Gate Lodge Craigavon House, 121 Circular Rd, Strandtown, Belfast, Co. Antrim, BT37 0RE

Gate Lodge at Craigavon House

This is a single-storey, three-bay Italianate gate lodge built in 1870 to designs by Thomas Jackson & Sons. It stands on a level site on the east side of Circular Road in Strandtown, south-west of Craigavon House itself, with the former Nightingale Wards, Clock Tower, and Walled Garden located to the north-east.

The lodge is orientated north-south and has a hipped natural slate roof with rolled ridges. A centrally placed rendered chimney stack rises through the roof, featuring a projecting stepped cornice with dogs-tooth moulding and two decorated terracotta pots. Metal rainwater goods are supported on scrolled brackets and carry a projecting blocking course.

The walls are lined and painted rendered with moulded stucco detailing. The principal elevation faces north and displays smooth rendered walls with a deep plinth topped by rolled moulding and a flat band. A deep string course runs at cill level, and there is a deep projecting plat band with moulded projection at impost level to the window openings. The cornice comprises a projecting band with scrolled brackets carrying a projecting blocking course, on which sits a metal ogee-shaped gutter.

Semi-circular stilted arched window openings accommodate 1/1 pane timber sliding sash windows. All openings have moulded and lugged architraves with slender engaged Ionic columns supporting arched heads and diamond-headed keystones at the centre of each arch. A single window opening to the east has a recessed panel to the lower wall, also recessed under the moulded cill. The central door is timber and glazed, set in a projecting porch with a natural slate hipped roof with rolled ridge. The porch opening is semi-circular and stilted, with a moulded architrave, a pair of slender engaged Ionic columns supporting the arched head, and a string course at the springing point. A small applied medallion sits below the string course at cill level, with a decorated keystone at the centre of the arch. The door opening itself has a shouldered moulded architrave with a medallion above. A single window to the west matches those elsewhere.

The east elevation displays rendered walls with a pair of 1/1 pane sliding sash windows. Cast-iron and square-section metal downpipes run to the north and south respectively.

The south elevation has a modern flat-roofed extension projecting from the main wall, set back from the main block, with a single window opening containing a top-hung timber casement window. This extension has a precast concrete cill, painted rendered walls, timber fascia, and a metal upstand to the flat roof. A window opening to the west has a deep cill and a timber side-hung window. A square-headed door opening at the centre carries a painted timber flush door with a modern lever handle. A metal ogee-shaped gutter runs on a timber fascia with a circular metal downpipe to the east. A modern bulk-head light fitting sits to the east of the door opening.

The west elevation includes a flat-roofed extension to the south with no openings. The main lodge elevation on this side matches the east, with the projecting porch visible to the north.

The lodge is set back slightly from the back of the footpath with a modest strip of lawn. A mature tree stands just to the north. To the west, there is a side and rear garden area bounded by a modern timber fence with vertical painted boards, with a hedge to the south boundary. Planting and a car park serving a neighbouring day care facility lie to the east.