed with margin panes and moulded architraves featuring keyblocks, set within moulded surrounds.

The principal elevation faces east, comprising a single window on either side of the slightly projecting gabled porch, which has bracketed eaves and bargeboards. Rectangular panels flank the entrance, which is fitted with a timber-sheeted door beneath a segmental-arched transom light and moulded surround with keyblock, accessed by a single stone step. The south elevation contains one window opening to the main block, with two replacement timber windows to the return. The west (rear) elevation is largely obscured by modern extensions. The north elevation has a replacement tripartite window to the main block.

The setting is enclosed to the south and rear by a painted masonry wall. The entrance features tall sandstone gate piers with polygonal caps and curved cast-iron railings. The surrounding area is gravelled with a stone slab pathway to the entrance. The architectural detailing to the main block remains largely intact and of good quality. The building has group value as the gate lodge to Bridge House, and the fine sandstone gate screen is of particular interest. The lodge may be the work of architects Young and Mackenzie, though this remains unconfirmed.

Daniel Joseph Jaffe, who commissioned the building, was the founder and organiser of Belfast's Jewish congregation and laid the foundation stone of the synagogue in Great Victoria Street in 1871. His son became Belfast's first Lord Mayor in 1899. Jaffe also occupied Craigdarragh during this period, possibly while awaiting completion of Elsinore, but died in 1874 shortly after the mansion was finished. By 1901 the lodge appears to have been occupied by the gardener or coachman to the Lepper family, who occupied the main house at that time. Francis Robert Lepper was a director of the Ulster Bank.