Galwally House, Bradford Court, Upper Galwally, Belfast, Co Antrim, BT8 6RB

Galwally House

Galwally House is a detached, symmetrical, multi-bay, two-storey former house built in red sandstone around 1885, with a pedimented entrance bay and a three-storey wing to the north. Rectangular in plan and facing west, it stands on a slightly elevated landscaped site to the northwest of Upper Knockbreda Road. Designed in an austere neo-classical style, the building's formality is softened by the warmth of its red sandstone and the decorative richness of its entrance bay. It was adapted for use as a hospital during the 20th century and later as commercial offices, and is currently vacant. It has group value with the nearby Gate Lodge.

Architecture and Exterior

The roof is hipped and clad in natural slate with roll-moulded lead ridges, lead valleys, and several tall profiled red sandstone chimneystacks with sandstone discs at the chimney heads. Ogee-moulded cast-iron guttering runs to a moulded sandstone eaves cornice, which is supported by a pale sandstone corbel course with a string course below, and cast-iron downpipes carry rainwater away. The walls are of red sandstone ashlar with slightly projecting sandstone quoins, a continuous moulded sandstone sill course at first-floor level, and a rock-faced basalt ashlar plinth course with chamfered sandstone trim at the base. Window openings are segmental-headed at first-floor level and square-headed at ground floor, all with sandstone surrounds and fitted with single-pane timber sash windows.

The principal west-facing front elevation is symmetrical and five windows wide. At its centre is a pedimented breakfront entrance frontispiece with a pedimented portico set in antis. The pediment is of the broken-based dentilated type, featuring a carved sandstone roundel enclosing a lion figure and flanked by festoons. At first-floor level within the frontispiece, paired segmental-headed window openings are framed by sandstone architrave surrounds with keystones. The portico itself has a dentilated pediment with a pulvinated frieze, supported by a pair of panelled sandstone piers on plain plinth blocks, which are shared with a pair of black marble columns with stiff-leaf capitals. The open-sided portico contains a tripartite door opening formed in red sandstone, fitted with an eight-panelled painted timber door and a plain square overlight flanked by a pair of plain sidelights over red sandstone panels. The door opens onto a stone-paved platform reached by seven nosed stone steps flanked by a low plinth wall. The first-floor windows flanking the frontispiece are detailed to match it, while the taller ground-floor windows have moulded architrave surrounds, partly fluted friezes, pediments, and aprons.

The north side elevation is abutted at its east end by a gable-ended three-storey wing. This elevation has random fenestration and a single door opening with a glazed timber panelled door giving onto a flight of stone steps. The stair is lit by a geometric tracery window with a plain sandstone surround, comprising a pair of gothic-arched openings with a roundel above, each containing timber cusped frames with leaded coloured glazing and modern storm glazing. The three-storey wing is three windows wide and two windows deep. Its upper floors have segmental-headed window openings with plain sandstone surrounds and keystones, while the ground floor has square-headed openings. The gable of the three-storey wing has sandstone coping and is surmounted by a plainer red sandstone chimneystack. A further single-storey red sandstone addition abuts the three-storey wing; built around 1990, it is of little historic interest.

The rear east elevation is two storeys at its southern end, where it features a full-height three-sided canted bay, and three storeys at the northern end where it incorporates the wing. Window details follow those of the front elevation. There is a single door opening with a replacement timber glazed door and a pair of iron fire escapes. The south side elevation has a full-height three-sided canted bay at its western end, with windows detailed as on the front elevation.

History

The house was built around 1885 by John Martin of the Belfast building firm H & J Martin, as his own family residence. It first appears on the third edition Ordnance Survey map of 1901–02, labelled "Galwally", with a driveway and lodge also shown. The identity of the architect remains uncertain. The City Hall architect A. T. Brumwell has been suggested, though this seems unlikely as he would have been only seventeen years old in 1885. Architectural historian J. A. K. Dean attributes the house and its gate lodge to W. H. Lynn, noting that Lynn and Martin were working together at the time on the Central Library in Belfast, using the same Dumfries sandstone employed at Galwally.

