2 Stormont Cottages, Stormont Estate, Upper Newtownards Road, Belfast, County Antrim, BT4 3XX

2 Stormont Cottages, Stormont Estate, Upper Newtownards Road, Belfast

This is a semi-detached two-bay two-storey rendered house, L-shaped on plan, built around 1936 as one of a pair of superintendent's villas within the Stormont Estate. It sits on the south side of a short tarmac avenue just south of Massey Avenue, and was designed in a restrained Arts and Crafts style. The house is possibly the work of Ernest L. Woods (1877–1952), a Bangor-based architect and engineer who carried out commercial and domestic work in the 1930s and who is recorded as having designed at least four houses within the Stormont Estate around 1931. It forms part of an important group of structures within the estate, which includes Parliament Buildings and the entrance lodges.

Architectural Description

The roof is a half-hipped natural slate construction with gauged slates, roll-moulded lead ridges, and two tall profiled red brick chimneystacks, the western one shared with the adjoining No. 1 Stormont Cottages. The deeply overhanging eaves are formed in timber sheeting with exposed rafter feet, and carry moulded cast-iron guttering supported on the overhanging timberwork, with cast-iron downpipes. The external walls are finished in painted rough-cast render, with painted brick below the ground floor sill course. Window openings are square-headed with painted shaped brick courses and replacement timber casement windows.

The garden front (south-facing) elevation is three windows wide and features a three-sided canted bay window to the right, with a concrete coping to its parapet. The west side elevation abuts the adjoining No. 1 Stormont Cottages. The rear elevation is three windows wide and has a flat-roofed single-storey extension to the right. Two sheeted timber doors open onto a paved rear yard, which is enclosed by tall hedging to the avenue side and a tall rendered wall to the east. The east side elevation features an original entrance porch to the right, with a steep slate roof, and a later sun room added around 2000 to the left, also with a hipped slate roof. The entrance porch has a square-headed door opening on its north side fitted with a replacement timber panelled door with six glazed panels. The conservatory at the south-east gable is also a later addition, not present on Ordnance Survey mapping of 1958–59.

The interior has lost most of its original detailing, though the building retains the majority of its original external fabric and overall character.

Setting

The house is accessed via a short tarmac avenue just south of the Massey Avenue gate lodge within the Stormont Estate. The setting includes a small enclosed rear yard; painted rough-cast rendered boundary walling with red brick coping extending from the gable, featuring an arched opening with a painted timber gate; and tall painted rough-cast rendered gate piers with red brick cappings and painted timber gates, with hedging fronting onto the avenue. A large garden lies to the south elevation.

Historical Background

The two villas — Nos. 1 and 2 Stormont Cottages (sometimes referred to as Stormont Villas) — were first recorded in the Belfast Street Directory of 1936 and appear on the 1938 Ordnance Survey County Series map in their current layouts. They were built to house the superintendents of the Stormont Estate following the completion and ceremonial opening of Parliament Buildings on 16th November 1932 by the Prince of Wales.

Before the construction of Parliament Buildings (1928–32) and the laying out of Massey Avenue, the lane to the north side of the villas formed the original western entrance to the estate of Stormont Castle. Access was controlled by a gate lodge known as Killeen Lodge, which stood on the site of the current lavatory block to the north-west of the villas. After the Stormont Estate was purchased in 1921 and before Parliament Buildings was completed, Killeen Lodge served as a private dwelling. By 1931 it was recorded on Ordnance Survey mapping as an irregular-shaped dwelling, and by the same date Arnold Thornely's two-storey gate lodge at Massey Avenue had already been constructed. Following the opening of the estate, Killeen Lodge was occupied by Nathaniel Cank, the newly appointed superintendent, until around 1936 when the two villas were built. Killeen Lodge was subsequently demolished and replaced with the current lavatory block.

Arnold Thornely (1870–1953), architect of Parliament Buildings, was responsible for the estate's gateways, gate lodges, and the former Provincial Bank on Massey Avenue. It is not certain whether Thornely also designed the villas, as they were built four years after the estate opened. The 1994 First Survey Record attributed the design to architects attached to the Northern Ireland Ministry of Finance, with Ernest L. Woods identified as a likely candidate.

No. 2 Stormont Cottages was first occupied by Nathaniel Cank, the chief superintendent of the Stormont Estate, who remained there until the 1950s. Cank was awarded the British Empire Medal in 1951 by King George VI for meritorious civil service, as recorded in the Belfast Gazette. By 1960 he had been succeeded as estate superintendent by Sidney Craik, who remained at the property until the 1970s. The Second General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1956–72) recorded the total rateable value of No. 2 at £25, noted it was exempt from taxation, and confirmed it was owned by the Northern Ireland Ministry of Finance. In the late 20th century the property was occupied by R. J. McIlwee, who served as estate superintendent from the 1980s, as recorded in the Belfast Street Directories.

The 1994 First Survey Record described the pair of villas as: "A pair of two-storey houses or cottages with half-hipped roofs, slated, and roughcast walls with some rustic brick dressings such as yard wall copings, string course, window sills and canted bay windows. Small paned casements. Nicely designed in a kind of Arts and Crafts idiom, definitely domestic in feel."