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

Hilden House is a detached five-bay two-storey rendered house built around 1825, set within landscaped grounds on the north side of Grand Street, Lisburn. The main house faces west, with a lower five-bay two-storey return to the side and further additions dating from around 1880 to 1900. A U-plan range of outbuildings to the north operates as a micro-brewery.

The house has an O-plan hipped roof of natural slate with rolled lead ridges and flashing, supported by two rendered redbrick chimneystacks topped with terracotta pots. The original ogee-moulded cast-iron guttering runs to moulded eaves with a blocking course and cast-iron downpipes; half-round cast-iron guttering serves the southeast additions. The walls are painted ruled and lined render with a projecting plinth course throughout, moulded to the north two bays only. All corners feature rusticated render quoins.

The symmetrical five-bay two-storey front elevation has camber-headed window openings with painted masonry sills. Original 6/6 timber sash windows without horns are fitted throughout, featuring much cylinder glass. A continuous sill course runs across the ground floor. The centrepiece is a central three-centred arched door opening with keystone and archivolt moulding to impost mouldings, flanked by plain pilasters. The late nineteenth-century doorcase comprises a five-panel timber panelled door with stop-chamfered mouldings and glazed upper panels, set within a stop-chamfered timber frame with sidelights featuring diagonally sheeted panels below. A dog-tooth lintel cornice and glazed overlight divided in two with cylinder glass tops the opening. The door opens onto a timber step and concrete platform with a further semi-circular concrete step. Red coloured concrete floors to either side mark where a full-width verandah formerly stood.

The three-bay north side elevation is adjoined by a single-storey gabled entrance porch with natural slate roof and ogee-moulded cast-iron rainwater goods. The porch has an original flat-panelled timber door with brass furniture and concrete step, a tripartite timber casement window to the gable side, and a replacement timber casement window to the porch cheek. The lower multi-bay two-storey rendered return runs flush with this elevation, with natural slate roof and a combination of original timber sash windows (some paired) and replacement timber casement windows.

The rear elevation is adjoined by the return and a further two-storey two-bay extension to the inner corner, with a square-plan rendered tower rising above. The tower has a pyramidal roof with angled natural slate and rolled lead ridges, and timber sash windows to each floor including a decorative leaded sash window at ground level. A single exposed bay to the rear features an original 6/6 timber sash window at first-floor level. The three-bay south side elevation to the main house displays 6/6 timber sash windows with cylinder glass and a round-headed stairhall window with original upper sash and incorporated fanlight; the lower sash has been replaced by a timber glazed door opening onto steel steps.

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