White Lodge, 31 Eastleigh Drive, Belfast, BT4 3DX

White Lodge is a detached single-storey house of Grade B2 importance, located on the east side of Eastleigh Drive in Belfast. Built between 1858 and 1901, likely in the 1850s or 1860s, it is a mid-Victorian house of uncommon design for this area, retaining its original layout and many original features. The building is notable for its restrained design and survival as a small merchant's house in the expanding suburbs of Victorian Belfast.

The house is U-shaped on plan with three bays to its principal elevation, incorporating two long single-storey rear returns and a converted two-storey coach house. The roof is pitched natural slate with red and orange clay roll-top ridge tiles. Smooth rendered chimneystacks with yellow clay pots terminate the gable ends of the main building. The overhanging verges to the main building have timber-sheeted soffit with paired moulded timber brackets at eaves, ridge and purlin levels. Other eaves have timber fascia and soffit boards with cast-iron and uPVC half-round gutters and circular rainwater pipes.

The walls are of smooth painted ruled and lined render with semi-circular moulded plinth detail. All windows are timber and comprise segmental arch sliding sashes, all with projecting masonry cills unless otherwise stated.

The principal west elevation features a central full-height shallow break-front entrance bay containing a segmental arch door opening with moulded surround. The original timber panelled and glazed door retains original door furniture and an overlight with "White Lodge" painted in gold lettering on the glazing. The entrance is flanked by full-height shallow break-front bays containing paired segmental arch openings with moulded surround, continuous masonry projecting cill and 1/1 windows. A deep cornice runs at eaves level with a stepped parapet above, flat projecting coping and hidden gutter.

The north gable elevation has a single central square-headed 2/2 casement window. The south gable elevation has a central segmental arch opening with a 1/1 window, flanked by identical windows close to the outermost corners.

The rear east elevation is abutted on the left by a pitched natural slate-roofed rear return with eaves level slightly lower than the main roof. A smooth rendered chimney stack is centred on the gable, topped by a projecting high curved coping and single yellow clay pot. The east gable is blank; the south has two square-headed 2/2 windows; the north has a single square-headed casement window and is abutted at the re-entrant angle by a small lean-to containing a single small square-headed casement window to the east, with the north blank. At the far right, a natural slate-roofed mono-pitch rear return abuts the main building. Its east elevation abuts a high garden wall with a small lean-to beyond, which has a single small square-headed window to the south and a blank east elevation. The south has a square-headed timber door to the left, a square-headed three-light casement window to the right of the door, a further square-headed timber-sheeted door, and a square-headed opening to the far right. The north elevation is abutted by a two-storey converted coach house to the far left, with the remainder blank. The remaining exposed section of the main building has a single 2/2 window.

The two rear returns, the main building and high garden wall enclose a small yard to the rear, which leads to the garden beyond. A two-storey annexe is attached to the north of the mono-pitch rear return. This building has uPVC windows and doors, smooth rendered walls and natural slate roof. It is the original coach house and loft, heavily renovated with fenestration and layout largely altered. It forms a small enclosed yard to the west, bounded by the mono-pitch rear return, the site boundary wall and high gate to the front of the property.

A small lean-to outbuilding is located to the north-west of the yard. The north elevation of the former coach house is blank; the south is abutted by a small lean-to with the remainder blank. The west elevation has a single central large square-headed opening with uPVC glazed door and side lights. The east elevation has uPVC French doors to the left, a uPVC window to the right, and two uPVC windows at first floor level.

No buildings appear on the site on the First and Second Edition Ordnance Survey maps. A building with no adjacent properties is shown uncaptioned on the Third Edition Ordnance Survey map with the same footprint as the current building, showing the house and associated coach house to the north and a building in the north-east corner of the garden, which no longer exists. This allows the house to be dated between 1858 and 1901, with the style suggesting construction most likely in the 1850s or 1860s.

Historical records show that in 1907, Mr Robert Nicholson, a linen merchant, lived in the property, and by 1910, John Jackson, a painter, resided there. The building is located in the townland of Strandtown, which derived its name from the fact that the area used to border Belfast Lough.

White Lodge is situated on a tree-lined street close to the pavement and behind a hedge in a large suburban garden. The house retains its original coach house and enclosed yard to the north and a rear garden set in lawn with dispersed fruit trees and perimeter planting.