H & J Martin was founded in 1840 by Henry Martin (died 1898). When Henry took his eldest son John into partnership, the firm took its well-known name. John inherited the business on his father's death, becoming chairman and managing director, while two younger sons became directors, one overseeing a Dublin branch. The firm's Belfast offices were on the Ormeau Road, close to John Martin's home at Galwally. The company served as contractor for many of Belfast's most celebrated buildings, including Belfast City Hall, the Grand Opera House, the Ulster Museum, the Robinson and Cleaver Building, and Stranmillis College.

Valuation records show the house entered as a building in progress in 1885, occupied by John Martin and built on land owned by the Bateson family of Belvoir Park. It was eventually valued at £135, with the large plot of land valued at £21 and the gate lodge separately at £5. The 1901 census records John Martin — described as contractor and builder — living there with his second wife and six children aged between six and twenty. The oldest was a student at Cambridge and the rest were scholars. The household employed five servants: a parlourmaid, a Parisian governess, two housemaids, and a cook from County Wexford. The house had ten windows to the front façade and thirty rooms, making it the largest house in the immediate area. By the 1911 census a chauffeur's house had been added to the plot, and John Martin's sons had entered adult professions — the eldest as a civil engineer and two younger sons as linen manufacturers. Household staff by this time comprised a cook, parlourmaid, housemaid, and under housemaid.

John Martin appears to have died between 1911 and 1914, leaving his wife Emily Martin in residence. By 1917 she had vacated the house, which was then let to the Ulster Joint Committee of the British Red Cross Society and the Order of St John. They opened it the same year as the Hilden Convalescent Hospital, the first hospital established by those organisations in Ulster. The adapted building provided fifty-one beds in the mansion house itself, with an extensive timber building to the south accommodating a further seventy-five beds. The works were overseen by Henry Seaver as honorary architect, with H & J Martin — the building's own owners — acting as contractors. The hospital was partly funded by a donation of £2,000 from Mrs Harold Barbour of Barbour's linen threads, who also gave £1,000 a year towards its maintenance; the Red Cross and St John's raised a further £3,000. After the First World War ended, the hospital became a convalescent home for disabled soldiers and sailors, and the fourth edition Ordnance Survey map of 1920–21 labels the building "Galwally (Hilden Hospital)."

By 1930 the hospital had passed into the ownership of the Ulster Volunteer Force, a Protestant and Unionist militia that had sustained heavy casualties during the First World War when many of its members served with the 36th (Ulster) Division. By 1934 it had fallen vacant, the remaining patients having been transferred to Craigavon Hospital on the Holywood Road. With the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939, the hospital returned to use, though it remained voluntary in character. In 1970, following the completion of a new wing at Craigavon Hospital, Galwally was closed when its remaining patients were transferred there.

The house stood vacant for several years before being acquired in 1984 by Goldblatt Management Consultants, who converted the interior to offices. Merex Construction Ltd were the main contractors, assisted by specialist craftsmen including James Watson, who restored the stained glass. The supervising architects were Philip Lynn and Tony Wright. The exterior was slightly altered during this work: a chimney at the north end was removed and a new coping piece cast as a replacement. Stonework, flooring, and cornices were restored and replaced where necessary, and dormers that had been added at a later date were removed. The service yard and servants' quarters were also developed to provide an additional lettable building. The house is currently vacant.

Setting

The building stands on a slightly elevated landscaped site to the northwest of Upper Knockbreda Road, with a tarmac forecourt and lawn to the front and a large tarmac car park to the north side and rear. Modern office developments lie to the south and east. The setting has been compromised and the original access route revised from Upper Galwally. The Gate Lodge, which shares group value with the house, is now remote from it, and a large retail complex now occupies the central section of the historic demesne to the west.