Lissue House, 31 Ballinderry Road, Lisburn, Co.Antrim, BT28 2SL

Lissue House is a detached, symmetrical, rendered former country house, originally built around 1805 and subsequently remodelled and extended on several occasions up to the mid-20th century. It is rectangular on plan, facing south, with a series of rear returns and extensions added between 1850 and 1950. The house is associated with the architect Thomas Jackson, who carried out modifications in the 1850s. It served as Lissue Hospital from around 1945 until 1988, fell into dereliction thereafter, and was extensively renovated by its current owners around 2000, latterly coming into use as offices.

EXTERIOR

The roofs are hipped and covered in natural slate with black clay ridge tiles, set behind a rendered parapet wall with a moulded coping. The chimneystacks are rebuilt in render with lead-lined copings. Rainwater goods to the front and west side elevations consist of replacement box hoppers and downpipes breaking through the parapet wall below the parapet cornice; the rear and east elevations retain ogee-moulded iron guttering. The external walling is painted cement render, with a deep moulded cornice to the front and west side elevations and a Portland limestone ashlar plinth course to the front block; the remainder has a render plinth course. Window openings are square-headed with moulded Portland limestone sills to the front block; other elevations have plain masonry sills. The front block and west elevations have replacement uPVC windows; the rear elevation and the rear accretions to the east have replacement timber sash windows.

The principal front elevation is symmetrical, of three bays and two storeys, with a full-height bowed bay at each end — these bows being added around 1900 during the most significant remodelling of the building — and a central Ionic portico in antis. The portico is a carved Portland limestone Ionic tetrastyle composition: a pair of Ionic columns flanked by a pair of Ionic piers supporting a full entablature with a pulvinated frieze, the whole resting on a pair of nosed sandstone steps. Within the portico is a square-headed door opening fitted with a pair of replacement hardwood raised-and-fielded panelled doors, which open onto three nosed, semi-circular sandstone steps.

The west side elevation has been extended as a series of two-storey accretions abutted by a canopy supported on Doric piers. The west wing extends further north and was built around 1950, with an open passageway leading to the rear yard. The rear elevation is abutted by a series of two-storey returns and extensions with various roof formations; the central return contains a Venetian window lighting the stairwell, and the elevation is generally glazed with replacement timber sash windows. The east side elevation has a further series of projections and recessed sections, all with replacement timber sash windows, except the single-bay side elevation to the front block which has uPVC windows.

SETTING

The house stands on an elevated, landscaped site overlooking the surrounding countryside at the end of a long, winding avenue. To the rear is a paved yard enclosed to the west by the 1950s wing, to the north by a tall rendered wall, and to the east by an embankment wall and part of an original two-storey former outbuilding — the west section of which has been demolished and replaced by a wall. The surviving part of this former outbuilding is rendered with a natural slate roof; most of its windows are blocked up, though the remains of some sliding sash 6-over-6 windows survive.

Further north is an extensive stable complex, altered in the 20th century with the insertion of garages. It has hipped natural slate roofs, roughcast rendered walls, metal-grilled windows, boarded timber ceilings, stable doors, garage doors, and concrete built-in feeders internally. To the west is an extensive range of original estate accommodation and offices, consisting of a long range of rendered or stone-and-red-brick single-storey buildings, some now roofless with windows missing or blocked up. The remains of the original walled garden lie to the west of the main house.

To the north-east of the house, set in woodland, is a circular lime kiln constructed in rubble stone with a red-brick, high semi-circular access arch, above which are two further diminishing concrete arches over the draw hole, and a brick screen wall at the top.

The avenue opens onto Ballinderry Road to the south-east via a replacement gate screen, alongside which stands a three-bay, single-storey rendered gate lodge, now boarded up and unused.

