583 ORMEAU ROAD

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Two/Three-storey red-brick, late Victorian house located on the Ormeau Road just South of the intersection with the Ravenhill Road, approx. 3 km from Belfast city centre. The main part of the house is rectangular on plan with an attic level and a two-storey rectangular-shaped return and enclosed yard to rear. One of a row of 7 no. terraced houses set on the West side of the Ormeau Road, this section of the Ormeau Road is residential consisting mainly of red-brick terraced houses built at the end of the nineteenth century and some 20th century housing of varying styles.

Materials:
Roof : Natural slate
RWG : uPVC
Walls: Smooth red clay brick laid in Flemish bond to front/ English garden wall bond to rear
Windows : uPVC double-glazed top hung to front and rear

Front elevation (E)
The front elevation has a white uPVC door and overlight (plain glazing) to the right and a uPVC top-hung double-glazed window to the left. The doorway is square-headed with a painted masonry head. There are 2 no. similar windows at first floor level. Window openings have smooth painted plaster reveals and are square-headed with soldier course headers. Brickwork is laid in Flemish bond and there is a series of slightly projecting decorative polychromatic brick course at eaves level(painted white). There is a Natural slate roof with uPVC guttering and a red-brick chimney stack on the left-hand side with projecting courses in yellow brick and red clay pots.

Rear elevation (W)
(The rear yard of the house was not accessible at the time of survey and the following description is based on inspection from the rear laneway)

The rear elevation of the main house at first floor level has on the right-hand side 1 no. square- headed window opening with a uPVC top-hung double-glazed window. Window openings have smooth painted plaster reveals and are square-headed with soldier course headers. To the left-hand side is the original two-storey red-brick return. Both the rear return and part of the rear wall are painted white. The S elevation of the return at first floor level is blank. The W gable elevation of the return adjoins a single-storey yard wall and they have painted smooth render finish. There is 1no. square- headed window opening with a uPVC top-hung double-glazed window on the left-hand side of the gable at first floor level. There is an enclosed yard with square-headed doorway with painted timber boarded door. Walls are generally red-brick in English Garden Wall bond. Roofs are natural slate. There is a modern rooflight on the main roof. There are metal rwgs and uPVC soil stacks to rear of house.

Side elevation (N)
This is the end gable of the terrace and consists of a two-storey gable with attic and extends into the two-storey N wall of the rear return, where it steps down half a storey at roof level. There are 2 no. uPVC top-hung double-glazed windows on this elevation; a square-headed window opening at first floor level on the left-hand side with; a small round-headed window opening at second floor level, centrally located on the gable of the main house. Window openings have smooth painted plaster reveals and soldier course headers. Walls are red-brick in English Garden Wall bond with a painted smooth plaster plinth to the base. Verges are clipped. Roof of the return is natural slate with plain blue/grey clay ridge tiles and a modern rooflight on the left-hand side. Rainwater goods are metal.

Side elevation (S) abuts No 585 Ormeau Road - HB26.01.002B

There is a small front garden with gravel finish and concrete path, set behind painted sandstone kerbstones supporting a modern timber boarded fence and gate. The rear of the terrace is bounded by a laneway with long narrow garden extending to W; accessed through a boarded timber fence.

Historical information

GENERAL BACKGROUND Prior to the early 1800s, the southern stretch of the present Ormeau Road around Rosetta was a long-established continuation of what is now Ravenhill Road, the main route from Belfast - via Ballymacarrett and Newtownbreda - to Saintfield. In the late Georgian period several (generally small) country villas with attendant demesnes were created off this road, including, Anna’s Cottage, Annadale, Cherry Vale, Hay Park, Lagan Vale, Locust Lodge, Ormeau, Raven Hill, as well as Rosetta House itself, built prior to 1807 probably by the Coulson family.

In 1809 a new bridge, (replaced 1812-14), was built on the site of the present Ormeau Bridge to carry a more direct route from growing town of Belfast to link to the existing road, merging at the point where the latter passed the grounds of Rosetta. Originally variously known as the ‘New Ballynafoy Road’ or the ‘Road to Newtownbreda’, this new highway remained largely rural for much of the 19th century, however, the opening of the former Ormeau demesne in 1871 as Belfast’s first public park marked the beginning of a period of intensive development along the route, and the gradual carving up of the small estates within the vicinity. The main road close to Rosetta house had witnessed haphazard small-scale building work before long before this date, with a small hamlet of sorts in place before 1833, a settlement that included the still extant ‘Rosetta Cottages’ (nos.513-29 Ormeau Road). But this accelerated in an increasingly more suburban manner in the latter decades of the century, with Belvoir Place (present nos.583-95 Ormeau Road) built in c.1863 and extended in 1871, the semidetached dwellings constructed along what was to become Rosetta Avenue up by 1873, the terrace to the immediate south of this, ‘Marguerita Terrace’, (nos.531-45 Ormeau Road), completed by 1882, and its southern neighbour, ‘Rosetta Terrace’, (nos.537-63 Ormeau Rd), following in 1886-87. Building along what we now know as Knockbreda Road began c.1889, by which time development had commenced in Rosetta Park (1887). The last of these streets effectively surrounded Rosetta House itself at close quarters. The old house itself survived into the late 20th century.

