The Gate Lodge, 14 Main Street, Dundrum, BT33 0LX

The Gate Lodge, 14 Main Street, Dundrum

This small single-storey gate lodge dates from around 1830 and is one of the oldest surviving structures in Dundrum. It was built as a residence for the caretaker of a nearby bathhouse, and forms part of a wider group of buildings associated with Lord Downshire's ambition to transform Dundrum — for many years little more than a hamlet — into a fashionable watering place. The bathhouse itself survives, as does a large former inn with which both the bathhouse and the lodge were originally associated. There is documentary evidence, drawn from letters in the Downshire Papers, that Thomas Duff of Newry — a notable local architect — worked on both the inn and the bathhouse, though whether he had any hand in the design of the lodge is not certain.

The building is set into a high wall on the south side of Main Street. Its front façade faces south-southwest onto a small, enclosed private garden, from which there are partial views of Dundrum Bay. For descriptive purposes the front is referred to as the south façade, with all other orientations adjusted accordingly. The plan is roughly L-shaped, with a later dog-leg return extension to the east and a small projection to the west end. The building turns its back to the road, with fewer and smaller openings on the north side and more and larger openings to the south, giving a more open aspect towards the garden.

The south façade is asymmetrical. To the left of the main central section is a flat-arched front door opening fitted with a uPVC glazed door with broad sidelights. All window openings are flat-arched; those in the main body of the building have traditional vertical proportions, while some in the projecting return have been enlarged and are horizontal in character. All window frames are uPVC: those within the traditionally proportioned openings have sliding sash frames, while all others have casement frames. Sills are a mixture of cut stone and pre-cast concrete. The fenestration is somewhat informal in arrangement, though not so irregular as to be truly vernacular in character. External walls are finished with unpainted ruled-and-lined render.

The roofs of both the original section and the later additions are all hipped, with slight overhangs and painted timber fascias. Natural slate covers the road-facing sides and the south projection; man-made tiles are used elsewhere. The ridge is finished with red fireclay tiles. Rainwater goods are uPVC. At the centre of the original section stands an over-sized Tudoresque chimneystack: it has two square flues set diagonally, rising from a broad plain base, with plain fireclay chimney pots.

On the north, road-facing façade, the east side merges with a stone garden wall, while the west side merges obliquely with another garden wall within which the gateway is set. The gateway consists of paired wrought-iron gates with spear railings, the top rail curving down to the centre, supported on stout square gateposts with shallow pyramidal stone caps. To the north side is a gothic-arched wicket gate whose vertical members are formed with flat bars rising to the centre in a Gothic profile. To the south of the lodge, the small enclosed private garden is accessed from the west through an adjoining contemporary gate screen.

Historical background and development

The lodge was built sometime between approximately 1829 and 1833: it does not appear on an estate map of Dundrum dated 1829, but is present on the Ordnance Survey map of 1833–34. Both the lodge and the bathhouse were elements of a wider development centred on a large inn to the north-east (present nos. 6–10 Main Street), which was planned in 1823, was under construction by 1825, and was advertised for lease in October 1827 before it was fully complete. The inn was a key part of Lord Downshire's efforts to develop Dundrum as a fashionable resort.

The first valuation of around 1836 records all three inn-related buildings. The lodge is described as a "lodge or gate house belonging to the bath caretaker" — a simple single-storey rectangular dwelling measuring 32½ feet by 15½ feet by 8 feet in height, with the large chimneystack presumably at the centre of the roof and the entrance possibly at the south-western end. At that time the bathhouse was noted as being in Lord Downshire's possession, while the inn was divided into two: the actual inn to the north end (then leased to Samuel Harrison, who was overseeing Lord Downshire's building schemes in the village), and the Marquis of Downshire's "very well furnished house" to the south, which was vacant but had previously been let to the Dean of Down for two years at 100 guineas yearly. As this entry hints, and as later valuations confirm, neither the inn nor the bathhouse proved successful as commercial ventures.

By the second valuation of 1861, the lodge is described as "a free house" given to the gatekeeper, who was paid £6 yearly to caretake the baths. The dimensions are recorded as before, though a small outbuilding measuring 9 feet by 7 feet by 5 feet had by then been built just to the east of the main building. In 1869, the construction of the Belfast and County Down Railway bisected the pleasure ground surrounding the bathhouse, disrupting the relationship between the bathhouse and the lodge. By 1886, the "lodge, baths and pleasure ground" were let separately from the hotel, and the lodge was likely no longer serving as the caretaker's residence.

Subsequent occupants recorded in the valuation revision books include William Lewis (1886), Betty Archibald (1901), Hugh McIlroy (1902), Mary Mawhinney (1907), William King (1908–11), William Coburn (1914), John Howie (1923), Henry Whittaker (1927), Robert McCaffrey or McCavanagh (1936), Mary Breen (1939), John McKinney (1945), Elizabeth Mennet (1955), and Stuart Ming (1968).

Map evidence shows that by 1922 the building had been extended north-eastwards, incorporating the space previously occupied by the separate outbuilding or perhaps part of its fabric. By 1931 small projections were shown to the south-eastern side, the more easterly of these occupying the site of the present return extension. By 1979 both of these projections had been demolished, though the return itself had not yet been built; it appears to have been added in the 1980s. The smaller linear projection at the south-west end does not appear on any pre-1931 Ordnance Survey maps, though its appearance suggests it dates from the early 1900s.

The listing covers the lodge, gates, gate pillars, and walling. The building is now in private residential use.