Gate Lodge, 4 Saintfield Road, Belfast, Co Antrim BT8 6AA

Gate Lodge, 4 Saintfield Road, Belfast

A detached single-storey stone former gate lodge to Galwally House, built around 1885. Built at the same time as the main house by the building firm H & J Martin, it is possibly designed by W H Lynn. The building's principal interest lies in its group value with Galwally House and in its good detailing in sandstone.

The lodge is irregular on plan, facing south, and was extended to the rear around 1990. It sits on the east side of Saintfield Road, now enclosed to the road by a modern redbrick wall with a bitumac driveway passing the front elevation and leading to a small residential development of two-storey houses behind.

The building is constructed in red sandstone ashlar with slightly projecting pale sandstone quoins, a continuous pale sandstone sill course, and a rock-faced ashlar limestone plinth course with chamfered sandstone trim. The hipped natural slate roof features lead ridges and valleys, with profiled red sandstone chimneystacks topped with clay pots. The pale sandstone eaves course is supported by a decorative sandstone corbel course and string course below. Replacement ogee-moulded cast-iron guttering is fitted throughout.

The south-facing front elevation is dominated by a three-sided canted bay, with the remainder of the facade stepped back and an entrance porch set into the re-entrant angle. The porch features a carved sandstone corner pier rising from the plinth course with full-height panels, a fluted frieze, and a projecting capstone. Square-headed window openings throughout are framed by slightly projecting pale sandstone surrounds with blank pale sandstone aprons. The original windows have been replaced with single-pane timber sash windows with partly exposed sash boxes and angled horns. The square-headed door opening to the porch is similarly framed and opens onto a stone platform, now fitted with a replacement hardwood panelled door.

The west side elevation contains a single window opening, continuing in the form of the modern extension which features a canted bay at its north end. This modern extension is built in red concrete block with stone surrounds to window openings and timber corbels to the eaves. The north rear elevation is abutted by the modern extension and contains four window openings. The east side elevation has a single window opening, with the modern extension featuring a modern entrance portico and canted bay to its north end.

The building first appears on the third edition Ordnance Survey map of 1901–2 captioned 'Lodge'. It entered valuation records as a gate lodge in 1888, occupied by Thomas Millis and leased from John Martin at a value of £5. The 1901 census records Thomas Graham, gardener to the Martin household, in residence with his wife Mary Ann. By the 1911 census, the lodge was occupied by William Edward Harris, the gardener, who lived with his wife and two young children. The lodge continued to form part of the Galwally House estate and eventually passed to the Hospital Trustees when Galwally House became a hospital in 1917. The building has been expertly extended and immaculately restored, with major works undertaken around 1990–1994. The building is currently vacant.