An Introduction to the Towns and Buildings of Ulster
[Extracts from the booklet by David Evans and Marcus Patton, published by the Ulster Architectural Heritage Society in 1981.]
Some people have been puzzled by the title of this booklet.
In the centre of many Ulster towns there is not a Square, such
as you might find in England, but something that looks the same
but is called a Diamond. Fans of Scott Fitzgerald's novels will
be able to put the rest of the puzzle together.
This book is about buildings, the bricks and mortar, stones
and slates, doors and windows, that make up our everyday surroundings.
We spend our lives in and around them and they can be as important
to our survival as food itself - and like food, they can also
be enjoyed. We shall be looking at our Ulster fare of buildings
and trying to show what gives it its special flavour and interest
- for there is a lot to enjoy in the buildings of Northern Ireland,
from the humblest dwelling or traditional farmhouse to the grandest
church or castle. Towns and villages, collections of buildings
which have grown up over the years, are themselves interesting
both historically and visually, and we shall be talking about
these as well as individual houses.
A relatively small number of people may see or use the inside
of a building, but certainly a great number will see the outside,
and since the look of a building can make or mar an entire street
or even a whole landscape, it is important that a building should
look right. But what do we mean by right? Buildings of different
periods differ very much in their appearance; compare a modern
school with a Victorian one and you will see that a hundred years
has very much changed our idea of what looks right. In some ways
architectural design is as much influenced by changes in fashion
as women's clothes or motor cars. A hundred years ago the taste
was for high steeply-pitched roofs, tall chimneys and pointed
windows, whereas the Georgian period that preceded it went in
for more ordered buildings with gently sloping roofs and rectangular
or round headed windows.
The period when a house was built is important, for architecture
somehow reflects the spirit of its time, as well as using the
technology available at that period. In former days the pace of
life was slower, people travelled on horseback, or by coach if
they were lucky, and there was plenty of time for ornamentation,
alike in dress and in building. Ours is a more speedy and hasty
age, our buildings tend towards clean box-like shapes, being mass-produced
for our rapidly growing and mechanised society. We can no longer
afford hand-carving, and some people tend to feel that in this
democratic age ostentatious decoration of buildings is too showy.
Obviously the materials available are important in determining
the appearance of the building; for instance the appearance of
a traditional dwelling may depend almost entirely on its thatched
roof and whitewashed walls - take either away and the character
would probably be lost altogether. In some areas of Ulster there
is a tradition of using black stone with red brick around the
doors and windows which is very distinctive. Here again the materials
are crucial to the character. To continue the comparison with
food, the ingredients that go into the cake determine the way
it will taste.
Finally the purpose of a building controls its appearance. A Victorian
bank was expected to look dignified and reassuring, and to appear
a safe place to leave your money. Nowadays people are more interested
in the speed with which business can be transacted than in what
the building looks like outside.
All buildings, no matter how large or small, and wherever they
are situated, must always be looked at as part of their surroundings.
In many of our towns and villages there is a feeling of togetherness
about the buildings; they are by no means the same as one another,
yet they blend to give that sense of unity which is essential
to the feeling of being in a town. Buildings in the countryside
likewise should blend with their surroundings; notice how the
traditional farmhouse tends to melt into its landscape, nestling
in hollows or flanked by trees giving shelter from the wind.
This booklet considers the materials that go into the making of
our buildings, then at the ways they are put together, and the
different types of buildings that go to make up our towns and
villages; finally it looks at the ways buildings have been grouped
together to form towns, and examines an imaginary town which may
be quite like the one you live in. Since we have to use some specialised
building terms, there is a pictorial glossary at the end. We hope
that it will help you to explore the buildings around you and
to appreciate the many exciting and interesting things that make
up your everyday surroundings.
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