Gate Lodge to Campbell College, Belmont Road, Belfast, County Antrim, BT4 2ND

Gate Lodge to Campbell College

A High Victorian three-storey red brick building with a three-storey tower in Tudor revival style, dating from around 1894 and designed by W. H. Lynn. The building stands at the western entrance to Campbell College on the junction of Belmont Road and Hawthornden Way, erected on the former site of Belmont House, an early-19th century gentleman's mansion once the residence of Sir Thomas McClure.

The building is irregular in plan with a three-stage tower to the south-east and a single storey flat-roofed extension to the north-east. The pitched natural slate roof features roll-top red clay ridge tiles on the main sections, with raised stone verges decorated with floriated finials. The tower has a pyramidal roof with a ball finial. Ogee cast iron guttering discharges to rectangular section downpipes. The walling is red brick laid to Flemish bond with ashlar sandstone dressings on a moulded sandstone plinth. Window openings are square-headed with mullioned windows containing timber casement windows throughout.

The principal elevation faces south and comprises a recessed bay to the west, a single storey flat-roofed porch to the centre, and the tower to the east. A segmental arched door opening to the porch has moulded architraves with a diagonal sheeted timber door opening onto two steps. The porch features a raised parapet and moulded cornicing, with a single stage buttress to the west of the door. The three-stage tower displays raised parapet and moulded cornicing.

The east elevation consists of the tower at the south end, a two-storey plus attic bay at the centre, and a single storey flat-roofed bay at the north end. The north bay has a square-headed door opening with a sheeted timber door. The north elevation comprises a recessed two-storey gabled bay to the east, abutted to the north by the single storey extension, and a single-storey three-sided canted bay to the west. The west elevation displays part of the single storey hipped roof canted bay to the north, a single storey plus attic gabled bay at the centre, and the recessed two-bay wide west-facing elevation of the front porch.

The building appears almost intact since construction, retaining most of its original external detailing and some internal fixtures. It serves as an architectural introduction to the main college building and is one of architect W. H. Lynn's most distinctive compositions.

Setting and Boundary Features

A modestly landscaped yard surrounds the building to the north, west and east, enclosed by timber fencing to the east. To the south-west, brick walling with chamfered stone coping is topped by cast iron square-section railings with arrowheads supported on red brick piers with gableted coping stones. The main gate to the school faces south and comprises a double cast iron gate supported on octagonal red brick gate piers with moulded stone plinths and pyramidal coping stones. The elaborate gate screen features two large octagonal gate pillars topped with ogee cappings and fleur-de-lys finials, with an extensive stretch of railings with intermediate piers having Gothic gableted caps.

Historical and Architectural Significance

W. H. Lynn (1829-1915) was one of Belfast's most accomplished late-Victorian and Edwardian architects, responsible also for the Belfast Central Library (1888). Campbell College itself was completed in 1894 to his designs, and Lynn subsequently designed extensions to Queen's University Belfast in 1910. The gate lodge was first depicted on the third edition Ordnance Survey maps (1901-02). Early-20th century photographs confirm that no major alterations have been made to the layout since construction. The lodge has significant architectural and historic interest and group value with Campbell College. It was listed in 1987 along with the college. The tower form gate lodge, with its distinctive watch-tower scaled down from that of the main college building, forms a picturesquely grouped exercise in Tudor Revivalism, reserved in style and refined in detail.