2-3 The Square, Cushendun, Co Antrim BT44 0PQ

Nos 2–3 The Square, Cushendun

A pair of originally separate two-storey dormer houses, built in 1912 to designs by the London-based architect Clough Williams-Ellis (1883–1978), and since converted into a single dwelling. They form part of a planned group of seven white-painted rendered houses — Nos 1–7 The Square — arranged around three sides of an enclosed green in the heart of Cushendun village, within a designated Conservation Area and an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty close to the River Dun.

Historical Background

The Square was commissioned by Ronald John McNeill (1861–1934), a prominent local landowner and outspoken Ulster Unionist politician who resided at the nearby Glenmona Lodge with his wife Elizabeth Maud (d. 1925). McNeill served as a Unionist Member of Parliament and held several significant political offices, including Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs (1922–25) and Financial Secretary to the Treasury (1925–27). He twice served as British Representative to the League of Nations and signed the Kellogg-Briand Pact on behalf of the British Government in August 1928. He was created the First Baron Cushendun in 1927, a title that became extinct upon his death in 1934. His residence at Glenmona Lodge was burned to the ground in 1922 as a consequence of his outspoken opposition to the Anglo-Irish Treaty.

McNeill commissioned Williams-Ellis — now best known for the Italianate tourist village of Portmeirion in Wales, designed in stages between 1925 and 1975 — to design The Square in a Cornish cottage style, specifically requested to honour his Cornish-born wife Elizabeth Maud. Williams-Ellis was also responsible for the Maud Cottages nearby, the redesign of Glenmona Lodge in 1923–24, and the First Church of Christ (Scientist) in Belfast, erected in 1936–37 and stylistically comparable to The Square.

The broader development of Cushendun as a village reflects the wider transformation of the Antrim coast during the 19th century. Travel across mainland Europe had been curtailed by the Napoleonic Wars, making Ireland a popular destination for British tourists. The construction of the Coastal Road between 1832 and 1842 opened up the previously isolated Glens of Antrim, turning villages such as Cushendun into popular seaside resorts, and prompting the construction of summer houses and bathing lodges by city-based professionals and merchants.

The Square was first depicted on the Ordnance Survey Town Plan of 1922. 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, for Ronald and Maud McNeill. Nos 1–7 The Square were listed in 1980, the same year the buildings were included in the newly designated Cushendun Conservation Area.

The two dwellings that make up Nos 2–3 were originally separate properties. No. 2 was initially valued at £4 and occupied by a Mr James Redmond; No. 3 was valued at £2 10 shillings and first occupied by a Mr Neill O'Neill. Under the First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936–57), No. 2 was occupied by the O'Drain family, with its value raised to £6, while No. 3, valued at £5, was home to a Ms Mary McAlister. Both families continued in residence through the Second General Revaluation (1956–72), by which time No. 2 was valued at £11 and No. 3 at £8 5 shillings. Ownership of Nos 1–7 The Square passed to the National Trust in 1954.

At some point before 1987 — when neighbouring Nos 5–6 had already undergone an identical change — Nos 2–3 were converted into a single dwelling. A general renovation carried out around 2011 included the reslating of the roof and restoration of the windows.

Exterior Description

Nos 2–3 occupy part of the nine-bay block that runs parallel to the Main Street, situated to the south-west side of the pillared entrance to The Square. The principal elevation faces north-east onto the enclosed green, reached via a paved footpath from the main entrance, which consists of a pair of circular white-painted rendered pillars with iron gates just off the Main Street. The north-west side of the building is adjoined to the neighbouring No. 4 The Square.

The walling is white-painted render with rendered quoins to the left side, all set on a plinth painted in a contrasting colour. Windows are small-pane Georgian casement windows, one of which retains timber shutters painted in a contrasting colour, incorporating a cottage style expressed throughout each façade. The roof is a steeply pitching slated mansard, with the lower slope punctured by dormer windows set at a steeper angle than the upper slope. The ridge is concrete. Two tall painted rendered chimney-stacks rise at mid-ridge, each with black-painted clay pots and stepped cornices; the left-hand chimney-stack has been rebuilt. The eaves are deep and overhanging, with exposed painted rafter tails projecting beyond the face of the wall. Rainwater is collected in half-round cast-iron guttering and discharged via circular-section cast-iron downpipes.

The principal north-east elevation has an irregular fenestration pattern: the ground floor has six bays consisting of two doorways divided by square-headed casement windows, and the ground-floor bays are not aligned with the slated dormers on the first floor above. A painted panelled timber door with painted metal door furniture, set within a plain painted timber architrave surround, serves as the active entrance on the left of the elevation; the right-hand front door is disused, though both are retained.

The south-east elevation overlooks the rear yard of the adjacent No. 1 The Square and consists of two doorways, each with a painted panelled timber door at ground level, and a single slated dormer window at first floor. The south-west elevation, which overlooks a small rear garden accessed from a rendered gateway at the south corner of the building, has a small casement window to the right, and to the left two double and one triple casement window at ground floor level, each aligned with slated dormers directly above at first floor. A high timber fence divides the garden of Nos 2–3 from that of No. 4.

Interior

The interior has been significantly altered as a result of the conversion of two dwellings into one. The layout now consists of a rectangular plan with a single staircase leading to the first-floor rooms within the mansard roof. One of the original staircases has been removed.

Setting and Group Value

The Square comprises three two-storey blocks arranged around three sides of an enclosed green, bounded by a white-painted rendered and stone wall. The two end blocks — Nos 1 and 7 — are set perpendicular to the nine-bay central block on the north-west and south-east sides of the square respectively, and were each built as single large dwellings with cottage elements. The nine-bay block between them contains five smaller dwellings, Nos 2–6. The blocks are linked at their corners by rendered arches containing painted timber gates. All seven houses share the same distinctive character: white-painted rendered walls, small-pane Georgian casement windows, mansard roofs with dormer windows, and tall chimney-stacks.

As the 1972 Ulster Architectural Heritage Society guide to the Glens of Antrim described the group: "Seven white-painted two-storey houses, set around three sides of an enclosed garden, with mansard roofs, Georgian glazing, and shutters, the blocks linked by arches at the corners."

Nos 2–3 have strong group value with the remainder of Nos 1–7 The Square, with the nearby Maud Cottages, and with Glenmona Lodge, all designed by Williams-Ellis. Together they represent a significant and cohesive phase of planned development in Cushendun in the early 20th century, and a deliberate departure from the prevailing vernacular building traditions of Ulster. The buildings represent a rare intact example of this character within a Conservation Area, and carry considerable architectural, historical, and associational significance.

Materials: Natural slate roof; cast-iron painted rainwater goods; white-painted rendered walls; timber small-pane Georgian-style windows.