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

Hilden House Brewery, Grand Street, Lisburn

This U-plan range of multi-bay, two-storey rendered rubble outbuildings was built around 1825 as part of the Hilden House estate. The buildings originally served the Barbour family, prominent linen thread industrialists, and now accommodate a thriving micro-brewery, with the west range and its attached Edwardian garage building in separate use. The group has architectural and historic value in its own right and contributes significantly to the setting of Hilden House and to the heritage of the village of Hilden. It also has group value with the adjacent Barbour Mill buildings.

Architectural Description

The ranges are arranged around a large yard, enclosed to the west, north and east. All three original ranges have hipped natural slate roofs with black clay ridge tiles and rolled leaded hips, overhanging eaves with exposed rafter feet, and plastic rainwater goods. Walling throughout is painted render over rubble construction. Door and window openings are square-headed, with timber sash windows and some timber sills.

The yard is surfaced in bitmac with cobbled strips running along the east and west ranges. Access is via a drive to the south of Hilden House and also from the northwest corner of the yard, between the north and west ranges, opening onto Mill Street through steel gates set between curved, tall redbrick walls. A new timber platform has been added to the east range for use as outdoor dining.

West Range

The west range is in separate ownership. It is a multi-bay, two-storey painted rubble outbuilding with timber lintels and sills, and some vertically-sheeted timber and glazed doors to the first-floor loading bays. Attached to its rear elevation is a redbrick range built around 1910, consisting of a double-height Edwardian garage building with a double-pile, half-hipped natural slate roof incorporating glazing and a central gable with faux timber framework. To the front are full-height iron roller shutter doors and a single pair of vertically-sheeted timber doors. The rear and west elevations are of plain redbrick, fronting onto the garden of Hilden House. This Edwardian addition was formerly used by the Barbour Company as a garage for automobiles and is currently in use as a car valeting business.

North Range

The ten-bay, two-storey rendered north range is in use as a brewery and was possibly built around 1850. Its natural slate roof is hipped to the east and gabled to the west. At the centre of the roofline is a wall-head dormer forming a loading bay, with decorative timber bargeboard and finial and a clock above the vertically-sheeted door. The front and rear elevations retain their original 8-over-8 timber sash windows with timber sills. A sliding timber door on an iron roller system is fitted below a timber fascia bearing the inscription 'HILDEN BREWERY'.

East Range

The eight-bay, two-storey rendered east range, formerly an outbuilding, is now in use as a restaurant and bar. Its painted rendered walling has square-headed door openings. Both elevations have 6-over-6 timber sash windows with exposed sash boxes and concrete sills. The timber doors are vertically sheeted; that to the first-floor loading bay is original and is served by a cantilevered modern timber balconette.

Historical Background

Hilden House dates from 1824, though it replaced an earlier house built by the Delacherois family, Huguenot refugees who fled religious persecution in France in the 1680s and who played an important role in the development of the linen industry in the Lisburn area. It is possible that some of the earlier outbuildings to the south of the site may date from this earlier occupation of the plot.

John Barbour arrived in Ireland from Scotland in the late 18th century and established a thread factory at the Plantation. In 1824 his son William purchased the former bleach green at Hilden, which had previously belonged to the Delacherois family, and built a thread factory there. The house the Delacherois had built was by then falling into decay, and William Barbour constructed a new house beside his business, taking up residence in 1824 with his wife Eliza Kennedy and raising their large family there.

The house and two of the outbuildings appear, uncaptioned, on the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1833. The Ordnance Survey Memoirs of the same period describe the property as follows: "The house is a very commodious, square building, 2 storeys high and slated. The yards are well enclosed, the offices extensive, all slated and chiefly 2 storeys high." The Townland Valuation of 1828–40 lists the outbuildings as comprising a wareroom, a wareroom and workshop, a store and workshop, offices, a byre, a storehouse and workshop, and a porter's lodge; a garden house and piggery are also mentioned, though without dimensions. The property was occupied by William Barbour Esq and valued at £42 4s, with the nearby thread mill also in his ownership. Some of the larger windows surviving in the older buildings are consistent with their having been used as warerooms.

By the time of the second edition Ordnance Survey map of 1857 the house is captioned 'Hillden', and Griffith's Valuation of 1856–64 records that the property was leased from the Marquis of Hertford, with the house and outbuildings now valued at £65. Dimensions are recorded for four outbuildings and a lodge, three of which appear to correspond to outbuildings noted in the earlier Townland Valuation. Map evidence suggests that the outbuilding to the north of the site had been replaced by this period with a longer building.

By 1875 the house and outbuildings had passed to John Dougherty Barbour, who had taken over the firm along with his two brothers Robert and Thomas, with Sir Richard Wallace now the lessor. A valuation town plan dating from 1907 to around 1935 shows steps in front of each outbuilding, which would have led up to the loft spaces. According to Rankin, Hilden House was subsequently occupied by the Barbours' 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 into private occupation, and the outbuildings have been converted into the Hilden Brewery.