Briarfield, 107 Hopefield Road, Portrush, Co. Antrim, BT56 8NZ

Briarfield is a detached asymmetrical gabled Arts and Crafts residence built around 1910, located at the end of a short gravel drive to the west of Hopefield Road in Portrush. The house is L-shaped on plan, facing north, and combines Tudorbethan exterior references with Art Nouveau glazing. It represents an early example of cavity wall construction and is one of only a handful of buildings from this period constructed in Portrush, contributing significantly to the town's special architectural and historic interest.

The building features pitched natural slate roofs with roll moulded terracotta ridge tiles and plain red brick chimneystacks with terracotta pots. A single box dormer window to the front pitch contains multi-pane timber casement windows. Moulded timber bargeboards ornament all gables with deeply overhanging sheeted eaves and coved brackets; cast-iron rainwater goods complete the roof detailing. Painted rendered gables simulate timber-frame patterns. The walls combine rough-cast rendered surfaces to the first floor with machine-made red brick laid in stretcher bond to the ground floor, featuring a moulded red brick trim above and smooth cement rendered plinth course.

The front elevation is two windows wide, flanked by a full-height gabled bay window to the right and a gabled entrance porch to the left. Square-headed window openings have concrete sills and are largely fitted with 16/1 timber sash windows. A diminutive round-headed window to the gable contains a 9/1 timber sash. Paired window openings to the bay display 12/1 sashes, with decorative leaded coloured glazing to the lower sashes; the remainder of the openings are fitted with 12/1 sashes similarly glazed. The entrance porch has a slate roof and bargeboard fronting applied timber-frame work. It features a gauged brick flat-arched door opening with stop-chamfered bull-nose moulded surround, an original seven-panelled timber door with bolection mouldings and brass furniture, and a rectangular overlight opening onto three concrete steps.

The gabled east side elevation is abutted by a pair of bay windows: the left is canted with a slate roof, and the right is rectangular with chamfered corners and a flat roof. This elevation is dominated by timber-frame decoration to the attic storey, with a pair of windows each having chamfered pilaster strips to cornice, bracketed sills and apron panels. The bay to the right and the window above feature leaded coloured glazed lower sashes. The elevation extends by a single window to the south. The planar rear south elevation has an advanced two-storey gabled section to the right abutted by a lean-to and a timber-framed conservatory to the re-entrant angle. The gabled west side elevation is abutted by a canted bay window to the left and is dominated by the timber-frame gable with attic windows matching those on the east gable.

The property is accessed via a winding gravel driveway opening onto Hopefield Road through a pair of decorative wrought-iron gates set on a pair of rendered piers with rough-cast panels.

Historical Context

The house, dating from 1910–11, first appeared on the fourth edition Ordnance Survey map of 1922–32, identified as 'Briarfield'. Valuation records show it entered the books in 1911 as the property of John G W Boggs, a pharmaceutical chemist, valued at £28 on a plot of over 5 acres. The 1911 census reveals the house was occupied by four siblings: John, the pharmaceutical chemist; Mary, a milliner and draper; Christopher, a dental surgeon; and Jane, who kept house. A general domestic servant, fifteen-year-old Mary Clarke Logan, was employed. The fifteen-room house was designated first class.

Valuer's notes from 1911 record the construction cost as £848 and document the house plan, which remains largely unchanged to the present day including the glass conservatory to the rear. The house remained in the Boggs family until at least the 1950s. Valuer's notes from the 1930s describe the ground floor accommodation as three reception rooms and a panelled 'lounge hall', kitchen and scullery, with four bedrooms, a bathroom with hot and cold water and a WC on the first floor. Four attic rooms occupied the top floor. The valuer's observations specifically noted the cavity walls—a relative innovation at the period of construction—and the wood block floor. However, the house lacked other modern conveniences such as electric lighting or a motor house. The only electricity supply ran to an outhouse to drive a water pump. The building remains in domestic use.