2 Lorne Cottages, Station Road, Holywood, Co. Down, BT18 0BS

2 Lorne Cottages, Station Road, Holywood

A picturesque mid-terrace, one-and-a-half storey, two-bay cottage lodge built in 1875. The design and quality of detailing are superior, representing a fine example of its type. Although the building retains much of its external architectural features, little internal detailing has survived. It forms an important group with its original boundary wall and with Lorne House.

The cottage is square-on-plan with a projecting porch and return to rear. The steeply pitched roof is covered in natural slate with an overhanging eaves and central band of fish-scale tiles; terracotta ridge tiles and four terracotta chimney pots top the sandstone-quoined, offset and plinthed chimney stacks. Half-round cast-iron rainwater goods drain the property.

The walls are yellow brick over a projecting ashlar plinth. Ground floor windows are timber-framed sliding sashes with horns: 2/2 to the left and 3/3 to the right, with sandstone ashlar surrounds, lintels set under brick segmental arches, and chamfered sills. A 2/2 pointed-head timber-framed dormer window with lower panes on hinges lights the upper floor. The principal elevation faces east.

The central projecting porch is accessed by brick and stone steps and features a pointed arch entrance with sandstone ashlar quoins and surround. A date-stone bears the moulded inscription '1875'. Decorative bargeboards and finials top the porch and dormer. The door is herringbone-sheeted timber with brass furniture and a pointed arch transom light above.

The south elevation is abutted by the adjoining building to its right. The rear west elevation is almost entirely abutted at ground floor by an extension, though two dormer windows (the left one gabled) with decorative bargeboards and finials light the upper floor. A raised stone patio extends the length of the terrace at ground floor, accessed by five central stone steps and sheltered by a projecting canopy supported on cast-iron columns. A modern half-panelled timber door with two stone steps provides rear access.

The north elevation is abutted by the adjoining building to its left. The property is set in leafy surroundings, separated from the small road to Lorne House by a rock-faced ashlar boundary wall with coping and piers, topped with decorative modern cast-iron railing of fleur-de-lis pattern. The front of the property is pebbled, and to the rear lies a communal garden with hedgerow.

The cottages were built by Henry Campbell in 1875 near the entrance to his mansion Lorne, as accommodation for favoured estate workers. Campbell had built Lorne House in 1865 to designs by architect John Boyd, and it is possible he designed the cottages as well. Campbell was a partner and director of Mossley Mills, linen thread manufacturers, and Messrs Gunning and Campbell, flax spinners of North Howard Street. He retired from business in 1873 and built the house on land leased from Sir Robert Kennedy, naming it after the traditional home of Clan Campbell in Scotland. On his death, Campbell left an endowment of £200,000 to found Campbell College at Belmont.

The cottages are dated 1875 and first appear in valuation records in 1876, listed as 'house and yard' and valued at £8. All three were vacant in 1876, indicating recent construction. Subsequent records show frequent changes of occupier, consistent with their use as tied accommodation. The landlord was always the occupier of Lorne House: Alexander Mateer by 1900, Henry C Craig by 1906, and James Gamble by 1914. Valuations remained unchanged through to 1930.