House Proposed for Demolition gets Registered

A house subject to a planning application to see it demolished and replaced has been added to the island’s list of registered buildings.

The register prevents buildings and structures from being demolished or altered without permission.

JM Property Management Ltd has applied to demolish Leyton, on Victoria Road in Douglas and replace it with two new houses.

That application (23/01066/B), which was submitted in September last year, would see it replaced with two three-storey houses, each with five bedrooms.

However, the application has been objected to by some nearby residents and historians who said it was of historical importance and should be maintained.

As part of this, it was recommended for inclusion on the island’s buildings register, something which was approved on February 28 2024.

The Department of Environment, Food and Agriculture agreed that the house should be included as it was architecturally and historically interesting.

The register describes the house as a ‘Victorian dwelling designed in an Arts and Crafts style with a twin-gabled front elevation featuring oriel windows, Ballanard brick ground floor and half-timbered first floor’ and that it ‘illustrates the arts and crafts style of architecture that formed a key part of the island’s cultural history during the late Victorian era’.

History

The register adds that the house was built for Thomas Kneen, who was Captain of the parish of Onchan from 1895-1916, an MHK in 1890-91, and was a notable lawyer which culminated in him being made Head of the Isle of Man’s Judiciary as Clerk of the Rolls from 1905- 1916.

It was bought and lived in by William Lay, an advocate in his own right, who went on to become the island’s first full-time High Bailiff.

It adds: ‘On the gable between the original front door and the front corner of the house a carved sandstone plaque was inserted as the house was being erected. It bears the date 1896 and the initials W L (William Lay) intertwined.’

Thomas Kneen (left) and William Lay (right)