East Gate Lodge, Lissue, 29 Ballinderry Road, Lisburn, Co Antrim, BT28 2SL

East Gate Lodge, Lissue

This single-storey gate lodge was designed by Thomas Jackson, the prominent Belfast architect, as part of his work at Lissue House for James N. Richardson around 1850, though the precise date is not known. It first appears on the Ordnance Survey map of 1857 and is marked as "Gate Lodge"; later maps identify it as "East Lodge", with a corresponding "West Lodge" to the south-west of the main house. The building retains exterior elevations recognisably characteristic of Jackson's work, though it has lost some original exterior features and all original interior features of interest. Its value as an integral part of the country house estate has been diminished by the loss of the original gate piers and gates to the demesne, and by the separation of the corresponding lodge to the west into different ownership.

The building is laid out on an L-shaped plan with a small walled yard to the rear. It is a modest three-bay stuccoed structure with a hipped roof. The south-east elevation, which faces the main driveway, is symmetrical with a central entrance flanked by one window on each side. The roof is laid in Bangor blue slates in regular courses with dark-toned ridge tiles; the overhanging eaves feature a painted flat soffit on paired projecting shaped brackets. A central chimney of smooth render with a moulded cornice rises through the roof, topped with two modern red pots. The walling is stuccoed render, painted, with a projecting plinth, a projecting frieze, and corner pilasters at the extremities, all with moulded caps. The central door and flanking windows are set in projecting segmental-arched mouldings resting on the plinth. The original segmental-arched timber panelled door of two leafs retains its segmental-arched recess and original sandstone doorstep. The windows are modern rectangular timber fixed lights with top-hung vents, now boarded up; each is set in a segmental-arched opening with plain reveals and a projecting cill supported on a pair of moulded corbels with a raised and fielded panel below.

The south-west elevation is symmetrical with two bays, each with a window flanking a central pilaster. The roof, guttering, and walling materials are consistent with the entrance front. The walling to the right of the central pilaster is patchy with cracked paintwork, while the walling to the left is smooth rendered, lined and blocked. A square-section PVC downpipe is positioned to the right-hand end.

The rear elevation comprises the rear wall of the main front block to the left, with a rear return projecting to the right. A yard wall sits forward to the left of this return. The roofing, guttering, and walling are as on the entrance front except that only the corner pilaster has a plinth, and the eaves soffit is tongued and grooved sheeting. The walling is lined and blocked to the end of the rear return and the south-west face of the yard wall, while the rear face of the yard wall is smooth rendered with a rectangular doorway that has been later closed with concrete blockwork. A square-section PVC downpipe is present.

The north-east elevation is one bay wide, comprising the end elevation of the original block with a blind yard wall set back slightly to the right-hand side. The original block has roofing, guttering, and walling consistent with the entrance front, except the eaves soffit is tongued and grooved sheeting. One window is centrally placed between corner pilasters. The blind wall to the right is plain smooth cement render, painted, with overhanging concrete coping.

The building stands within the grounds of Lissue House just inside the main entrance gateway, facing onto the main driveway but set back slightly from it. It sits at an angle to the main road with its north-west corner close to the boundary. Grassed areas surround it on three sides, with a tarmac pathway along the south side. The modern entrance gateway comprises smooth cement rendered piers with modern galvanised steel gates and railings, set back from the main road with a tarmac area in front leading into the tarmac drive. The boundary to the north is formed by old iron railings of plain design, now damaged, with a hedge continued by a barbed wire fence. To the west stands a modern house beyond a barbed wire fence. The driveway is bounded to the east side by a mature hedge and trees.

The lodge was built as a gate lodge to Lissue House, which was originally constructed around 1807 for Robert Garrett and was subsequently enlarged by Thomas Jackson around 1850 for James N. Richardson, whose descendants occupied Lissue into the twentieth century. In 1941, the then owner, Colonel Lindsay, offered the house to the Belfast Hospital for Sick Children as a refuge from air raids, and in 1947 he gave the house and demesne outright to the hospital. The main house was used as a convalescent home for children until the hospital closed in 1988. The main house has been substantially altered in the twentieth century and is no longer recognisably a work of Jackson, but the lodges retain exterior elevations characteristic of his design. The East Lodge has remained in association with the main house through changes of ownership in 1995 and 1998, though vacant, whilst the West Lodge is now in separate ownership and cut off from the demesne.