Old Masonic Hall, 36 Castle Street, Lisburn, Co. Antrim, BT27 4XE

Old Masonic Hall, 36 Castle Street, Lisburn

This is a former townhouse built around 1800, later used as a Masonic Hall and more recently as part of the South East Regional College. It is currently boarded up and for sale. The building sits on the south side of Castle Street within its own plot, enclosed towards Castle Gardens by a tall rubblestone boundary wall. Despite interior alterations carried out during the 20th century, the symmetrical façade, carriage archway and boundary wall make this one of the more architecturally significant buildings in Castle Street.

Architectural Description

The building is an end-of-terrace, five-bay, three-storey rendered former townhouse, square on plan and facing north. To the rear there is a single-bay, three-storey stairhall projection, abutted by a multi-bay, three-storey return and two further flat-roofed two-storey additions. A carriage arch screen is attached to the east side, flush with the main façade.

The roof is pitched and covered in artificial slate with synthetic ridge tiles, set behind a rendered parapet wall with a moulded stone eaves course below. The returns have hipped roofs. There are rendered chimneystacks, and the east gable has a stone coping. Rainwater goods to the front and rear are plastic and uPVC.

The front and east gabled elevations are finished in painted ruled-and-lined render, with a rusticated wall to the projecting plinth course below the ground floor sill course. The rear elevation is pebbledash rendered. All window openings are square-headed with painted masonry sills and replacement multi-pane timber sash windows.

The front elevation is symmetrical across five bays and three storeys, and its principal feature is a neo-classical painted stone doorcase. This comprises a replacement timber panelled door retaining its original decorative peacock fanlight, set within moulded archivolt and impost mouldings. The doorcase is flanked by a pair of fluted Doric columns on plinth blocks, carrying a full entablature above. This supports a broken-based pediment with a guilloche moulding. The door opens onto a concrete step to the street. The doorcase is in poor condition.

Immediately abutting the east side of the façade is an elliptical-arched carriage gate screen with moulded archivolt, impost mouldings and a cornice above, fitted with a steel gate providing rear access. The east gabled elevation is otherwise blank, with the moulded stone eaves course continued around it and a plat band running at sill level at each floor. The west side elevation is abutted by the adjoining terraced house. The rear elevation, now fully boarded up, is broken by square-headed window and door openings within the various return extensions and flat-roofed additions.

Interior

The interior has been significantly degraded by alterations carried out during the 20th century.

Historical Background

The building appears to have begun its life as a private dwelling house. It is possibly identifiable as a house in Castle Street recorded as being next door to the rectory, and thought at that time to have been the residence of the Reverend Edward J Cordner, who was probably the curate of Lisburn Cathedral. Cordner had been curate at Derryaghy until 1833, after which — though never officially recorded as holding a further appointment — he officiated occasionally at Christ Church Cathedral Lisburn and at Drumbo between 1833 and 1844. It has been suggested that the two adjacent dwellings may have been built or used by the church as the rectory and curate's house respectively. The Townland Valuation town plan for Lisburn has not survived, so this identification cannot be confirmed with certainty. The house at that time was recorded as measuring 40 by 24.6 by 31 feet, with a basement, return, and a number of outbuildings including a coach house.

By the time of Griffith's Valuation (1856–64), the house was the residence of Captain (later Colonel) James Ward, leased from the Marquess of Hertford. It was recorded as a house, office, yard and garden — the latter detached — with a combined valuation of £41 for the buildings and £1 10s for the land. The house itself measured 13 yards by 8 yards across four storeys, with a coach house and gateway also noted. The valuer recorded that the house was at that time undergoing repairs.

After 1863, the name Coulson was added beside Captain Ward's name in the valuation records. This reflects the inheritance by James Ward of the business and all the property of James Coulson, of James Coulson & Co, a damask table linen manufacturer of international repute. James Coulson's father, William Coulson, had been the first manufacturer to successfully work armorial devices, national emblems and heraldic designs directly into the fabric, winning favour with British royalty. James Coulson in turn received substantial orders from the Royal Household, along with appointments from the Vice-Regal office at Dublin Castle, Czar Alexander II of Russia, George I King of the Hellenes, Leopold Duke of Tuscany, and numerous members of the nobility, gentry, social clubs, military messes and hotels. On James Coulson's death in 1851 — prior to the Griffith's survey — he left his business and all his property to James Ward, who subsequently added the name Coulson to his own by Deed Poll. James Ward Coulson was instrumental in the formation of the London Irish Rifles and served as their first Commanding Officer, receiving a CB (Companion of the Order of the Bath) from Queen Victoria for his services to the Territorial Force. He was also a director of several public companies and a patron of the stage.

Ward Coulson appears to have spent much of his time in London and let the house at intervals, though he occasionally occupied it himself. In 1874 the tenant was Claud L Capron, Sir Richard Wallace's agent, and in 1883 William B Ardle was in residence. Ward Coulson is thought to have died towards the end of the century, and in 1898 the house was taken over by the Lisburn Masonic Body. The Masonic Body let part of the building — described as two front offices, first floor and store, valued at £8 — to Wellington Young, who was the town solicitor in 1905, while retaining part of the house and garden for themselves at a value of £25. By 1906 the Masonic Body was also renting part of the house to B Firth & Co, who appear to have been the contractors engaged in providing a new sewerage system for Lisburn, work on which began in 1905. By 1911 Elizabeth Ellis was the Masonic Body's tenant. A photograph of the Masonic Hall in its Castle Street setting, taken in the early 1900s, was published by Mackey in Lisburn Miscellany.