Red Hall, 109 Circular Road, Belfast, BT4 2GD

Red Hall, 109 Circular Road, Belfast

Originally named 'Bernagh', this is a substantial two-and-a-half-storey late Victorian suburban house built in 1898–99, constructed in red brick with a gabled roofline. It stands on the east side of Circular Road, set within a large garden with a tarmac-covered parking area to the front.

The front (west-facing) elevation is symmetrical. At its centre is the main entrance: a large panelled timber double door flanked by plain sidelights and topped with a three-pane elliptical fanlight. The whole doorway ensemble is set within a shallow moulded brick archivolt, above which sits an elliptical arched brick label moulding with decorative moulded stops. The entrance is reached by a short flight of stone-flagged steps with a recent metal handrail to the south side, and a modern projecting light sits to each side of the door.

To either side of the entrance rises a large two-storey canted bay window with a hipped slated roof. Each face of each bay, at both ground and first floor levels, contains three plain sash windows with flat arches. The lintel to each window is of red sandstone with a shaped underside, and these lintels continue as a horizontal course around much of the rest of the building. Immediately above the ground floor lintel level is a narrow moulded string course, and on the bays, between this string course and the sills of the first floor windows, are small decorative moulded panels. Above the first floor lintels, each bay has a projecting eaves course that also continues around much of the building. Above the bay roof level there is a further narrow moulded string course running around much of the building, which doubles as a sill course for the attic-level windows in the north and south gables.

Directly above the main entrance at first floor level is a window matching those of the bays. Above this is a smaller similar window set within a gabled half-dormer, which has a moulded brick eaves course, a decorative fireclay finial, and kneelers to the gable. Most windows throughout the house are of similar character to those in the bays, varying only in size.

The south elevation presents the two-and-a-half-storey south gable of the main house, which merges to the east with a smaller, lower three-storey flat-roofed section. This in turn merges with a tall yard wall, which connects further east with the south gable of the former single-to-one-and-a-half-storey outbuilding. On the ground floor of the main gable is a window just left of centre, with another in the equivalent position at first floor level. To the right of the gable is a two-storey canted bay as on the front elevation. At attic level there are two symmetrically positioned windows, smaller than those below. The gable carries the same string courses and decorative bands described above, and has a thick verge course in brick with a fireclay finial to the apex.

The three-storey flat-roofed section has at ground floor level a recent plain sheeted door to the left and a small window to the right. At first and second floor levels there are modern fire escape doorways, both leading onto a metal spiral fire escape. This section is finished with a brick eaves course and a short brick parapet with plain coping. The yard wall to its right contains a plain timber sheeted door, and further right this wall merges with the former outbuilding.

The former outbuilding consists of two portions: a flat-roofed western section and a larger gabled eastern portion. On the south elevation of the flat-roofed portion is a small window surrounded by plain painted render. The south-facing gable of the larger portion has a large mainly glazed modern door screen partly surrounded by plain painted render; both areas of render are linked together. At upper level in this gable is a window with a modern frame.

The north elevation broadly repeats the arrangement of the south, though not in every detail. The main gable has two windows to the left and centre at ground level, a window to the left and a fire escape door to the centre-right at first floor level, and a similar but smaller window at attic level. The fire escape here mirrors that to the south. The same string courses and bands visible on the front and south gable appear here too. The three-storey flat-roofed section has a window to the left at ground floor level, with smaller windows to the right at first and second floor levels. On the flat-roofed section of the former outbuilding there are three unevenly spaced windows, the leftmost slightly narrower than the other two. Projecting from the ground floor of the gable of the larger outbuilding portion is a small lean-to with two small windows to its north face — these have plain single-light frames and concrete lintels rather than sandstone — and a timber sheeted door to the east face with some slate cladding above. To the immediate left of the lean-to at ground floor level is a window with a modern frame, with a similar window at upper level.

