mavericks

Every now and again you come across a “wee gem”. Such is Bendhu house in the North Coast, in Ballintoy. It was the creation of Newton Penprase who named it ‘Bendhu’ after the nearby headland.

Penprase came from Cornwall to study and teach at the Belfast College of Art. He started building the house by hand in 1936 and for forty years he laboured on its construction using the material of his choice, concrete, reinforced with recycled railway lines and other elements that became available. His creation includes sunken rooms, parapets, animal sculptures, cubes, squares, port-holes and cliff stairs.

The locals called it ‘the house that was never completed’ as its journey to being finished was stalled by continuous objections and controls. As an aside, the house was later completed and extended by two subsequent owners, Richard Mac Cullagh and Michael Ferguson.

Bhendu is now accepted as an early, if maverick, Modernist structure in Ulster, and is only now being seen in the context of architectural developments of its time. Sometimes the benefits afforded by mavericks are only appreciated after many years of struggle!