No.583 - This house along with its three matching neighbours to the south (nos.585-89 Ormeau Road – the four collectively originally known as ‘Belvoir Place’) were built sometime between 1858 and c.1864, as they are not shown on the OS map of the former year, but do appear in the 1865 street directory. It is possible they were completed before 1862, as they are recorded as what seem to be original entries (as opposed to subsequent annotations) in the valuation book commencing in that year. That said, they are described as ‘those four new two-storey houses’ in a newspaper advert of March 1866, suggesting they were constructed closer to that date – most likely around 1864. They are described in the same advert as ‘comfortably finished [with] neat gardens in front and rere, and in a most healthy locality, within half an hour’s walk from Belfast and close to the Parish Church and Meeting-House.’ The group were probably developed by Thomas Courtney, who is listed as the immediate lessor in the valuation book and who, in 1871, added the matching house to the south (no.591) and the pair of taller dwellings just beyond (nos. 593-95).

The sequence of occupation of no.583 is as follows: Richard Deeves – ‘commercial traveller’ (to c.1868); J.H. Chapman – ‘bookkeeper’ (c.1868-71); William Courtney – ‘surveyor / civil engineer’ [the valuation book says Thomas Courtenay – i.e. The developer] (1871-c.85); Isaac Harvey – ‘teacher’ (c.1885-c.93); G. Mathewson – ‘nurseryman’ (c.1893-c.98); Charles Clawson (c.1898-99) and William Bailie – ‘shoemaker’ (c.1900- ). In the 1901 census Mr Bailie is recorded as residing in the house with his wife, Mary Ann, although unfortunately the details relating to the house are missing. In the 1911 census, the next occupant, Thomas Curliss – ‘joiner’ (c.1902-c.14), is noted as living there with his wife, Jane, and there five grown up children, with the building itself a second class dwelling with eight rooms. The Curliss family were succeeded in the mid-1940s by William J. Melville, a ‘labourer’ (to c.1953), succeeded by D. McClure – ‘checker’ (c.1953-c.57), William Melville (c.1957-c.64), William Melvin [the same person as previous?] (c.1964-c.69) and Mrs. Mary Melvin (c.1969-c.78). Frank Magill is noted as the resident from c.1978, and was still living there in 1995.

The building was listed in 1986.

References – Primary sources
1 ‘Belfast and Province of Ulster Street Directory’, (Belfast News-Letter, Belfast), various dates from 1858 to 1996
2 PRONI VAL12B/43A/7, annual valuation revision book, 1862-73
3 Belfast Morning News, 23 March 1866
4 Belfast Telegraph, 7 April 1871
5 PRONI OS8/30/2/OS town plan of Belfast, 1871-73
6 Marcus Ward’s ‘Shilling Map of Belfast’, 1879
7 PRONI VAL12B/43A/18, annual valuation revision book, 1882-96
8 PRONI OS8/30/3/59 1883-84
9 PRONI OS8/30/4/59 1896
10 PRONI VAL12B/43A/34, annual valuation revision book, 1897-1905
11 Census of Ireland, 1901, 1911 [online]
12 PRONI OS8/30/5/59 1903
13 HED File relating to HB26.01.002A (c.1986- )

Secondary sources
1 Royle, Stephen A., ‘Irish Historic Towns Atlas No.17 – Belfast, Part II, 1840 to 1900’ (Irish Royal Academy, 2007)

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
H-. Alterations detracting from building
J. Setting
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

R. Age
S. Authenticity
X. Local Interest

Evaluation

2/3-storey, red-brick late Victorian terrace house built c.1860. Part of a terrace of 7 no. Similar houses (HB26/01/002A-G), located on the Ormeau Road just South of the intersection with the Ravenhill Road, approx. 3 km from Belfast city centre. The house retains its external character, despite replacement of the original windows, door and front boundary. The house and adjacent houses on the terrace form a distinct group, particularly to the rear, where the yards and original garden allotments are remarkably intact. An example of modest late Victorian urban terraced house, built at a time when Belfast was expanding rapidly from the city centre southwards along the main thoroughfares of the Ormeau, Lisburn and Malone Roads.