7 Belfast Road

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Fairly substantial two storey house set on the E side of the S end of the Belfast Road (at the N end of a terrace on the curve of the road). The property looks late Victorian (or very early 20th century), but may well be a remodelling of an earlier house (or houses).

To the left of centre on the front (W) façade is a fairly large recessed doorway with moulded archivolt with keystone and panelled pilasters with decorative capitals. Set within the recess is a recent panelled door, with sidelights and fanlight. To the left of the entrance is a pair of windows (almost ‘twinned’), with moulded surrounds and PVC frames. To the right of the doorway is a similar pair of windows, and, to the far right, is an elliptical carriage entrance with timber sheeted double doors. To the first floor six unevenly spaced windows with PVC frames. The façade is finished in painted lined render with in/out quoins and a chamfered base.

The N gable is blank and finished in painted lined render.

The ground floor of the rear façade (as far as the rear of the carriage arch) is completely covered by a recent looking, single storey, lean to extension with modern windows and door. To the first floor are four windows, all with PVC frames except for the third window which is smaller and has a late Victorian looking frame with a segmental head, margin panes and coloured glass. The upper section of the rear façade is finished in rough cast.

The roof is gabled with asbestos-free ‘slates’ to front and asbestos to rear. Two rendered chimney stacks. PVC rw goods. Rubble built, two storey, outbuilding to rear.

To the right hand side of the front façade, to the immediate left of the carriage arch, there is a what appears to be a milestone. It is round headed and has been painted. Its front face is badly worn but the words ‘From’ and (perhaps) ‘Belfast’ appear to have been inscribed upon it.

Historical information

A building is shown on this site on the OS map of 1834. The valuation records of the same year tell us that that there was a house on the site which was part two storey and part single storey and belonged to an S. Jamison. Judging from the irregular arrangement of the front façade (and its enlarged and ‘regularised’ openings), the present house probably represents a late 19th/early 20th century remodelling of an older dwelling, perhaps even a pre 1834 structure. The presence of what appears to be a milestone close to the façade also indicates a building which may have been standing in the early 1800s, or earlier.

References- Primary sources
1 PRONI VAL 1B/316A p.72 1st valuation, Comber, 1834.
2 PRONI OS/1/3/10 OS map, 1st ed. 1834, Down 10.
3 PRONI OS/6/3/10/3 OS map, 1st rev. 1858, Down 10.
4 PRONI 2nd valuation, Comber, 1861. [In print in PRONI search room and in the Linen Hall Library- the town plan to accompany this valuation is missing making identification of owners of properties largely impossible.]
5 PRONI OS/2/3/10 OS map, 2nd ed. 1901, Down 10.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

Long, two storey gabled house, with carriage entrance, of possible pre 1834 origin, but whose façade was probably remodelled in the late 19th/early 20th century. To the front of the house there is what appears to be a milestone.