Cultra House, 6 Cultra Park, Holywood, Co Down, BT18 0QE

Cultra House, 6 Cultra Park, Holywood, Co. Down

Cultra House is a substantial late 19th-century residence built around 1875, located on the east side of Cultra Avenue, Holywood. It is a symmetrical two-storey, three-bay house with a dormer attic, and represents a good example of Edwardian-influenced style with notable Italianate detailing and good overall proportions. The house may incorporate an older structure that was radically remodelled, and the survival of an early roof structure incorporating 17th-century timbers is of particular historical significance. The loss of original fenestration has, however, affected its historic character.

Architectural Description

The main block is rectangular in plan, with a triple-gabled return to the rear, further extended by a single-storey Edwardian addition. A garage extension occupies the west end and a conservatory the east. Roofs are pitched and covered in natural slate with blue-black angled ridge tiles; verges are cement-rendered, and the chimneystacks are painted render with white clay pots. The main block has moulded stone gutters set below a moulded cornice over a plain frieze. The attic storey is lit by gabled dormers rising from a blocking course; all except the wider central dormer have volutes. Moulded cast-iron gutters run along the blocking course between each dormer, with cast-iron downpipes to the rear.

The external walls are finished in painted ruled-and-lined render with rusticated quoins, set over a double projecting chamfered plinth. A platband marks the first-floor cill level. The principal windows are replacement timber 6-over-6 sash windows — tripartite at first-floor centre — set within lugged moulded stucco architraves. First-floor windows have pointed keyblock details; ground-floor windows have a torus-moulded frieze and hood with projecting cills on plain brackets. Dormer windows are four-light casements. All doors throughout are modern timber replacements.

The principal elevation faces south and is five openings wide, arranged about a central entrance. The entrance porch is of modern construction in stone, supported on twin Doric columns. The left gable is abutted by a later lower extension, two windows wide, now converted to a garage with rooms above and detailed to match the main house. The exposed gable has a blind square panel at attic level and a tall narrow window inserted at ground-floor left.

The rear elevation comprises a full-height triple-pile return. The centre and right sections are abutted at ground floor by a single-storey Edwardian extension that forms a balcony to the first floor, enclosed by an Ionic balustrade parapet and accessed by modern French doors from the first-floor centre. The right bay at first floor and the attic gables — except the right — are lit by multi-pane casements. The exposed left bay features a full-height canted bay with windows to each face and a modern door, all detailed to match the principal elevation. The Edwardian extension has an oak and glazed screen door to the east, two tripartite 1-over-1 timber sashes with moulded architraves to the north, and a bowed west end containing a multi-pane stained Arts and Crafts glass window.

The right gable has a projecting full-height canted bay to the left; the remainder is recessed, abutted at ground floor by a modern conservatory and two windows wide at first-floor level.

Historical Background

There has been a building on this site since at least 1671, when John Kennedy acquired the townlands of Ballyrobert, Balleydavey, Craig-a-Vad, Ballygrainy, Ballycultre, Corrow Reagh and Ballybun from Lord Clanbrassil and built the first Cultra House. The present house dates from around 1875, but the significance of the roof structure lies in the evidence it contains of much earlier construction.

In 1994, the Historic Monuments and Buildings branch of the Environment and Heritage Service commissioned the Palaeoecology Centre at Queen's University Belfast to carry out dendrochronological dating of the roof timbers. The analysis revealed a large number of reused timbers. Two samples with complete sapwood returned felling dates of 1666 and 1670; two further samples with the heartwood-sapwood boundary present gave estimated felling ranges of 1582 ± 9 years and 1689 ± 9 years. These dates broadly correspond with the proposed founding date of 1671 for the first house, though some timbers are considerably older and may have come from an even earlier building on the site or from elsewhere.

By 1823, the house was described by A. Atkinson as "a very grand and picturesque feature of the Southern shore," the seat of Hugh Kennedy Esq, lord of a tract of no less than 4,000 Conyngham acres. Though not gothic in character, Atkinson noted it had "a somewhat ancient and castellated appearance." In 1832, a view of the house was drawn by Joseph Molloy and published in Belfast. The first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1834 shows 'Cultraw Ho[use]' together with its outbuildings and a formal garden. The Townland Valuation of 1828–40 lists it as a house and offices valued at £90, and it is noted as a gentleman's seat in the Ordnance Survey Memoirs.

By 1850, Kelly's History of Holywood described it as "a mansion of great antiquity, built upwards of two hundred years ago," standing within a demesne of nearly three hundred acres, thickly wooded and laid out in the taste of the 17th century. The account makes particular note of the luxuriant oak trees — some with long branches reaching to the ground — and records the presence of several rare wild plants of botanical importance.

Griffith's Valuation of 1856–64 records a period of decline. Following the death of Robert J. Kennedy, the house was occupied by his representatives in chancery and its value had fallen to £70. The valuer noted that the front of the house was becoming dilapidated and unfinished, the rear neglected and in very bad repair. At the time, the associated farmyard included sheds for pigs and cattle, a cart shed, coach house, garden house and a gate lodge occupied free of rent. An advertisement of around 1865 offered Cultra House to let. The heir, Sir Robert Kennedy (1851–1939), was then at school in England, and following his graduation from Cambridge he joined the British Diplomatic Service, spending little time at the house until his retirement in 1902, when he built Cultra Manor nearby.

In the early 1870s the old house passed out of the Kennedy family and was subsequently radically remodelled or rebuilt. By 1877 valuation records list the new Cultra House, then vacant and leased from James Connor, at a value of £120. The house was subsequently occupied by Marcus Gage and then by John K. Boyd in 1890, though it fell in value to £80 by 1892. The third edition Ordnance Survey map of 1900–02 shows the new building, captioned as 'Cultra House'. By 1903 it was the residence of Hugh McNeile McCormick, who carried out improvements raising the valuation to £86 10s.

By 1933, the house was occupied by Elizabeth M. A. McCormick and leased from Sir Robert J. Kennedy. Records from this period indicate that the house had undergone refurbishment, including the addition of a ballroom with stained glass windows. It was valued as a house, offices and land at £155, later reduced to £140. The accommodation at that time comprised a hall, four reception rooms, cloakroom, scullery, three pantries, a WC and washhouse; upstairs there were four bedrooms, a dressing room, sitting room, bathroom and five attics. The house had its own electricity supply, water from a well with electric and hand pumps, but no gas. The valuer commented: "Old house, well built, attractive appearance, good position, well timbered pleasure grounds with handsome trees. Lack of principal bedrooms. Rooms are large with excess waste space."

By 1957, the house had come under the control of the Eastern Special Care Management Committee and was used as a residential facility for people with learning difficulties. Alterations and additions were carried out at this time by architect Stanley A. Devon. The house was subsequently purchased and restored for use as a private residence, with the surrounding grounds providing building plots for eleven new houses and the carriage driveway becoming Cultra Park.

Setting

The original grounds have been largely sold off and now form a small private housing development. The house retains a small yard to the north and a large lawn with a tennis court and shrubs to the south. Directly to the front is a tarmac turning circle with a central water feature, reached by a short drive accessed through modern entrance gates of mild steel set on rendered piers. The site boundaries are formed by hedging and modern boundary walling.