HISTORICAL CONTEXT

According to the Ordnance Survey Memoirs of 1837, the house was built by Robert Garrett Esquire around 1805, though Garrett was never able to carry out his intended improvements due to financial failure. The property subsequently passed to a Major McCauley, who in 1830 sold his interest to Captain Robert Crawford. Crawford then had the house overhauled and laid out several hundred pounds on improvements to the house and its demesne. The house is shown on the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1832–3 and is listed in the Townland Valuation of 1828–40 as the residence of Captain Robert Crawford, valued at £12 10s, with a basement and four outbuildings including a coach house. The Memoirs describe Lissue as "the seat of Captain Crawford, stands about one and a half miles from Lisburn… The house is commodious, stands two storeys high and slated and a handsome fruit and vegetable garden containing about two English acres enclosed partly by a stone and lime wall and partly by a quickset fence. The demesne, which consists of about 60 English acres, is chiefly plantations of several kinds of forest trees and the fields of an average size enclosed by quickset fences. The house stands on a handsome eminence commanding a most delightful prospect of a wide extent of the counties of Antrim and Down, also of Hillsborough and the improved seats in its vicinity."

By the time of Griffith's Valuation of 1856–64, the house was the residence of James Richardson and was valued at £80. At this point the property comprised a house with a semi-circular porch, two returns and a cellar, and seven outbuildings, with a gatehouse and four further outbuildings noted as being in progress. James Nicholson Richardson (1815–99) was the son of the founder of J.N. Richardson Sons & Owden Ltd, linen manufacturers. He and his brothers founded Richardson Brothers & Co. of Belfast, linen yarn merchants; in 1840 they opened a Liverpool office for the import of flax, grain and other raw materials and the export of linen yarn and cloth, and they were also involved in establishing the Inman Line of steamships with the Inman family. Following a disagreement, Richardson left Liverpool and settled at Lissue. Around 1855 he began extensive improvements to the house, extending it to the rear and adding east and west gate lodges under the direction of the architect Thomas Jackson. A semi-circular porch — subsequently removed — was also added at this time and is visible on the second edition Ordnance Survey map of 1858.

Between 1898 and 1915, valuer's notebooks record a further major scheme of work that gave the house much of the appearance it has today. The occupier at this time is listed as James Thomas Richardson, likely a son of James Nicholson Richardson. During this phase the semi-circular porch to the front façade was removed and two segmental bows were added. New estate cottages were also built. A plan of the house and outbuildings as they appeared during the works is recorded in the notebook, and the valuation was raised to £140. By 1915 the occupier was Joseph Tyney, of whom the valuer commented that the house was "formerly occupied by a gentleman and very unsuitable for present occupier who is of the tenant farmer class." By 1926 the occupier was John Campbell.

In 1927 Captain Lindsay purchased the house for £4,500 and carried out many improvements, raising the valuation to £288, subsequently reduced to £225 on appeal. At this time the accommodation was extensive. Outside there were cellars, a dairy, laundry, coal store, WC, garages, offices and a 400-gallon petrol tank. On the ground floor were three reception rooms, a billiard room, a study, three cloakrooms, three WCs, a sun porch, a sewing room, four pantries, a scullery, a larder and a servants' room. On the first floor were five bathrooms, five WCs, twelve bedrooms, a sewing room, four servants' bedrooms, and a WC and bath. There were also two hard tennis courts and two badminton courts. The valuer described the house as "modernised, in excellent repair and beautifully decorated," with electricity from the Board supply, central heating, and hot and cold water throughout, the stables being used for hunters, and the curtilage amounting to 10 acres. Following an appeal, the valuer further noted the oak floors, modern bathrooms with solid baths, marble tiling and rubberoid floors, describing the house as "artistically decorated" with extensive improvements leaving "no snags in the design," and noting that Captain Lindsay had a motor house and petrol pump.

Part of the house was used by the Belfast Hospital for Sick Children during the Second World War, apparently as a tuberculosis ward. By 1946 it had been restored to use as a dwelling, but following Captain Lindsay's death in 1947 it was transferred entirely to the hospital. The ground floor accommodated five wards, the matron's office, a drawing room, kitchen apartments and lavatories, while the first floor served as the resident nurses' quarters. In 1947 there were 35 beds, shortly to be increased to 70, with a matron, sister, eight nurses and two resident maids in residence, and a chauffeur-gardener occupying the gate lodge. By 1948 all the outbuildings were also in use by the hospital, which eventually vacated the premises in 1988. At the time of Brett's survey in 1996 the house had lain empty for some time, but by 2002 it was occupied by the Livestock and Meat Marketing Commission for Northern Ireland.