Hilden House, Grand Street, Lisburn, Co.Antrim, BT27 4TY

Hilden House is a fine detached five-bay two-storey rendered house built around 1824–1825, set within landscaped grounds on the north side of Grand Street in the village of Hilden. It was built by William Barbour, son of the Scottish-born thread manufacturer John Barbour, on the site of a former bleach green that had previously belonged to the Delacherois family — Huguenot refugees who had fled religious persecution in France in the 1680s and played a significant role in developing the linen industry around Lisburn. The earlier house the Delacherois had built was falling into decay, and William Barbour constructed the present house next to his thriving thread factory, taking up residence with his wife Eliza Kennedy in 1824 and raising a large family here. The house has historical connections to both the Delacherois and Barbour linen dynasties, and carries group value with the adjacent Barbour mill buildings. Its attendant outbuildings are now in use as a micro-brewery.

The house retains its original external appearance, with its internal fabric largely intact and many original features surviving. It faces west and has three-bay side elevations. A lower five-bay two-storey return faces west, with further accretions added around 1880–1900. The roof is hipped natural slate with an O-plan form, rolled lead ridges and flashing, and two rendered redbrick chimneystacks with terracotta pots. The original ogee-moulded cast-iron guttering is retained to the moulded eaves course with blocking course, and there are cast-iron downpipes throughout; the southeast accretions have half-round cast-iron guttering. The walling is painted ruled and lined render with a projecting plinth course throughout, moulded to the north two bays only. Rusticated render quoins appear at all corners.

Window openings are camber-headed with painted masonry sills and original 6/6 timber sash windows — without horns and retaining much cylinder glass. The symmetrical five-bay two-storey front elevation has a continuous sill course to the ground floor. The central entrance has a three-centred arched door opening with a keystone, archivolt moulding to impost mouldings, and plain pilasters to either side. The late 19th-century doorcase comprises a timber panelled door with five panels having stop-chamfered mouldings, the upper two panels glazed with decorative brass door furniture. The door is set within a stop-chamfered timber frame with sidelights and diagonally sheeted panels below. Above is a dog-tooth lintel cornice and a glazed overlight divided in two with cylinder glass. The door opens onto a timber step and concrete platform with a further semi-circular concrete step. To either side of the entrance, red-coloured concrete floor survives from a former full-width verandah, which has since been removed.

The three-bay north side elevation is abutted by a single-storey gabled entrance porch with a natural slate roof, ogee-moulded cast-iron rainwater goods, an original flat-panelled timber door with brass furniture, and a concrete step. A tripartite timber casement window is located to the gabled side of the porch, with a replacement timber casement window to the cheek. The lower multi-bay two-storey rendered return runs flush with the side elevation and has a natural slate roof with a combination of timber sash windows — some paired — and replacement timber casement windows. The rear elevation is abutted by the return and a further two-bay two-storey extension to the inner corner, above which rises a square-plan rendered tower with a pyramidal roof, angled natural slate rolled lead ridges, and timber sash windows to each floor, including a decorative leaded sash window at ground floor level. A single exposed bay to the rear retains an original 6/6 timber sash window at first floor level. The three-bay south side elevation has 6/6 timber sash windows with cylinder glass, and a round-headed stairhall window with an original upper sash and incorporated fanlight; the lower sash has been replaced by a timber glazed door opening onto steel steps.

The setting is defined by a bitmac area to the north encircling the rear and south side of the house, with a gravel front parking area and a curved bitmac avenue leading southwest through a large front lawn to Grand Street, entered via early 20th-century iron gates with swan-neck walls and rail. A section of coursed rubble walling lies to the south of the house at the top of the avenue. A tall rough-cast rendered quadrant wall abuts the north side elevation of the house, featuring a gothic-arched pedestrian gateway and terminating at the north side elevation of the U-plan outbuilding range. A well and wheel pump are located on the north face of this rendered wall.

The house underwent some remodelling around 1850. The Ordnance Survey Memoirs of 1832–33 describe it as "a very commodious, square building, 2 storeys high and slated," with well-enclosed yards, extensive two-storey offices, a walled garden of approximately two acres well stocked with fruit trees, a glass-roofed greenhouse producing grapes and cape flowers, hotbeds for melons, a sundial, a garden house, a metal pump, and a water engine for watering the garden. The first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1833 shows a protrusion to the south façade, possibly indicating a former staircase from a first-floor door, now replaced in metal; this feature had disappeared by the second edition map of 1857. An extension at right angles to the return, shown on Ordnance Survey maps prior to 1973, has since been removed.

The Townland Valuation of 1828–40 records the house at dimensions 45 by 41 by 23.6 feet, with numerous outbuildings including a wareroom, wareroom and workshop, store and workshop, offices, byre, storehouse and workshop, porter's lodge, garden house, and piggery. The property is listed as occupied by William Barbour Esquire and valued at £42 4s, with the nearby thread mill also in his ownership. By the time of Griffith's Valuation of 1856–64, the property was leased from the Marquis of Hertford, and the house and outbuildings were revalued at £65, reflecting improvements including the addition of a porch and a new front doorway. By 1875 the house had passed to John Dougherty Barbour, who had taken over the firm, along with his brothers Robert and Thomas, with Sir Richard Wallace now recorded as lessor. A valuation town plan dating from 1907 to around 1935 shows, for the first time, the minor extension to the rear. According to Rankin, the house was subsequently occupied by the Barbour siblings' sister Maria Pirrie, and then by her sons Malcolm and William Gordon, both of whom were involved in the Barbour company. The house has since passed out of the Barbour family and is now in private occupation.