Voluntary Service Lisburn, 52A Bachelors Walk, Lisburn, County Antrim, BT28 1XN

Voluntary Service Lisburn, 52A Bachelors Walk, Lisburn

A detached gable-fronted single-bay two-storey redbrick former factory, built around 1910. The building is rectangular in plan, facing south, and stands within its own grounds to the rear of a terrace of buildings lining the north side of Bachelor's Walk.

The front section has a pitched artificial slate roof set behind raised gables, with concrete coping to the rear gable and moulded concrete coping to the curvilinear front gable. Plastic rainwater goods are fitted throughout. The rear section features a twin barrel roof covered in felt with raised perspex rooflights, timber fascia, and plastic rainwater goods.

The front section is constructed in machine-made redbrick laid in English garden wall bond with corner piers to either end of the front gable surmounted by concrete capstones and ball finials. The rear section has ruled and lined cement rendered walling.

Window openings are square-headed with concrete sills and stop-chamfered concrete lintels, fitted with uPVC windows. The gable-fronted front elevation is four windows wide with a central oculus to the attic level having a concrete surround and steel window. An off-centre square-headed door opening with concrete lintel and uPVC glazed doors is positioned on the front elevation. The west side elevation is three windows wide to the front red-brick section and eight windows wide to the rear rendered section, with the rear section featuring timber casement windows and concrete sills. The rear elevation is four windows wide with segmental elevations to the east (three windows) and west bays. An external flight of concrete steps abuts the rear elevation. The east elevation to the rear section is eight windows wide, abutted by a single-storey lean-to with sheeted iron roof and a further external flight of concrete steps. The front red-brick section is three windows wide.

Interesting timber Belfast trusses and roof structure are present to the rear section, though the external fabric of this former factory has been much altered. A chimney that was formerly present on the site has been demolished in recent years.

Historical Background

A building on the site is first shown on the third edition Ordnance Survey map of around 1900, captioned as a saw mill. Valuation records indicate that the premises was remodelled around 1908 and, from field inspection, largely rebuilt. The building first appears in valuation records in 1870 as a saw mill and yard occupied by Robert Waterhouse, on a site leased from Sir Richard Wallace, valued at £30. Waterhouse, who describes himself as a gentleman, appears to have built the saw mill to the rear of his own residence in Bachelor's Walk, now demolished. His will of 6 October 1893 alludes to his residence in Bachelor's Walk but does not mention the saw mill.

The saw mill passed into the ownership of the McNally family in 1896, with Thomas G McNally, a timber merchant, becoming the owner in fee in 1900. In 1908 improvements or additions were made which brought the valuation up to £40, later reduced to £35. Visual inspection confirms that the building was comprehensively remodelled at this date, and it is not clear how much, if any, of the previous structure was retained. In 1917 the use of the premises changed to stitching factory, and the valuation was again raised to £38.

The building is not considered one of the best examples of its type and does not meet the criteria for listing, though it retains industrial archaeological interest.