Colinmore, Hunterhouse College, Upper Lisburn Road, Finaghy, Belfast, County Antrim, BT10 0LE

Colinmore — now the main building of Hunterhouse College, Upper Lisburn Road, Finaghy — is a two-storey Italianate mansion in ashlar sandstone dating from around 1870, with a three-storey tower added around 1910 and a single-storey modern extension to the east. Its architectural interest lies partly in the way successive transformations in style and function have enriched its character. The building retains a fine interior with many original fittings. A renovation was carried out in 1989 and further repairs in 2006. Although the single-storey extension to the east is considered inappropriate insofar as it somewhat compromises the overall layout, it is modest enough not to distract from the wider composition. The building is enhanced by its setting and has group value with the listed gate lodge and gate screen.

History

The mansion was first recorded in 1870, when the Annual Revisions valued the dwelling, its outbuildings, and a gate lodge at £70. It was built on land owned by John Stouppe Charley, who lived in the neighbouring Finaghy House (now Faith House), and was first occupied by Philip Fletcher Richardson, a district agent for several insurance companies who operated from premises on Donegall Square. Richardson named the house "Strathearn". The original architect is not known, though records indicate the building was constructed using locally quarried Dungannon Sandstone and imported Scottish Giffnock Sandstone.

Richardson remained at Strathearn until 1876. Between 1876 and 1908 a succession of prominent occupants followed, including Charles Finlay of Finlay Bros & Co., Tea Merchants, and Abraham Combe, an Engineering Works Manager with Combe, Barbour & Combe Ltd. (Machinists, Engineers and Millwrights). At this period the house was a more modest structure than it appears today; the third edition Ordnance Survey map of 1901 shows a very different layout from the current building.

The present Italianate appearance is the result of a major remodelling carried out in 1908 by Harold Adrian Barbour (1874–1938), a member of the Barbour family of Hilden. This Scottish linen manufacturing family had emigrated to Lisburn in the late 18th century, establishing a linen thread works in 1784 and later founding the Linen Thread Company in 1898 — internationally recognised as the largest linen thread mill in the world. Harold Barbour was active in the family business and also prominent in the co-operative and labour movements in Ireland, serving as president of the Lisburn Co-operative in 1900 and chairman of the Irish Agricultural Wholesale Society in 1910. Having purchased Strathearn outright, he remodelled it substantially, adding the distinctive tower, the entrance porch, and the bow-fronted bay window to the north face. The alterations raised the rateable value of the property to £250, and the 1911 Census describes the mansion as a first-class dwelling with 23 rooms, along with a stable, cow house, and chauffeur's garage among its outbuildings. Barbour continued to live at Strathearn until his death in 1938.

During the Second World War the house was requisitioned by Harland & Wolff. After the war it was purchased for £18,550 by the Princess Gardens School, to serve as its new junior school and as accommodation for boarding pupils. The house was renamed Colinmore at this time and officially opened by the Governor of Ireland, Earl Granville, on 6 June 1946. A sympathetic two-storey extension to the east end was likely added at this point to provide additional accommodation. The Princess Gardens School vacated its original premises on University Street in 1967 and re-established itself at Finaghy, with Colinmore as its main building. The house was listed in 1987. In the same year it was united with Ashleigh House School, formerly on the Malone Road, and the combined institution was renamed Hunterhouse College — a name derived from the surnames of the two headmistresses (both named Mrs Hunter) who led the schools at the time of the merger, and also honouring Mrs Anna Hunter of the Dunmurry area, founder of the original Princess Gardens School. Since the 1980s a large number of new school buildings have been constructed around Colinmore, surrounding the former mansion with modern department blocks and a sports hall. In 2011 a new sixth-form study centre and additional classrooms were added.

Exterior

The roof is finished in Bangor blue slate, hipped in form, with rolled lead ridges. The ashlar sandstone chimney stacks have corbelled coping stones and red clay chimney pots. Overhanging eaves are supported on horizontal moulded brackets, with cast iron ogee gutters discharging to circular downpipes. The main walling is in Dungannon and Giffnock sandstone, though the north-east part of the building is rendered. The ground floor is rusticated on a projecting plinth course, and a continuous projecting string course runs at sill level to all floors. Window openings are square-headed at ground floor and segmental-headed at first floor throughout, with double-hung 1/1 timber sashes unless otherwise noted. First-floor windows are flanked by pilasters supporting decorated archivolts.

Principal (North) Elevation

The principal elevation faces north. The western portion is in ashlar sandstone; the eastern portion is rendered. The main entrance is positioned off-centre to the west, set within a projecting single-storey porch with a segmental-arched opening at ground floor and an openwork parapet above. Double-leaf panelled timber entrance doors open onto a granite platform with two nosed steps, sheltered by a projecting Art Nouveau-style segmental-arched canopy with a copper-covered roof and coffered ceiling. Directly to the west rises the three-storey hipped-roof tower, which has two small square-headed windows to the ground and second floors, and a segmental-arched timber three-part mullioned window to the first floor. The bay at the west end has one window to each floor. To the east of the entrance is a projecting bow-fronted full-height bay, with a five-part Tudor-style window with stone mullions and stained leaded glazing at ground floor, and three segmental-headed windows at first floor. The three adjacent bays to the east each have a window at ground and first floor. Further east, a projecting multi-bay wing has square-headed windows with sandstone sills at ground floor, plain segmental-headed windows at first floor, projecting cornicing, and two slightly recessed square-headed dormer windows with timber casements.

West Elevation

The west elevation has three bays. To the north is a two-storey three-sided canted bay with square-headed windows to all three sides at ground floor — the central bay window flanked by recessed pilasters — and segmental-headed windows paired to the centre at first floor. To the south is a single-storey rectangular projection two bays wide, with pilasters separating three windows and an openwork parapet above, and a segmental-arched window to each bay at first floor.

South (Rear) Elevation

The south elevation faces the rear of the site. At the west end is a single-storey semi-circular plan bay window with an openwork parapet above and paired windows at first floor. A flat-roofed canopy supported on painted timber posts covers the next three bays to the east. Beyond this is a projecting bay with a shallow portico at ground floor supported on two circular columns with Ionic-style capitals and decorated bases. A square-headed door opening with a modern timber panelled door and fanlight gives onto a single stone step. There is a single window at first floor. The next bay to the east has a single-storey flat-roofed semi-circular bay window with a mullioned timber frame and leaded coloured glazing, with four windows above at first floor. The east side elevation of this bay has a four-part square-headed timber mullioned window with leaded glazing at ground floor and a single window at first floor. The two bays further east are recessed, with a lean-to single-storey porch and two simple segmental-headed windows to the rendered first floor. The porch has a square-headed modern double door with glazing incorporated into a timber-framed screen. At the east end is a three-sided canted bay with two windows to the canted sides at ground floor and four segmental-headed windows at first floor.

East Elevation

The east elevation is four bays wide with a projecting modern extension. The single-storey rendered modern extension has a slate hipped roof and a square-headed door opening onto a concrete ramped platform to the east. A hipped dormer built off the wall, with an attached chimney stack, breaks the elevation at eaves level and separates the plainly detailed northern section from the bracketed overhanging eaves to the south.

Setting and Materials

The building sits within the grounds of Hunterhouse College, surrounded by modern school buildings of little architectural interest. The main entrance to the grounds is through the listed gateway fronting Upper Lisburn Road. Principal materials are Bangor blue slate to the roof, cast iron for the rainwater goods, Dungannon and Giffnock sandstone for the walling, and timber sash windows throughout.