Gate Lodge, Wallace Park, Belsize Road, Lisburn, Co. Antrim, BT27 4AL

Gate Lodge, Wallace Park

A detached single-storey gate lodge built around 1885 in redbrick and stucco, set perpendicular to the east entrance of Wallace Park on Belsize Road in Lisburn. The building was designed by architect John MacHenry, surveyor to the Hertford estates, and constructed as one of a pair of lodges to provide accommodation for park wardens. The park itself was gifted to Lisburn by local landowner Sir Richard Wallace in 1882, with work completed by August 1887. The pair of lodges has group value, with matching decorative detailing at each entrance to the park.

The lodge is square on plan, facing south, with a hipped natural slate roof featuring roll-moulded terracotta ridge tiles and rolled leaded hip ridges surmounted by timber finials. Two decorative redbrick chimneystacks with stucco cornicing and clay pots rise from the roof. The eaves feature ogee-moulded cast-iron guttering on a deep moulded cornice above a continuous string course.

The walls are laid in Flemish bond redbrick with a moulded plinth course and rusticated stucco rising to a continuous moulded sill course. The south-facing front elevation is dominated by a central three-sided canted bay with a pair of canted bays to the sides. A square-headed window opening with architrave surround occupies the east end, together with an inset doorcase with architrave surround and replacement flat-panelled timber door. Windows throughout are replacement 6/6 timber sash units in square-headed openings with architrave surrounds.

The west elevation contains an off-centre shallow three-sided canted bay with a lead-lined roof, with a paired window opening to its left sharing a single architrave surround with a central render mullion. The rear elevation features a lead-lined flat-roofed central section abutted by a tall redbrick wall enclosing a small rear yard. The east elevation facing Belsize Road shows a symmetrical composition of two window openings.

The building is set within the grounds of Wallace Park and is enclosed to the road by a rock-faced wall and replacement iron railing. An entrance sweep with replacement iron gates and railings provides access, with a small front garden fronting onto the bitumac road within the park, enclosed by hedging.

Originally built around 1884, the lodge was extended around 1910 and underwent extensive renovation around 2006 when it was converted to residential use for Hearth Housing Association. Despite these renovations, much of its original external character remains intact. The modest scale and decorative elevations are enhanced by their setting within Wallace Park, and the lodges hold historical interest for the local community as structures connected to Sir Richard Wallace's public gift to Lisburn.