The east elevation of the three-storey flat-roofed rear section was not fully visible during inspection. Only the ground floor on the left-hand side was exposed, with the right-hand side abutting a single-storey link leading to the outbuilding, only part of which appears to be original. At first floor level there is a window to the far left, then a much larger central landing window with a mullioned and transomed frame and stained glass. To the right of this are two further windows, similar to the far left window but of differing sizes. This arrangement is broadly repeated at second floor level, though all windows may be marginally shorter. A broad sandstone course runs at second floor level, a continuation of one of the courses noted above. The link connecting the rear of the house to the outbuilding appears to have been widened at some point in recent years: its south face, which looks into the small yard area, is in recent brick and contains a small window with a modern frame. On the yard-facing (west) elevation of the flat-roofed outbuilding portion there is a timber sheeted sliding door to the left and a small window with a modern frame to the right. On the rear (east) elevation of the larger gabled outbuilding portion there is a window with a modern frame to the left. Roughly centrally is a doorway with a modern roller shutter. To its immediate right is a relatively small gabled extension with a slated roof and brick façade; there is a doorway to the south face of this extension but the other faces are blank. To the right of the extension on the main elevation is a window matching that to the left.

The main gabled roof of the house is slated, with two relatively large Velux windows to the front. The ridge has sawtooth fireclay ridge tiles with finials at each end. There are two centrally positioned brick chimney stacks with plain coping and plain uniform pots, which appear to be replacements given their unadorned character. There is a further narrower stack without pots near the south-east corner of the main roof where it meets the flat roof of the three-storey section. The roof of the three-storey section was not accessible for inspection. The gabled portion of the former outbuilding is slated and has a centrally positioned brick chimney stack with a dentilled course and two uniform pots; a modern boiler flue sits immediately to the south of this stack. Near the north-west corner of the outbuilding roof is a relatively recent flat-roofed dormer with a modern window. To the far right is what appears to be a cast-iron skylight, with another on the rear (east) side of the roof. The flat roof of the single-storey link section is felted. The rainwater goods appear to be mainly cast iron.

The property is enclosed to the south and west by a large garden, part of which to the south has been laid as a small car parking area in tarmac. A smaller tarmac area sits immediately south of the building. The driveway approach is to the north-west. The garden is enclosed on the west (Circular Road) side by a recent plain timber fence with matching timber gates. To the immediate north of the garden, close to the house itself, is a row of circa 1960s houses; similar houses lie to the east along the south side of Strathearn Park. The grounds of another circa 1960s development lie to the south, with modern densely packed late 1990s houses to the south-east.

The house was built in 1898–99 by Joseph Malcomson Greeves on land originally acquired in 1890 by his relative James Malcomson. Greeves was a director of the flax spinning firm J & T.M. Greeves Ltd, founded by his grandfather and great-uncle; the firm owned Conway Mill and Forth River Mills and remained in family ownership until acquired by Herdmans Ltd of Sion Mills in 1961. The Greeves family originated from the townland of Bernagh, near Dungannon, County Tyrone, which gave the house its original name. Joseph and his American wife, Mary Margretta Gribbon, had five children, the youngest of whom, Arthur, was born in 1895.

Although Arthur Greeves grew up directly across the road from Little Lea — the family home of C.S. Lewis — Arthur's natural shyness and poor health meant the two did not meet in childhood. Their first proper meeting came in 1914, when Lewis visited the convalescing Arthur and an immediate and close friendship was formed. This friendship proved lifelong. After Little Lea was sold following the death of Lewis's father Albert in 1929, Lewis made Bernagh his home when visiting Ireland, staying with Arthur wherever he was living. It was during a two-week stay at Bernagh in August 1932 that Lewis wrote his first full-length prose work, The Pilgrim's Regress, which deals largely with his conversion to Christianity. He dedicated the book to Greeves, writing to him in March 1932 that it was his "by every right — written in your house, read to you as it was written."

After Arthur's mother died in 1949, the Greeves family sold Bernagh to a Mr Robert McCrea, who renamed the building Red Hall. Mr McCrea sold much of the ground to the north and west of the house for development in 1957 — land that had formed part of James Malcomson's original 1890 purchase — and Strathearn Park was built on the site by the mid 1960s. In 1961 Red Hall itself was sold by Mr McCrea to Mr Bryan Dennis Hall, who in 1978 sold it to the Department of Health and Social Services. The building was subsequently used as a hostel for people with learning difficulties. Arthur Greeves, after 1949, went to live at Silver Hill, a cottage in Crawfordsburn, and died in 1966.