8 Lakeland Road, Magheraconluce, Hillsborough, Co Down, BT26 6PN

8 Lakeland Road, Magheraconluce, Hillsborough, Co Down

This mid-Victorian house was demolished circa 2005. The building was constructed between 1840 and 1859; a structure first appeared on the Ordnance Survey map of 1859, though it did not correspond entirely with the building as it stood in 2004.

The house was built in two sections: a single-storey front block and a two-storey rear block with a valley formed between their pitched roofs. The main entrance faced east.

The east-facing entrance elevation of the front block was three bays wide, with one window on each side of a central doorway. The roof was pitched and covered with Bangor blue slates in regular courses, with two chimneys of smooth rendered work, one to each gable end, each topped with a single red pot. A moulded PVC gutter was carried on pairs of small shaped timber brackets.

The walls were smooth cement rendered, lined, blocked, and painted, with raised quoins at the extremities. Window openings were segmental-headed with stilted drip mouldings on shaped corbels. Windows were segmental-arched timber sliding sashes, vertically hung, with 2-over-2 panes and horns, with projecting painted cills. The doorway opening was elliptically arched with a drip moulding on shaped stops. Within this sat a recessed doorway comprising a timber panelled door, panelled pilasters, narrow sidelights with panelled aprons, and a plain elliptically arched fanlight with a dentilled archivolt, approached by three moulded stone steps. A modern metal light was mounted over the doorway.

Extending to the right and set back to the rear of the front block was the front elevation of the rear block, with matching roof, walling, eaves corbels, and guttering. Two segmental-headed sashed windows (2 over 2) were present, without drip moulding; the left-hand window had a concrete cill with what appeared to be a doorstep below.

The south elevation was twin-gabled, with one chimney to each gable (the rear gable carrying two pots), shaped timber gables, and inner sloping roofs slated to match the entrance front. The wall treatment was consistent with the entrance front, with raised quoins to the right-hand extremity. The front block's gable was single-storey, containing one plain unmoulded segmental-headed window with a segmental-arched sash (without drip moulding). The rear block's gable was two-storey, with two rectangular unmoulded window openings to each floor containing modern rectangular PVC windows, 1 over 1, with fixed lights and top-hung vents.

The rear elevation had a slated roof with one metal flush rooflight containing re-used leaded glazing, a PVC gutter and downpipes, and smooth cement rendered walling. Windows were modern rectangular PVC, 1 over 1, with fixed lights and top-hung vents; two upper windows were contained in a small gablet breaking the eaves line. A modern glazed PVC door was present.

The rear return's south elevation was of similar character and materials: one rendered chimney on the roof ridge with a modern pot, one modern circular metal flue pipe, one modern flush rooflight, three modern PVC windows, and one modern glazed PVC door. One rectangular timber fixed light with broken glazing and a modern tiled cill was also present.

The west elevation of the rear return and attached outbuilding was of rubble stonework partly painted white, with a partly unslated roof and broken PVC guttering. The north gable of the attached outbuilding was rubble stonework painted white, with plain timber bargeboards, iron-plated doors, and timber slats to the loft opening. The east elevation of the outbuilding was rubble stonework painted white with an unslated roof and modern metal windows.

The north elevation of the rear return had three rectangular timber boarded doors, one modern rectangular PVC window, one modern timber window, and one large segmental-arched pair of double doors in boarded timber. The north gable of the front block was similar to the south gable, with raised quoins to the left extremity and a similarly sashed window in an unmoulded opening; at the base of the wall was a painted perforated terracotta ventilator of late 19th to early 20th-century type. The north gable of the rear block was plain smooth rendered, lined, and blocked, with raised quoins to the left extremity.

To the right, the gable extended to a low single-storey block in the corner with the rear return, having a lean-to slated roof, walls matching the main gable, a PVC gutter, and one modern rectangular window with fixed light and top-hung vent. The west side of this block had a similar window and a PVC downpipe.

The building stood in a rural setting, facing the roadway but set back slightly behind a front boundary wall and railings with a modern rendered plinth, painted concrete copings, and two types of 19th-century spear-headed cast iron railings set between square piers, with 19th-century iron gates. A tarmac driveway led to an enclosed rear yard surfaced in tarmac. The rear yard to the south was paved with quarry tiles, most now lifted, with similar tiles along a path to the south side of the main block; the area was surfaced with gravel. The front of the house overlooked pastureland opposite, with similar land to the south; land to the rear was being developed with modern red brick houses at the time of survey.

Freestanding immediately to the north were contemporary outbuildings of no special interest: a larger rubble stone structure with brick flat-arched and segmental-arched openings containing replacement timber boarded doors and fixed-light windows, with an unslated roof; and a smaller smooth cement-rendered structure with a slated roof, modern boarded door, fixed-light windows, and PVC rainwater goods.

The building was not of special architectural merit or historic interest. Although it retained a number of original exterior features, these were of fairly plain appearance to the sides and rear, with only somewhat more elaborate treatment to the entrance front.