Drum House, 254 Upper Malone Road, Drumbeg, Belfast, County Antrim, BT17 9LD

Drum House is a two-storey Victorian country house built around 1880, incorporating an earlier dwelling with origins dating to the 17th century. The building is irregularly planned with multiple bays and stands to the east of Drum Bridge, over the River Lagan, and to the north of Drumbeg Parish Church.

The house features a natural slate roof with lead hipping and flat sections, finished with finials and decorative cast-iron filigree. The earlier part has pitched natural slate with gable ends. Cast-iron ogee moulded gutters with circular downpipes are supported on overhanging soffits with paired timber eaves brackets. Chimney stacks are rendered smooth.

The walls are finished in ruled-and-lined smooth render with stucco mouldings. Detail includes bevelled quoins, plinth, string courses and channelled rustication at ground floor level. Windows are segmental arched 1/1 timber framed sliding sash with horns, featuring moulded architraves with centre key-blocks and large stone cills with plain cill brackets.

The principal elevation faces west and is asymmetrically arranged. The right-hand bay projects forward with a further projecting single-storey canted bay at ground floor. A single-storey flat-roofed porch with a large segmental arched opening dominates the centre, framed by three colonnaded arches. To the left, a veranda reached by five stone steps is enclosed by a single-storey colonnaded arched cast-iron porch with ornate filigree decorative trellis. The front entrance is accessed from the veranda. First floor windows are single and paired, positioned over the ground floor openings.

The north elevation's right side is symmetrically arranged, belonging to the Victorian extension, with a canted bay at ground floor and paired first floor windows above. The left side features a 2½-storey gable end to the earlier dwelling, set back slightly from the later extension. This gable displays classical cornice moulding and raked dentils at the apex, falling to parapet level. A modern pedimented portico with slender Tuscan columns embraces the principal entrance positioned right of centre on the older part. Fenestration is asymmetrically arranged with rectangular windows at ground floor and arched windows at first floor, both with additional frieze and cornice details. Smaller rectangular openings at attic level have moulded surrounds.

The east elevation is symmetrically arranged with a wide central pedimented portico featuring slender Tuscan columns flanking the rear entrance. Paired rectangular windows flank the portico with simple entablature. First floor level has a large half-circle arched stairwell opening with modern timber frame and glazing, flanked by square-headed windows set in segmental arched openings. Quoins rise on either side to cornice eaves details with dentils.

The south elevation comprises the gable end of the earlier part, recessed on the right, linked to the Victorian elevation on the left by a projecting two-storey hipped bay. Four narrow windows span the width of this bay. The surface is channel rusticated with moulded eaves detail. The south gable of the early part matches the north gable in style and detailing. The Victorian section features a large round-headed arch containing a stained glass window on the right, with ground and first floor segmental arched openings at centre and left. The upper left opening has been infilled.

The house stands within a large estate accessed by a driveway from a gated entrance with gate lodge. The gate lodge has undergone major restoration and enlargement into a large two-storey dwelling around 2000. A well-maintained front lawn surrounds the house, with mature wooded rural setting to the east. A commercial business operates within the estate but is well concealed from view. A former tree-lined avenue, part of mid-19th century landscaping, stretches from the house towards Drumbeg Parish Church, though it is no longer in use.