2 Graham Place

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Mid-terrace three-bay two-storey with attic-storey redbrick house, built c.1860. The taller house of a terrace of six houses forming Graham Place, located on the south side of Sloan Street.

Pitched artificial slate roof with black clay ridge tiles and redbrick chimneystack rising from either gable end with clay pots (rebuilt to west in brown brick). Plastic guttering to yellowbrick corbelled eaves. Redbrick walling laid in Flemish bond with cement pointing to front elevation, cement rendered to other elevations. Square-headed window openings, painted rendered reveals, painted masonry sills and timber sash windows.

Three-bay redbrick front elevation with rendered plinth course and yellowbrick crenellation motif to eaves. Square-headed window openings with timber sash windows, some having horizontal glazing bars. Central square-headed door opening with smooth render surround, flat-panelled timber door with iron door furniture flanked by pair foliate console brackets to a stepped lintel cornice and semi-circular frame to overlight with glazed spandrels. Door opens onto three concrete steps to front pavement.

East gable abutted by number 1 Graham Place, with the rendered gable rising above the roof line having a single attic window opening with 3/3 timber sash window.

Three-bay rendered rear elevation with single-storey flat-roofed extension and early 6/6 timber sash windows with cylinder glass. Below eaves level is a further window opening to the second half-landing with 3/3 timber sash window with margin lights.

West gable abutted by number 3 Graham Place, with rendered gable rising above the roof line having a pair of small attic window openings with 3/3 timber sash windows.

Roof: Artificial slate
Walling: Flemish bonded red brick
Windows: Variety of timber-framed sash
RWG: Plastic

Historical information

The house was built in the early 1860s and is first shown on the third edition OS map of c1900. Although it does not appear on the OS map of 1858, two of the neighbouring buildings are listed in Griffith’s Valuation of 1863 and the site of the current house appears to be noted as a ‘building ground’ occupied by David and Robert Graham.

The house is listed in Annual Revisions for 1863 as the residence of David and Robert Graham and is part of a terrace called ‘Graham’s Place’. The house occupied by the Grahams is valued at £15 and the three neighbouring houses are valued at £6, £4.10s and £4.10s. It appears that the row was built by the Grahams on land leased from the Marquis of Hertford and the minor houses were let out by them. By 1881 Stewart Sloan is the occupier of No 2 but his occupancy is a short one and by 1887 the house returns to the Graham family, this time Mary Graham. The house remains in the family until 1901 when James McKeown becomes the occupier, and makes improvements the same year, causing the valuation to be raised to £18. Field inspection confirms that the house was remodelled c.1900.

James McKeown may be the former apprentice of Alexander Boyd of Castle Buildings (HB19/13/02) and the founder of James McKeown & Co Ltd, bakers and grocers. However, in the Belfast and Ulster Street Directory of 1900, James McKeown is listed as a spirit dealer of Sloan Street. (Bass)

References:

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/1/68/3 – Third Edition OS Map c1900
2. PRONI OS/6/1/68/4 – Fourth Edition OS Map 1921
3. PRONI OS/6/1/68/5 – Fifth Edition OS Map 1939
4. Printed Griffith’s Valuation – Union of Lisburn (1863)
5. PRONI VAL/12/B/20/6A-G – Annual Revisions (1863-1929)
6. PRONI VAL/12/B/8/9A-T – Annual Revisions (1863-1924)
7. PRONI VAL/12/E/40/1/ – Annual Revisions Town Plan (1877-c1898)
8. PRONI VAL/12/E/40/2/ – Annual Revisions Town Plan (1898-c1907)
9. PRONI VAL/12/E/40/4 – Annual Revisions Town Plan (1907-c1927)

Secondary Sources

1. Bass, H.G. “Boyd’s of Castle Buildings, Lisburn: A Short History of an Old Family Firm” Lisburn: 1977 (available at www.lisburn.com)
2. Belfast and Ulster Street Directory, 1900

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest

Evaluation

A mid-terrace three-bay redbrick Victorian house c. 1860 displaying good style and proportions. The building exhibits some intersting late nineteenth-century detailing such as polychromatic brick, decorative doorcases and timber sash windows. Set within its original urban block at Graham Place and built by the Graham family, it is the tallest house and the focal point of the terrace. Although the setting has been somewhat comprimised by modernisation of the surroudnding streetscape, the height, intactness of original fabric and subtle detailing in this building make it an important contribuiton to the heritage of the Sloan Street area.