Summer House, Northleigh, 38 Magheralave Road, Lisburn, County Antrim, BT28 3BN

Summer House at Northleigh, 38 Magheralave Road, Lisburn

A small early 20th century timber framed summer house, located adjacent to the southwest corner of a two-storey Victorian house, approximately 1 mile north of Friends' School Lisburn. The building retains much of its historic fabric and detailing both externally and internally, with character and style largely unaltered, though minor repairs are needed. It represents a relatively rare garden feature of local interest and has group value with the summer house at Clonevin Park, Lisburn.

The structure sits on a concrete base with timber frame walling. The hipped roof is clad in corrugated tin with cast-iron cyma-recta moulded guttering and circular downpipes, supported by diminutive timber fascia boards and soffits. The walling comprises diagonal sheeted timber panels with moulded beads.

The principal elevation faces north and is symmetrically arranged. A central timber front door with a bi-partite upper glazed panel is flanked by bi-partite fixed windows positioned over diagonally sheeted timber aprons. A distinctive row of 12 individual fixed lights sits under the soffit, alternating between coloured and colourless rolled glass. Single-glazed timber framed casement windows with fixed clerestory lights of coloured and colourless rolled glass are used throughout.

The east elevation is symmetrically composed with triplet bi-partite windows over diagonally sheeted timber aprons. A row of 10 individual fixed lights runs under the soffit, again alternating between coloured and colourless rolled glass. A ventilation grille sits centrally on the ground sill. The west elevation matches the east. The rear elevation is blank, finished in vertically sheeted timber tongue-and-groove.

The summer house sits within the gardens of the adjacent Victorian villa, accessed directly from the tarmac driveway. A boundary hedgerow to the rear is shared with the neighbouring property, with a well-maintained lawn to the west. The building is too small to appear on historic 6-inch map editions, though the associated main house is shown on the third edition Ordnance Survey map of circa 1900.