Barnett's Stableyard, NW of Malone House, Upper Malone Road, Belfast

Barnett's Stableyard is an early 19th century stableyard complex set within the historic Barnett's Demesne, to the northwest of Malone House on Upper Malone Road, Belfast. Although the buildings have been altered over time, they retain considerable historic interest to the estate. The complex is notable partly because the house and barn within it may incorporate surviving fabric from the late 17th century 'second' Malone House, a mansion that stood on this site before being demolished in 1824 and replaced by the present Malone House nearby. The stableyard also illustrates the transition from horse-drawn to mechanised transport, with a garage building having replaced the original stables.

The complex consists of a group of separate buildings grouped around an enclosed courtyard bounded by a red brick wall laid in English garden wall bond, with brick buttresses to the southwest section. The courtyard is accessed through cast-iron gates at both the north and south ends: the northern gate sits in the open passage between the house and the garage block, and the southern gate breaks the courtyard wall directly opposite. The courtyard surface is finished in gravel with concrete paving slabs at the threshold of the garage. A small chemical store occupies the southwest corner, and an air raid shelter sits in the southeast corner.

The House

Probably the earliest surviving structure in the complex, the house occupies the northeast corner of the courtyard and is either part of, or stands on the same site as, the late 17th century buildings of the second Malone House. It is a two-storey, three-bay building with a pitched natural slate roof — heavy random-coursed slates to the rear pitch — and later small grey brick chimneys, one to the left gable and one to the rear pitch set between the left and centre bays. A raised brick skew is set between the party wall of the house and the adjacent garage. An advanced eaves course supports half-round cast-iron rainwater goods. The walls are rendered and painted. All windows are 1-over-1 timber exposed box sliding sashes with horns and painted cills, and all except the dormers are boarded over.

The principal elevation faces northwest. The left bay has a wall-head dormer with plainly detailed timber bargeboards and blank cheeks, with two windows below at ground floor. The centre bay has a similarly detailed wall-head dormer with a timber-sheeted door below and a window to its left. The right bay has two ground floor windows, the left of which is landscape-proportioned. The left gable has a later windbreak porch with a sheeted-over door opening, and a window to its right.

The courtyard elevation faces southeast. The left bay is blank, with external stairs running across its face. The centre bay has a wall-head dormer detailed as before, with a window below. The right bay has a first-floor window and is abutted at ground floor by a single-storey flat-roofed extension with cement-rendered and painted walls; both the southeast and southwest faces of the extension contain a window each. The right gable is abutted by the oversailing first floor of the garage block. Beneath the covered courtyard passage, the right gable has a timber top-opening casement window with obscured glass to the left, and three doors to its right — the central door is tongue-and-groove sheeted and the others are plain timber-sheeted. The ceiling of the passage has a tongue-and-groove sheeted loft lobby entrance.

The Garage

The garage is an early 20th century addition — it does not appear on the 1904 Ordnance Survey map. It is a two-storey, single-bay block situated in the northwest corner of the courtyard. It has a pitched natural slate roof with an advanced eaves course and cast-iron rainwater goods, and its walls are rendered and painted. The northwest elevation has a sealed entrance set slightly right of centre with a window to its right; the left gable is blank. The main elevation faces southeast onto the courtyard. Between the two floors there is a canopy with a corrugated metal roof supported by four cast-iron beams tied into the wall and carried on two circular-section cast-iron columns, each with an octagonal base and moulded head (no maker's mark is evident). At ground floor, four tongue-and-groove sheeted sliding doors fill the opening; the inner two have four fixed lights with external grilles. The first floor is reached by an external timber stair that runs across the left bay of the house elevation, leading to a timber door on the oversailing upper floor. To the left of this door are two dormers, each with a flat roof, cast-iron rainwater goods, and blank cheeks; the front cheek of each contains three fixed lights with external grilles. The right gable has two timber casement windows at first floor, the left being the larger, and is slightly abutted by the kitchen block.

The Kitchen

The kitchen is a small single-storey former stable boy's kitchen abutting the right gable of the barn and enclosing the northwest corner of the courtyard. It has a pitched natural slate roof with the ridge aligned northeast to southwest, and an advanced chimneybreast to the left gable that rises above the eaves level of the barn. Walls are cement-rendered and painted. The courtyard elevation faces southwest and contains a timber 2-over-2 casement window with a painted stone cill and external metal grille to the left, and a timber 2-over-2 panelled door (with the upper panels sheeted over) to its right. The left gable is completely abutted by the barn. The rear elevation is blank. The right gable has a blocked-up doorway.

The Barn

The barn is an early building, possibly incorporating fabric from the late 17th century buildings on this site. It is a single-storey structure aligned northwest to southeast, with a pitched corrugated metal roof. An advanced eaves course supports half-round cast-iron rainwater goods. The walls are brick construction, cement-rendered and painted. The courtyard elevation faces southwest and has a double-leaf tongue-and-groove sheeted door set slightly left of centre, with a window opening to its right that breaks the eaves course and has a painted concrete cill; this contains a 2-over-2 fixed timber window with an external metal grille. The left gable and rear elevation are blank. The right gable is abutted by the kitchen block.

Historical Background

The site has a long and layered history. In the early 1660s, Moses Hill leased land from Sir Arthur Chichester and built a house on the site of the present Malone House. Following the 1641 rebellion, this house was destroyed and Moses Hill left the area to establish the town of Hillsborough. The Legg family, a well-known merchant family with connections to the West Indies, then became the new tenants and remained associated with the site for over two centuries. The site of the present stableyard was formerly occupied by a late 17th century house built by Alexander Legg, which has become known as the 'second' Malone House. It is considered likely that parts of this structure survive within the present house, since both the house and the barn stand on the footprint of that earlier building. While historical maps show that the courtyard evolved over time through the addition, removal, and extension of certain blocks, the northeast corner containing the present house appears to remain consistent across these maps, strengthening the case that it very likely incorporates fabric from the earlier building.

It is thought that William Wallace Legge built the 'third' and present Malone House in the 1820s and was responsible for the landscaping of the estate grounds. After his death, Malone House passed through numerous tenants until William Barnett, a grain merchant, purchased the 103-acre estate in 1921 for £19,000. Barnett died in 1943 and left the estate to the citizens of Belfast with certain conditions attached as to its use. In 1946, Belfast Corporation inherited the grounds and renamed it Barnett's Recreation Demesne. The stableyard buildings and courtyard wall are listed in their entirety.