Manor House, 28 High Street, Moneymore, Magherafelt, Co Londonderry, BT45 7

Manor House at 28 High Street, Moneymore

A dominating Neo-Classical mansion built by the Drapers Company in 1835 to designs by architect William John Booth, situated at the north end of High Street where it meets Smith and Lawford Street. Recently renovated and repainted, the building retains its substantial form but has lost much character to the rear and its outbuildings have been largely demolished. The interior has been extensively rearranged to suit new functions. The building is being converted into a hostel with assistance from Lottery funds through the Townscape Heritage Initiative, administered locally by the Moneymore Heritage Trust Limited.

The principal elevation is symmetrical and five bays wide across three storeys with a basement. A central projecting porch features a pair of Tuscan columns and respond pilasters supporting an entablature, with a four-panel framed and moulded door beneath a deep fanlight divided into nine panes. The central three bays form a breakfront with twelve-pane double-hung sliding sash windows at ground floor, each with a stone cill and horizontal cornice hood moulding. At first floor, three matching windows sit beneath wider horizontal cornice hoods carried on corbel brackets. At second floor stand three further twelve-pane windows, above which runs a frieze band and heavy cornice over a balustraded parapet. On either side of the breakfront are tripartite pedimented windows with twelve-pane and four-pane double-hung sliding sash subdivisions. Similar tripartite windows appear at first and second floors without pediments but with horizontal cornice hoods on corbel brackets. The outer bays terminate in low solid parapets below the central balustrading. The roof is natural slated with moulded gable chimney stacks and two further stacks centred on the roof ridge in line with the breakfront. Walls are smooth rendered and painted.

Small wings extend to north and south, each originally two storeys but heightened in 1875 alterations. The southern wing contains a crudely pedimented doorway with gate piers and double gates. The northern wing is L-shaped in plan with several windows and, owing to ground fall, a flight of steps ascending to it; a pair of gate piers and metal gates adjoins, leading into the rear yard now largely devoid of outbuildings except for one former stable structure. Both gable ends are windowless except for wing porches, smooth rendered and painted with central chimney stacks.

The rear elevation features a recently erected four-storey back return with lean-to roof, occupying one and a half bays and containing double-hung sliding sash two-pane windows at each landing level with similar windows on flanking walls. The main block displays twelve-pane double-hung sliding sash windows to each floor and bay, terminating in a solid parapet. The northern wing projects a rectangular bay with a large tripartite window contained between clasping buttresses, beneath which sits a single four-pane double-hung sliding sash window. The southern wing returns around the rear of the main block to meet the back return and contains a large tripartite window with two four-pane double-hung sliding sash windows beneath. Both wings have flat roofs with low parapets and smooth rendered, painted walls.

Originally built of cut sandstone with a substantial projecting stone portico, the building was stripped of its stone facing in 1875 alterations under architect Featherstone of Belfast, appointed in 1873. At that time, the lesser wings gained additional floors and the centre received a new cornice and balustraded parapet. Contemporary records note that when the Drapers Company deputation visited in 1875, "the renovated Manor House was ready for reception, but the plaster was not dry." The original Ordnance Survey Memoirs described it as "a handsome and spacious mansion, 3 storey, with a lesser wing at each end... built of cut sandstone and has a portico supported by massive stone columns." The cut sandstone was probably similar to that of the market house of 1839. Recent renovations have replaced the former substantial projecting porch with one modelled on that of the Drapers Arms or Doctor's house.

The Drapers Company disposed of the Manor House around 1900. The Bell family later occupied the building, with furnishings now visible at 12 Circular Road. It subsequently became a hotel and restaurant. A front area with low wall provides access, with basement windows visible towards the north end. In the garden stands an interesting large-scale model of the seventeenth-century Plantation town of Moneymore.

The building was listed in 1975 and lies within a conservation area.