Glenmachan Tower House Nursing Home (Former Glenmachan Tower Hotel), Glenmachan Road, Belfast, Co. Antrim, BT4 2NN

Glenmachan Tower House Nursing Home (formerly Glenmachan Tower Hotel)

Glenmachan Tower is an outstanding two-storey ashlar sandstone house in the Italianate style, built in 1862 to designs by the Belfast-based architect Thomas Jackson (1807–1890). It stands on an elevated site within its own grounds at the top of Glenmachan Road in the townland of Ballymaghan, with views towards Holywood Road and Belfast Lough. The building is widely regarded as the finest of a series of houses Jackson designed in the Sydenham area, and represents a relatively rare and important example of his domestic work at the height of his career. The masonry throughout is locally quarried Scrabo sandstone, and the contractor for the original build was John Lowry of Great George's Street, as recorded in the Dublin Builder of May 1862.

The Dictionary of Irish Architects describes Jackson primarily as a domestic architect, though he worked across commercial, industrial, educational and ecclesiastical building types. Before his work in the Sydenham area he had been responsible for the early 19th century suburban development of North Belfast, taking inspiration — including the name Cliftonville — from Bristol's Clifton suburb, where he had trained. As Belfast industrialised heavily from the 1860s, Jackson became the preferred architect of the city's merchant elite. Between the 1860s and 1870s he designed a number of suburban villas and mansions in East Belfast, including Craigavon, Glenmachan House, and Lismachan House, of which Glenmachan Tower is considered the most accomplished.

Although several secondary sources attribute the original commission to Thomas McClure — a merchant, landowner, local magistrate and MP for Belfast — valuation records and Ulster Town Directories indicate that McClure did not himself live at the property, residing instead at Belmont House in Ballycloghan townland from at least the 1850s. The land was owned by McClure, but the first recorded occupant of Glenmachan Tower (then known as Glenmachan House) was Thomas Jackson himself, who lived there until at least 1865. Robert W. Gordon, of Gordon and Co. (a flax and tow spinning manufactory on the Falls Road), then leased the house from McClure from at least 1865 until 1870, followed briefly by a Mr James Kennedy until 1877. In 1877 the Shillington family took possession: John Johnston Shillington was a local magistrate and linen merchant who owned John J. Shillington and Co. in west Belfast. On his death in 1898 the house passed to his son John Courtenay Shillington, who continued to reside there until his death in 1963. The property was originally valued at £180 in the 1860s; by 1900 the Belfast Revaluation estimated the cost of construction at £5,855, and a detailed ground plan made at that time shows that the layout has remained essentially unchanged since the early 20th century, aside from the later north-east extension.

Following over a century as a private residence, the building was converted into a licensed hotel — the Glenmachan Tower Hotel — in 1968, and listed in 1979. In 1985 the hotel and its grounds were purchased by Strandtown Church of God, a local congregation established in the Sydenham area in the 1940s. The stable block (first depicted on the third edition Ordnance Survey map of 1902) was converted into a Youth Hall, and a two-storey church hall was constructed to the east side of the stable block by 1986. The former mansion was initially used for wedding receptions and social functions before being converted into a private nursing home, with a two-storey modern extension added to the north-east in 1992. In 2008 the renamed Glenmachan Church of God opened a new 800-seat sanctuary to the east of the original house.

The original plan form is largely intact at ground floor level. The listing extends to the former house steps and walling.

Architectural Description

The building has an irregular plan with a three-stage tower to the south-west and the two-storey modern extension to the north-east. The roof to the front part of the building is a pitched natural slate gabled form, hipped to the rear, with lead rolled ridge and hips. Projecting eaves are supported on paired brackets, with uPVC ogee guttering discharging to circular aluminium downpipes. The chimney stacks are rectangular in section, in ashlar sandstone, with corbelled copings and red clay chimney pots.

The walling is regularly coursed ashlar masonry of locally quarried Scrabo sandstone, with rustication to the ground floor on a moulded plinth and a continuous string course between the ground and first floors. Ground floor window openings are square-headed with moulded architraves and double-hung 1/1 timber sash windows. First floor window openings are round-arched with moulded architraves and projecting keystones, also with double-hung 1/1 timber sash windows. Exceptions to these arrangements are noted below where they occur.

The Tower

The three-stage tower is square on plan at the first and second stages, with rusticated quoins and a projecting cornice on brackets. The first stage has an aedicule with a panelled frieze above the door and a moulded cornice supported on brackets. The door opening is round-arched, giving onto a porch with a replacement glazed timber panelled door and an infilled panel above, opening onto three stone steps. The west face of the first stage has paired round-arched windows beneath a single round arch with a projecting keystone. The second stage has single round-arched windows to both the north and west faces. At the third stage, a square-plan Renaissance-style balustrade supports an octagonal-plan structure with overhanging eaves on moulded brackets, round-arched windows with panelled aprons to all eight faces, and octagonal-plan decorative cast-iron railings at the top.

