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

Drum House is a substantial two-storey Victorian country house built around 1880, incorporating an earlier dwelling with origins dating back as far as the 17th century. It was designed by architect Thomas Jackson and stands on an elevated site to the east of Drum Bridge over the River Lagan and to the north of Drumbeg Parish Church, set within a large private estate in the Drumbeg Area of Village Character.

EXTERIOR

The house is irregular in plan, with multiple bays. The Victorian portion has a natural slate roof, lead-hipped with a flat section, decorated with finials and ornate cast-iron filigree. The earlier part of the house has a pitched natural slate roof with gable ends. Throughout, cast-iron ogee-moulded gutters and circular downpipes are carried beneath overhanging soffits supported on paired timber eaves brackets. The chimney-stacks are smooth rendered.

External walling is finished in ruled-and-lined smooth render with stucco mouldings, bevelled quoins, a plinth, string courses, and channelled rustication at ground floor level. Windows throughout the Victorian part are segmental-arched, one-over-one timber-framed sliding sashes with horns, set within moulded architraves with a centre keyblock, and resting on large stone sills with plain sill 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 level. Centrally placed is a single-storey flat-roofed porch with a large segmental-arched opening facing west, incorporating three colonnaded arched frames. To the left is a veranda approached by five stone steps and enclosed by a single-storey colonnaded cast-iron porch with ornate filigree decorative trellis. The front entrance door is accessed from this veranda. At first floor level, single and paired windows sit above the ground floor openings.

The north elevation is divided into two distinct sections. To the right is the symmetrically arranged hipped Victorian extension, with a canted bay at ground floor centre and a pair of first floor windows above. To the left, set slightly back, is the 2½-storey gable end of the earlier dwelling. The gable apex has a cornice moulding with raked dentils falling to parapet level, of classical proportions. The openings in this older section have been remodelled to match the style of the Victorian extension. A modern pedimented portico with very slender Tuscan columns frames the principal entrance, positioned right of centre in the older part. The fenestration here is asymmetrically arranged, with rectangular windows at ground floor and arched windows at first floor, both with frieze and cornice details above. The smaller rectangular attic-level openings have moulded surrounds.

The west elevation (the rear of the house) is symmetrically arranged. The rear entrance has a wide central pedimented portico with slender Tuscan columns, flanked by paired rectangular windows with a simple entablature. At first floor level, a large semicircular-arched stairwell opening with modern timber frame and glazing is flanked by square-headed windows within segmental-arched openings. Quoins rise at either side of the façade up to a cornice eaves detail with dentils.

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

INTERIOR

The interior of the Victorian house is in excellent condition and has retained much of its historic fabric, including plasterwork and joinery. In the earlier part of the house, the staircase is a feature of particular special interest, with hand-turned barley-twist balusters and a wide, robust handrail.

HISTORY

The house's origins are believed to lie in the 17th century. K. Rankin references Walter Harris's Ancient and Present State of the County of Down (1744), which records a house belonging to James Hamilton Esquire on a small hill near Drum Bridge. The Hamilton family had come to Ulster from Scotland after acquiring 51 townlands — including Drumbeg — from Con O'Neill in 1605, and may have erected a house on the site sometime in the 17th century. The survival of the hand-turned barley-twist balusters and wide handrail in the older staircase is consistent with this period. The family, later known as the Hamilton-Maxwells, were involved in the local linen industry and established a bleach green at Drumbeg in the early 18th century. Following the death of James Hamilton Maxwell in 1751, the house remained in the family until around 1830.

The 1832–34 Ordnance Survey Memoirs describe the dwelling as follows: "Drum House, the residence of William Smyth Esq. The centre of the building is plain, a small wing at each side is castellated which gives it an unfinished appearance." The Townland Valuation of 1828–40 records William Smith as owner, valuing the house and outbuildings at £21 6s. The first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1834 shows the existing older part of the house with a large rear return attached to the east elevation. At this time there were two entrances to the property: one from Drum Bridge, which still exists, and another from the south connecting to the old Belfast to Lisburn road. The latter was closed in 1849, following the implementation of Smith's proposal to construct a new road bypassing the house and neighbouring church, the upkeep of which was to be at Smith's expense.

Griffith's Valuation of 1863 records an increase in the value of the buildings to £40, with Eleanor Moore — treasurer of the Ragged School on Barrack Street in Belfast — recorded as occupier, while Smith remained the owner. The Annual Revision Valuations of 1866–77 identify William Greenfield as owner, with the property valued as before but with the addition of pleasure grounds, which are visible on the second edition Ordnance Survey map of 1858, located to the rear of the neighbouring parish church. The yew trees that once formed the principal entrance to these gardens still survive, though the gardens themselves are long gone. A former tree-lined avenue stretching from the house to Drumbeg Parish Church, part of a mid-19th-century landscaping scheme, is also no longer in use.

The house was purchased in 1883 by Sir David Taylor. His brother-in-law, John Taylor-Arnott of Arnott & Co., drapers and milliners, subsequently occupied it from 1885, during which period Thomas Jackson was engaged to erect the two-storey Victorian villa to the front of the existing house. The Annual Revisions confirm this, showing the value of the building rising from £40 to £130 in 1887, indicating completion of the new work. The Ordnance Survey map of 1901 clearly shows the full extent of the new dwelling, and the late Victorian styling was applied in the remodelling of the earlier rear dwelling. The gate lodge was also erected at this time.

During the 20th century, the principal elements of the building have remained largely unaltered, with the exception of the removal of extensions to the rear. The house was purchased by its present owners in 1959.

SETTING

The house is set within a large estate, accessed by a driveway from a gated entrance with a gate lodge. A large, well-maintained front lawn extends before it. The gate lodge underwent major restoration and enlargement around 2000 to form a large two-storey dwelling. To the east lies a mature rural wooded setting. A commercial business is operated from within the estate but is well concealed from the house.