Lynn Tara, 713 Antrim Road, Belfast, Co. Antrim, BT15 4EJ

Lynn Tara is a detached, asymmetrical Arts and Crafts house of two storeys with an attic, built in 1908 to the designs of James St. John Phillips (1870–1935), a Belfast-based architect and son of the prominent ecclesiastical architect James John Phillips. Phillips became a partner in his father's firm in 1896 and established his own independent practice around 1905. Like his father, he undertook commissions for the Methodist Church alongside a substantial body of commercial and domestic work. The house stands on a corner site at the junction of Antrim Road and Donegall Park Avenue, set back from the road within its own mature grounds and facing west. It is a substantial and well-preserved example of the Edwardian Arts and Crafts movement, which drew on William Morris's rejection of mass production and sought to revive the irregular, handcrafted qualities of traditional building. The most concentrated development of this style in Ireland occurred in and around Belfast. The house retains most of its original fabric and detailing both internally and externally, and the listing extends to the house itself together with its gate screen, boundary walling, and cast iron railings.

The building is irregular on plan. Its roofs are pitched natural slate — re-covered in Westmoreland slates in 1996 — with roll-moulded terracotta ridge tiles and three profiled red brick chimney stacks fitted with terracotta pots; the roof to the south is hipped. Moulded cast-iron guttering is carried on overhanging timber-sheeted eaves with exposed rafter feet and decorative timber brackets, and square-profile cast-iron downpipes are fitted with decorative trefoil brackets. Flat-roofed dormer windows to the front and rear pitches contain multi-pane timber casement windows.

Ground floor walls are built in red brick laid in Flemish bond with original pointing, surmounted by a dentilated terracotta trim. First floor walls are finished in pebble-dashed render. Window openings have segmental arched heads with tooled red sandstone sills and original multi-pane timber casement windows throughout, except where otherwise noted below.

The principal west elevation is five windows wide. To the right is a full-height gabled projection containing a slightly advanced red brick chimney stack bearing a terracotta date plaque with incised lettering reading 'A.D. / 1908', set within a moulded red brick surround with a round-arched hood moulding. Diminutive windows flank this chimney stack at both levels, fitted with replacement timber casement windows framing original Art Nouveau leaded coloured glazing. The central entrance bay projects forward under a lead-lined flat roof. At first floor level it has a tripartite window opening with original timber casement windows, a moulded transom, and Art Nouveau leaded coloured glazing. At ground floor level, a segmental arched tripartite door opening is framed by a compound moulded brick surround interspersed with flush red sandstone quoins, and contains original double-leaf timber doors with glazed panels and matching sidelights, set on flush splayed red sandstone sills. The doors open onto two nosed concrete steps beneath a lead-lined canopy supported on large timber brackets and a pair of decorative iron brackets above.

The gabled north side elevation is abutted by a single-storey red brick projection. There is an asymmetrically placed diminutive window opening at first floor level and a single door opening to the abutment fitted with an original sheeted timber door.

The east rear elevation is three windows wide with a central lead-lined flat-roofed canted bay window. To the right is a segmental arched door opening fitted with replacement double-leaf hardwood multi-paned glazed French doors opening onto concrete steps with steel handrails.

The south side elevation is two windows wide and features a full-height projecting canted bay window surmounted by an oversailing half-timbered gable. Windows to this elevation are largely replacements, though original leaded coloured glazing has been retained in the overlights.

The house was constructed on land leased by Robert Dunlop, a local grain merchant who lived at Chichester Park. On completion in 1908 it was valued at £50 and first occupied by John Walker, an income tax collector, who lived there with his wife Elizabeth and their two daughters — recorded in the 1911 census as a first-class dwelling of thirteen rooms. Walker remained at the address until his death in 1925, after which his widow Elizabeth took possession. She died in 1937, and the house then passed to their daughters Jeannie M. and Evangeline Walker, who resided there until at least the 1970s. The Dunlop family continued to be recorded as owners under the First and Second General Revaluations of Property in Northern Ireland (covering 1936–57 and 1956–72 respectively), during which the rateable value of the house was maintained at £65. The house was first depicted on the fourth edition Ordnance Survey map of 1920–21, shown in its current layout. Lynn Tara was listed in 1987.

The house is enclosed within its own mature front and back gardens by rubble basalt stone walling topped with ornate cast iron railings. Matching cast iron gates are hung on octagonal ashlar sandstone pillars with panelled collars, the collars inscribed with the name 'Lynn Tara', and finished with swept octagonal capstones. The original name of the house is thus preserved in the fabric of the entrance itself. Together, the gates, railings, walling, and mature gardens constitute the intact original setting of the house, which contributes significantly to its architectural interest.