Botanic Gardens Gate Lodge

Belfast's Botanic Gardens was established in 1828 as the Royal Belfast Botanical Gardens.

Its main entrance was (and remains) at 2, Stranmillis Road.

The Gardens continued as a private park for many years, only opening to members of the public on Sundays, prior to 1895.

It became a municial park in 1895, when the Belfast Corporation (Belfast City Council) bought the gardens from the Belfast Botanical and Horticultural Society.

The park, now comprising twenty-eight acres, contains a large conservatory, tropical fernery, rose garden, and many other interesting features.

Originally the park was considerably larger in size, though portions of land were conveyed to the Department of Education, the Ulster Museum, and the Queen's University of Belfast, for various purposes. 

The Stranmillis Road gate lodge, designed by William Batt, was built in 1877.

It was quite a lofty, single-storey building in red brick with Staffordshire blue bands and pointed stone arches at the openings.

A pair of portico arches were directly below the clock-tower, added three years later, which had buttresses and carved capitals.

This structure was built by public subscription.

The tower's steep roof was in the French château style.

The adjoining lodge had paired windows, a tall roof with elaborate iron cresting, a pair of chimneys, and bracketed eaves.

Gate lodge location: February, 2018

Only the stone gates, with lamps and poppy finials, survive today.

Hugh Dixon said of its demise:-

The demolition of the lodge in 1965 was unnecessary in that the site remains empty. It was also unfortunate, in removing an important architectural focus for this busy junction, and a feature which gave arrival at the Botanic Gardens a sense of occasion.

I came cross an article you had written about the old Botanic Lodge which was demolished as you know in 1965.
I am currently visiting from Australia,

David Harbinson from Australia has kindly been in touch with me with the following information:-

"My family lived in the lodge for 10 years up to when it was demolished. We moved in when I was 4 and have great childhood memories of living in the gate lodge."

"I am actually attending a meeting of Friends of Botanic Gardens tomorrow evening and speaking with them about the inside layout of the lodge and the marvellous childhood memories of growing up there."

"One comment you made in your article was it was a one storey building. It was actually 2 storey not fully but partial. There was internal staircase leading from the “front room near the kitchen” which lead up  to my bedroom (which had a fireplace) then another room being a bathroom with toilet."

"On some old external photographs there are skylights on the roof one of which was my bedroom.There was then further stairs from this bathroom leading up to an attic room of reasonable size. In the attic there was entry doors into the loft roof which I got into trouble many times when exploring as a kid !"

First published in February, 2014.