Belfast Bible College, Glenburn House, Glenburn Road South, Dunmurry, BT17 9JP

Glenburn House is a large, elegant Georgian country house built around 1745, now used as the administrative centre of Belfast Bible College. It is a two-storey, five-bay building, primarily L-shaped in plan, with extensive rear returns and additions accumulated over several phases of historic development. It sits within large, secluded grounds off Glenburn Road, off Upper Dunmurry Lane, north of the Dunmurry Water Treatment Plant and east of the M1 motorway.

The house has retained much of its original character, both inside and out, and is considered an excellent example of a former country seat, valued for its style, proportion, ornamentation, and the quality and survival of its interior features.

Exterior

The roof is hipped and covered in slate with clay ridge tiles. Two wide chimneystacks sit towards the left-hand side of the rear, each carrying four or five tall pots. Smaller chimneystacks rise over the historic rear extensions. The eaves overhang and are finished with timber-sheeted soffits supported on paired timber eaves brackets. Ogee-moulded cast iron gutters and circular downpipes run throughout. The walls are finished in ruled-and-lined smooth render, painted cream, with a black-painted plinth. Some random rubble walling appears on rear outbuildings.

Windows on the ground floor are Georgian timber six-over-six sliding sash, with no horns. The first-floor windows are the diminished six-over-three sliding sash type. The principal entrance is a six-panelled timber door flanked by glazed sidelights and a looped fanlight, all set within a large semicircular arched opening with a portico. The arched opening has a simple moulded surround with a matching archivolt, though the windows themselves have no moulded surrounds.

The south-facing principal elevation is symmetrically arranged. The centrally placed portico features paired Ionic columns with single pilasters to the rear, rising to an entablature. Two windows sit to either side of the entrance at ground level, with five windows at first floor aligned directly over the openings below.

The west-facing elevation features a single-storey canted bay to the right, with full-length window openings and glazed double doors to the front. This bay has panelled pilaster surrounds rising to an entablature, smaller in scale than that of the main portico. To the left of centre, a large hipped-roof, double-bay, two-storey projection contains two large six-over-six Georgian sliding sash windows with moulded architraves at both ground and first floor, with single matching windows to either side. A more modest slated pitched-roof, two-storey return extends northwards, with large window openings at both floors and a service access door to the right. A further, smaller, gable-ended two-storey return projects northwards from the first return. A single-storey corrugated metal lean-to extension projects westwards from the far left of this elevation and is of more recent construction.

The north-facing rear elevation is a composition of multiple single- and two-storey hipped and gable-ended returns and extensions, all of historic date and of architectural interest. The rear yard is enclosed in part by these returns and in part by a perimeter wall along the north side of the site. Two ancillary outbuildings are accessed from the rear yard on the east side.

The east-facing elevation is two bays deep, with a single-storey, three-bay-deep hipped return extending northwards. The two-storey section has matching windows with architraves, and a large side entrance door to the right with a rectangular fixed light over. The windows in the return are of newer construction and display a variety of top-hung casements. A further narrow door on the right gives access to services and plant. Smaller single-storey random rubble extensions forming the rear of the outbuildings project northwards.

Setting

The house sits within large, secluded grounds. A substantial tarmac car park occupies the front of the property. Modest single- and two-storey accommodation buildings are located to the east and west. A single-storey timber-clad canteen building adjoins the east elevation, and a large oval-shaped modern building stands towards the southwest of the site. The surrounding buildings are all of a sympathetic nature and do not significantly detract from the setting. Large lawns extend to the east and to the south beyond the car park, with mature trees and well-kept planting throughout.

History

The Ordnance Survey Memoirs of 1832 to 1838 record the building as dating from around 1745, when Glenburn Demesne — including the house and its bleach green — was established by John Wolfenden Esquire. The property subsequently passed to a Mr Hogg and then to a Mr Darby, who carried out an initial enlargement. A further phase of enlargement and improvement was undertaken by Edward Curtis around 1811. By 1835, Major Crossley JP had taken up the tenancy.

The house appears on the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1833, though its plan form at that date appears to have included more projecting bays than survive today. The 1858 Ordnance Survey map illustrates the building in a form closer to what exists today. By the early 1850s, the house was occupied by James McConnell of McConnell and Kennedy, Flax and Tow Spinners. An 1861 auction brochure described Glenburn Mansion and Demesne as being suitable in every respect for a gentleman's country seat, with a demesne of 75 acres, a tastefully laid-out garden well stocked with fruit trees, a water dam ornamented with shrubs on the south side of the house, and a nearby tea house surrounded by a garden.

The Annual Valuation Revisions of 1862 to 1865 record the owner as the Liverpool Borough Bank, with Isaac J. Murphy of John Murphy and Co., Flax Spinners, in residence. In 1870 the house underwent thorough repair and improvement, raising its valuation from £62 to £77. By 1884 the house was vacant and falling into disrepair. Following a purchase by the Northern Banking Company and a brief occupation by Major General Clarke from 1889, George Richardson took up residence in 1893. In 1983, Belfast Bible College moved to the house and has since occupied it, with the building continuing to serve as the administrative heart of the campus.

The house is of particular local historical significance for its long association with the linen industry, which was prominent in the surrounding area.