Principal (South) Elevation

The eight-bay principal elevation faces south. From west to east it comprises: one bay at the west end, the three-stage tower immediately adjacent, a recessed bay east of the tower, a projecting gabled bay, and four bays to the east. The westernmost bay lacks the moulded surround present on the other ground floor windows, suggesting it may be a later addition.

The recessed bay east of the tower has paired round-arched windows at ground floor level with a moulded depressed arched architrave, and two plain first floor windows with moulded cills on brackets.

The projecting gabled bay has a breakfront at ground floor level with a panelled frieze and moulded cornice on brackets, paired windows with panelled aprons separated by an engaged Corinthian column. At first floor level there are paired round-arched windows with moulded architrave and keystone, flanked by square pilasters extending to the moulded cornice below, with a smaller engaged column separating the paired windows. A bull's eye window centred above the first floor windows has a moulded stone architrave with foliage detail to either side. The gable has moulded kneelers and projecting eaves on moulded corbels.

The next bay east along the south elevation has a shallow projecting doorcase with a projecting cornice on moulded console brackets, itself supported by moulded pilasters, and a raised and fielded headed door opening. A square panelled timber door sits beneath a depressed round-arch fanlight with a pronounced keystone.

The following bay has a depressed arch opening at ground floor and paired round-arched windows with moulded hoods and a projecting moulded cill on brackets. Above, each of these bays has a round-arched first floor window with moulded stone architrave, square pilasters, impost, keystone, and cill on brackets.

The last two bays to the east have aedicule window surrounds at ground floor with panelled friezes and moulded cornices on brackets, paired windows with panelled aprons separated by a Corinthian column, and paired windows at first floor level.

West Elevation

The west elevation has a projecting gabled bay to the south, abutted by the tower, and a recessed bay to the north. The gabled bay has a three-sided canted bay at ground floor with pilasters to the corners and a bracketed cornice above. A modern glazed door is incorporated into the central bay window opening, leading onto nosed stone steps. At first floor there is a tripartite round-arched window with square pilasters to the outer ends, Corinthian capitals supporting a moulded stone architrave with a keystone above, and engaged round columns with varied Corinthian capitals between the windows. A small bull's eye window with moulded stone architrave, matching that on the south elevation, is centred above the tripartite window.

The bay nearest to the north has a shallow projecting breakfront at ground floor with a panelled frieze and moulded cornice on stepped corbels, paired windows separated by a Corinthian column with panelled aprons below. At first floor there are paired round-arched windows with the same moulded stone architrave, keystone and pilaster details as employed elsewhere at first floor level.

North Elevation

The north elevation consists of the original four-bay building to the east abutted by the modern extension to the west, which is set on a north-east to south-west axis. The third bay from the west has a three-sided canted bay at ground floor; the central bay of the cant has a panelled frieze and stepped brackets supporting a moulded cornice, with paired windows with panelled aprons separated by an engaged Corinthian column and flanked by pilasters; the two splayed ends each have single windows, the one nearest the new extension having been blocked up. At first floor, paired round-arched windows with moulded architrave and associated details as described previously.

A shallow projecting bay with a hipped roof to the west has a modern square-headed window opening at first floor, appearing to have been added in conjunction with the new extension. At ground floor there is a single-storey modern hipped roof extension with a square-headed window and a modern double-leaf square-headed glazed timber door facing west. A two-storey hipped roof modern block then adjoins and projects some 15 to 20 metres beyond the face of the original house.

East Elevation

The east elevation has a gabled bay to the south end with paired stone brackets supporting the overhang, abutted by the modern two-storey hipped roof extension. There are two square-headed traditional sliding sash windows to each floor with plain projecting cills. The stonework on this facade is laid in a snecked squared rubble pattern.

Setting and Grounds

The building occupies an elevated site within its own grounds at the top of Glenmachan Road. There is a lawned garden to the east with views towards Holywood Road and Belfast Lough, and tarmacked parking areas to both the south and north.

Two flights of stone steps lead to the lawn from the east: the first comprises ten steps with an intermediate landing and curved stone walling terminating in circular stone dwarf pillars at the base; the second comprises six steps with octagonal stone dwarf pillars at the top and stone walling to each side. The south elevation also has two flights of stone steps at the entrance — the lower comprising six steps and the upper three steps — with dwarf circular pillars and curved stone walling to the sides. A disabled access ramp with rectangular stone pillars either side of stone walling also leads to the south entrance, sharing the half landing between the two flights of steps.

The two-storey hipped roof modern extension abuts the north-east of the building, dating from 1992, with double-leaf square-headed doors and square-headed timber sash windows. This later extension detracts from the original composition. The site also includes a modern two-storey wedge-plan church to the north-east, erected in 2008, and two further rectangular-plan pitched roof buildings to the east.