Bellevue Villa, 21 Strabane Road, Newtownstewart, Co. Tyrone, BT78 4AZ

Bellevue Villa is a rendered Picturesque-style house built around 1860, situated on the north side of Strabane Road in Newtownstewart, County Tyrone. It was designed as a gentleman's residence in the ornate mid-19th-century Picturesque manner, set slightly apart from the town centre, and has remained in largely residential use throughout its history.

The original house is T-shaped on plan and faces east. It is three bays wide and two storeys tall, with gabled projecting bays to the principal elevations. At some point after the 1930s the house was extended with two-storey gabled additions to the east and west elevations, built in a style closely matching the original. Further alterations include a later single-storey flat-roofed projection to the south gable, a modern lean-to extension to the west elevation, and a modern conservatory to the north elevation.

The roofs are covered in pitched natural slate, with painted roll-top ridge tiles. The carved painted timber finials and waved-and-perforated bargeboards with pendants are notable decorative features and display fine craftsmanship throughout, though close inspection reveals subtle differences between those on the original projecting bays and dormers and those on the later additions — including the way the addition gables overlap with those of the projecting bays and slight variations in the finial and pendant ornament. The rendered chimneystacks carry painted ornate terracotta chimneypots. Rainwater goods are half-round uPVC gutters. All walling is painted roughcast.

Windows throughout are square-headed painted timber sash windows with stone sills, glazed 6/6 at ground floor level and 3/3 at first floor level, except where noted below.

The principal (east) elevation is abutted to the right by the east projecting bay and to the centre by the east addition. The exposed section at the left end has a single ground-floor window surmounted by a gabled first-floor half-dormer window. The east projecting bay has a single window to each floor; its right cheek is continuous with the north elevation, and the left cheek is abutted by the east addition, with the exposed section left blank. The east addition also has a single window to each floor (the first-floor window is a 2/4 sash); its right cheek is entirely abutted by the east projecting bay, while the left cheek contains a square-headed painted timber four-panelled door with an overlight, set within a hipped-roof porch.

The south gable is abutted by a rectangular flat-roofed projecting bay with a cornice, which has two windows facing south and one to each cheek; there is a further window at first-floor level on the gable itself.

The rear (west) elevation is entirely abutted from left to right by the west projecting bay, the west addition, and the modern extension. The west projecting bay gable has a single window at first-floor level. At ground-floor level there is a square-headed painted timber panelled door with a six-light above the lock rail, flanked on both sides by 2/4 sash windows, all sheltered beneath a pent-roofed porch. The left cheek of this bay is continuous with the north elevation; the right cheek is abutted by the east addition, with the exposed section containing a single 2/4 sash window at ground-floor level. The west addition has a single window to each floor; its left cheek is entirely abutted by the west return, the right cheek is abutted by the modern extension, and the exposed section is blank.

The north elevation is largely obscured by the modern conservatory. The exposed section has a gabled first-floor half-dormer to the centre, and a 6/3 sash window at the right end at ground-floor level.

The interior retains many fine original details.

The house stands in lawned gardens set back from the Strabane Road to the south and east, screened by mature trees, rendered dwarf walls, and various timber fences. To the west there is an enclosed concrete-paved courtyard of outbuildings, comprising a multi-bay two-storey carriage house with a pitched corrugated metal roof, roughcast walling, and a sliding double-width door over an exposed painted brick elliptical carriage arch. To the left of the carriage house is a single-storey single-pitched shed, and to the north of the outbuilding court is a modern greenhouse.

The history of the property is well documented. A deed of 1855 records John Phelan and Peter Conway, a butter merchant, both of Newtownstewart, as owners of the land before the house was built. In 1860 the property was leased for £140 to Alice and Mary Nichols of Newtownstewart, and valuation records from 1863 confirm that a house and offices had by then been added, with the revised value recorded as £7 5s. The house was sold to Charles John Gardiner in 1874 for £560; he mortgaged the property and subsequently sold it to Margaret Jane Tipping in 1895 for £690. The estate then passed to Nathaniel W. Tipping (1863–1937) and remained in the Tipping family until 1977. The house first appears on the Ordnance Survey map of 1905, with the adjacent carriage house shown alongside it.

The Tipping family were prominent landowners in and around Newtownstewart, and Bellevue Villa, together with Deerpark, formed part of their estate. Nathaniel W. Tipping served Ardstraw Parish Church of St. Eugene for thirty years as Parochial Nominator, Diocesan Synodsman, Churchwarden, and member of the Select Vestry. The church recorded him as "a staunch supporter of his church and a liberal subscriber of church funds." His daughter Mary Tipping (1897–1975) succeeded him in the Select Vestry and served as the parish's Honorary Secretary from 1940 and Honorary Treasurer from 1951. One of the church's six stained glass windows, made by the distinguished Caldermac Studios in 1979, was erected in her memory. One member of the family also served as a Surgeon Commander in the Royal Navy.