Lisburn was redeveloped after a disastrous
fire in 1707 under the ownership of Lord Hertford. His successors
took less interest in the town: the 4th Marquess of Hertford,
who died in 1870, only visited the town once but built up in Paris
the enormous collection of art and furniture that forms the present-day
Wallace Collection in London. However his successor Sir Richard
Wallace (probably an illegitimate son) devoted much of his energy
to the town between 1873 and his death in 1890, building many
fine houses and developing new estates of villas.
In 1885 Wallace gave the ground now known as Wallace Park to the
town commissioners as a 'Public Park and Recreation Ground for
the Inhabitants of the said Town of Lisburn'. The two lodges,
one at each end of the park, were built at that time to designs
by John McHenry, and later sympathetically extended, probably
by GP & RH Bell. The park is linear in form with an avenue
of trees linking the two lodges.
Both lodges lay empty from about 1990, and when the Magheralave
Lodge was burnt out in 2000 Hearth was able to acquire both lodges
from Lisburn City Council. The restoration of the lodges as houses
has helped to revive the park and the Council is now investing
in its future. Hearth has been involved in other recent initiatives
in Lisburn, sitting on its Historic Quarter committee and drawing
up a Conservation Guide for the area. We were also pleased to
be able to assist the recently formed Lisburn Buildings Preservation
Trust.
Magheralave lodge burnt out in
2001..
..now restored
Client: Hearth Housing
Association in association with Lisburn City Council
Architect: Hearth
Main Contractor: FM Construction, Belfast
Restored: 2004-05
Accommodation: Two two-bedroom houses
Funded by Housing Association Grant.
For more details of the restoration of this building,
click here.
