683 Antrim Road, Belfast, Co Antrim, BT15 4EG

683 Antrim Road, Belfast (known as 'Mount Lennox')

This is a detached, symmetrical, double-fronted former Victorian villa built around 1898, situated on the eastern side of the Antrim Road in north-west Belfast, in what was then known as Ashley Park. The building is three bays wide, two storeys tall with an attic, and is now in use as offices, having previously served as a community residential centre in the late 20th century. The listing covers the former house together with its boundary pillars and walling.

Architectural Overview

The main building is largely regular on plan, with two-storey canted bay windows flanking the central entrance bay. Unusually, the principal elevation faces east, overlooking a rear garden, while the gable-fronted rear return faces the Antrim Road to the west. A single-storey modern extension of little historic interest links the northern elevation to a gable-fronted single-storey block with a half-dormer attic, located to the north. Both the rear return and the northern block date from a similar period to the main house and share its general character and detailing.

Roof and Rainwater Goods

The roof is covered in pitched artificial slate, with a Velux window to the rear (west) pitch. Ridge tiles are replacement terracotta. The roof is hipped over the canted bay windows, with lead flashing and terracotta finials. Profiled gutters are fitted, with largely uPVC downpipes (box cast-iron to the north side), mounted on a painted and rendered projecting cornice carried on stiff-leaf consoles separated by foliated panels. The gables have squared apices with raised verges over a matching cornice, rising to painted rendered chimneystacks with corbelled coping and multiple red clay pots.

Exterior Walls and Dressings

The walling is painted ruled-and-lined render over a projecting plinth. Contrasting dressings include vermiculated quoins to the main house and rear return, and continuous projecting sill courses at both ground and first floor level. Window openings are largely segmental-arched with moulded architraves and projecting keystones, generally featuring swags over a palmette motif. Openings at attic level are round-arched and without keystones.

Windows and Doors

Windows on the principal elevation are largely one-over-one timber sliding sashes with profiled horns, though these are replacement units. Some original fixed or casement timber windows with decorative leaded stained glass survive on the east elevation and return. The remaining windows are uPVC casements.

The central door opening is segmental-arched with pole-moulded reveals, framed by panelled engaged pilasters supporting a moulded archivolt with a projecting keystone. Above this sits a moulded timber doorcase comprising a double-leaf six-panelled timber door with brushed glass overlight and matching sidelights featuring a decorative foliate motif.

Individual Elevations

The south elevation contains an attic window left of centre, above a two-storey flat-roofed canted bay window.

The west elevation is largely abutted by the gable-fronted three-bay two-storey return, similarly detailed to the main building but with simplified consoles to the eaves course and largely flat-arched window openings. The gable breaks through the eaves course, rising to a flat top with a moulded roundel to the apex featuring a quatrefoil and a decorative marble plaque inscribed 'MOUNT LENNOX'. The central bay has fixed-light timber windows — round-headed at first floor level — both containing decorative leaded stained glass. The right cheek of the return features a small, plainly detailed fixed-light timber and metal window with a thin concrete or tile sill to the right side of the first floor, above a single-storey lean-to with an artificial slate roof and a uPVC window in plain surrounds with a painted concrete sill. The left cheek is abutted by the modern link block.

The north elevation has a first-floor window to the right side with an attic window above. The left side of this elevation is blank, and the ground floor of the right side is abutted by the modern link block, which extends northward to connect with the south elevation of the northern block.

Northern Block

The gable-fronted principal elevation of the northern block faces west. It is single bay, single storey with a half-dormer attic. The roof is artificial slate with terracotta ridge tiles. Profiled uPVC rainwater goods serve the north and east eaves, while those to the south and west are plain replacement timber. The north elevation has smooth rendered and painted walling. Chamfered quoins flank the east elevation and the north corner of the west elevation. Round-arched first-floor windows to the east and west elevations are detailed similarly to those on the main building, with non-continuous sills, plain keys at impost level and uPVC windows. The north and west openings have plain surrounds and flat arches, with a uPVC window to the north and a flush timber door to the west. The ground floor of the east elevation has a flat-arched opening with a uPVC conservatory abutting over a painted and rendered masonry base.

Garage

A two-bay single-storey garage is sited at the north-west corner of the site, close to the west elevation of the northern block, built around 1925, though possibly rebuilt in the late 20th century. Its detailing and finish match the modern link block: painted ruled-and-lined cement-rendered walls with chamfered quoins, an artificial slate roof with raised verges terminated by profiled kneelers, and a pair of plainly detailed segmental-arched vehicular door openings to the south elevation fitted with metal roller-shutter doors.

Setting

Set back from street level, the site is bounded to the west by modern steel railings mounted on a late 19th century painted ruled-and-lined rendered wall with coping. This wall is terminated by matching square-plan piers with moulded round-arched panels and console brackets carrying pyramidal capstones topped with spherical finials. The curved vehicular entrance is fitted with modern steel gates flanked by matching piers. The principal entrance to the former house faces east and consists of a concrete-flagged platform approached by three tiers of matching steps, flanked by a rendered and painted dwarf wall topped by a pair of surviving decorative plant-pots. Primary access to the building complex is now via the western elevation of the modern link block, which abuts the north elevation of the main building and rear return.

Historical Background

The house stands on what was formerly part of the lands belonging to the nearby Parkmount House, shown on the second edition Ordnance Survey map of 1857. Ashley Park, the development of which involved road and sewer works carried out in 1891 by John Lanyon of the Belfast architectural partnership Lanyon, Lynn and Lanyon, was listed simply as 'building ground' in the Street Directory by 1895. Mount Lennox first appears in the Belfast Street Directory of 1899 as a newly constructed house, having been added to the Annual Revisions between 1897 and 1905. The property was occupied by a William Knox and leased from someone named McWhircker, comprising a house, offices, yard and land with an initial rateable value of £75, later reduced to £73 in 1899. The 1901 Census records Knox living there with his wife and two young boarders; the house contained eleven rooms with five windows at the front and a total of five outbuildings, including a stable, coach house, barn, fowl house and boiling house.

The rateable value had risen to £90 by 1906 and to £100 following the addition of a 'motor house' in 1922. While the footprint of the main house changed little between 1902 and 1936, the south-eastern portion of the original outbuilding was removed and a new section added to the south-western side — likely the motor house — as shown on the sixth edition Ordnance Survey map of 1936 to 1938. The 1911 Census suggests the removed section had previously contained the barn, fowl house and boiling house. Ownership subsequently passed to Knox's wife, then to a James Gill around 1947 and a Robert Robinson around 1956, during which period the rateable value fell to £70 before rising again to £76 in 1956.

The property was occupied by a Mrs Robertson until the mid-1980s, when it became the base of a residential ecumenical community, the Columbanus Community of Reconciliation, founded by Father Michael Hurley. Planning records show that alterations and extensions were made around 2004, including the large extension linking the north elevation of the house to the outbuilding. Following the disbanding of the Community, Father Hurley helped establish the Belfast campus of the Irish School of Ecumenics, which remains based at Mount Lennox. Further internal changes converted former bedrooms to offices around 2003, and security fencing and gates were added around 2006.