1 The Square, Cushendun, Co.Antrim

No. 1 The Square, Cushendun, County Antrim

This is a modest two-storey, four-bay house built in 1912 in an Edwardian Cornish cottage style, designed by London-based architect Clough Williams-Ellis (1883–1978), who is best known for his later Italianate tourist village of Portmeirion in Wales, built in stages between 1925 and 1975. The house forms part of a planned group of seven almost identical two-storey dormer houses — Nos. 1–7 The Square — arranged around three sides of an enclosed green in the heart of Cushendun village, and the listing extends to include the house itself, the surrounding walling, entrance piers and gates.

The building was commissioned by Ronald John McNeill (1861–1934), a prominent local landowner and outspoken Ulster Unionist politician, who resided nearby at Glenmona Lodge with his Cornish-born wife Elizabeth Maud (d. 1925). McNeill specifically requested that Williams-Ellis design the houses in a Cornish cottage style in her honour. McNeill held several significant political offices, including Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs (1922–25), Financial Secretary to the Treasury (1925–27), and twice served as the British Representative to the League of Nations — signing the Kellogg-Briand Pact on behalf of the British Government in August 1928. He was created the First Baron Cushendun in 1927, though the title became extinct on his death in 1934. Glenmona Lodge was burned to the ground in 1922 as a consequence of his outspoken opposition to the Anglo-Irish Treaty.

The Square as a whole consists of three two-storey blocks: No. 1 and No. 7 are the two larger individual four-bay dwellings positioned to the south-east and north-west sides of the square respectively, while the central two-storey nine-bay block between them contains five smaller dwellings (Nos. 2–6). An oval slate set into the central gable of the nine-bay block is inscribed with the date 1912 and the initials RMcN and MMcN. The buildings were first recorded on the Ordnance Survey Town Plan of 1922 in their current layout.

Architecturally, No. 1 is of rectangular plan form with white painted rendered walling, rendered quoins at each corner, and a plinth painted in a contrasting colour. The most distinctive external features are the small-pane Georgian-style casement windows fitted with timber shutters painted in a contrasting colour, the steeply pitching natural slate mansard roof — whose lower slope is steeper than the upper — and two tall painted rendered chimney-stacks positioned at mid-ridge, each with black painted clay pots and stepped cornices. Dormer windows puncture the lower slope of the mansard roof. The deep overhanging eaves have exposed painted rafter tails that project beyond the face of the wall. Rainwater drainage is by half-round cast-iron guttering discharging to circular-section downpipes. A concrete ridge completes the roof.

The principal elevation faces north-west onto the enclosed green and is accessed via a paved footpath leading from the main entrance pillars off the Main Street. It presents four bays at ground floor level, each aligned with a slated dormer above. The entrance door is positioned just off-centre of this elevation and consists of a panelled painted timber door with small multi-pane upper lights and painted metal door furniture, set within a plain painted timber architrave surround.

The north-east elevation faces onto the Main Street and presents a single bay on both ground and first floor. At ground-floor level a three-sided canted bay window projects outward and rises into the eaves, aligned with a slated dormer above on the first floor.

The south-east elevation is adjoined to No. 4 Main Street on the right (north-east) side and overlooks the rear yard of No. 4 on the left (south-west) side. Only limited views of this elevation are available; where visible from the rear yard of No. 2 Main Street, it shows a slated dormer at first-floor level within the mansard roof.

The south-west elevation faces onto a modest yard accessible via a rendered arch gateway at the west corner of the building. The yard is enclosed by a white rendered high wall to the left, containing a timber entrance gate, and a low stone wall to the right overlooking the rear yard of the adjoining No. 4 Main Street. The fenestration on this elevation is irregular: a single panelled painted door is positioned off-centre, with a small-pane double casement window to its left and a smaller square window to its right, and a slated dormer centred above on the mansard roof.

No. 1 is positioned to the left of the square's pillared single entrance, which contains a pair of iron gates and opens just off the Main Street. The blocks within the square are linked at their corners by rendered arches containing painted timber gates. The setting is notable: the square sits within a designated Conservation Area in Cushendun village, perpendicular to and in close proximity to the River Dun, within a designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

Williams-Ellis was also responsible for designing the nearby Maud Cottages and, in 1923–24, for redesigning Glenmona Lodge, as well as the First Church of Christ (Scientist) in Belfast, erected in 1936–37 and considered stylistically similar to The Square. The Square represents a deliberate departure from the prevailing vernacular building traditions of Ulster and is considered an important early 20th-century phase of planned development in the village.

In terms of its ownership and valuation history, No. 1 was initially valued at £10 following its construction. The first recorded tenant was a Mr. John McBride, who remained in occupation until 1930. Under the First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936–57) the value was raised to £17, at which time the occupant was recorded as a Mr. Charles Brennan, who remained until 1966. Ownership of Nos. 1–7 The Square passed to the National Trust in 1954. By the close of the Second General Revaluation (1956–72), the house was occupied by a Mr. Michael Brogan and valued at £20. Nos. 1–7 The Square were listed in 1980, the same year in which the Cushendun Conservation Area was designated. Around 2011, No. 1 underwent a general renovation that included the reslating of its roof and the restoration of its windows.

The house has significant group value with its neighbouring properties on the square (Nos. 2–7), the nearby Maud Cottages, and Glenmona Lodge, all of which were designed by Clough Williams-Ellis.