587 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 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
Walls: Red clay brick laid in Flemish Bond to the front elevation and smooth unpainted render to the rear including the return.
Roof: Natural Bangor Blue slate
RWG’s: uPVC
Windows: uPVC top hung double glazed

Front elevation (E)
The front elevation is two storey and built from red clay facing brick laid in Flemish Bond with a decorative brick band using white bricks, underneath the flush eaves. The front door, to the right, is a replacement flush door with an obscure glass upper light, set within a painted timber architrave and hood - supported on ornate foliate brackets. To the left is a replacement top opening uPVC double glazed window set in a plain opening with soldier course lintol. There are two similar windows in the first floor. The roof is natural slate and there is a rebuilt chimney stack on the ridge which has been extended with concrete(?) bricks and retains two octagonal chimney pots.

Side elevation (N) abuts 585 Ormeau Road – HB26 01 002B

Side elevation (S) abuts 589 Ormeau Road – HB26 01 002D

Rear elevation (W)
The rear elevation is rendered and has a rendered two storey double pitched return to the left with a small internal yard - separated from a wide lane with a rendered wall, containing a boarded door. The rear wall of the main block has a top hung uPVC window to the ground floor and a similar window to the first and a further one to the first floor of the return which faces West. Facing internally to the yard, which has a concrete finish, is a uPVC window and a flush door to the kitchen and a boarded door to an outhouse. Beyond the lane is a spacious grassed garden and a parking space.

The front of the house is set back c4m from the footpath behind a vertical painted timber fence and a replacement wrought iron gate. The path is concrete and the small garden has some mature shrubs and concrete flagstones.

Historical information

No.587 This house along with its three matching neighbours (nos.583-85 and 589 Ormeau Road – the four 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.587 is as follows: James Gray – ‘buyer for Lindsay Bros., Donegall Place’ (to c.1867); Joseph Middlemore – ‘linen lapper’ (c.1867-c.73); John T. Scott (c.1873-c.77), Spence Humphrey (c.1877-c.82); W.A.I. McBratney – ‘clerk’ (c.1882-c.85); Richard Shannon, draper (c.1885-c.88); Mrs. Kennedy (c.1888-91) and Robert Thompson (1891-c.1906), who is noted in the 1901 census as residing there with two of his nieces and a nephew. He was succeeded in c.1906 by George Duncan – ‘cabinet maker’, followed by Charles Henry in 1910, who in the following year’s census is recorded as the sole occupant, with the house itself a second class dwelling with eight rooms. Mr. Henry was succeeded by Mrs. E. Kernan (c.1920-24), Robert Thompson (1924-c.29), Charles Russell (c.1929-c.33), Charles Henry (c.1933-c.41), Mrs. Gray (c.1941-c.43), Mrs. E. Kernan (c.1943-c.47) and Thomas Grey [?Gray] (c.1947-c.52). By this point the property is classed as a ‘bakery’, which by the mid-1950s was being run by Miss D. Burke and Miss S. Walker. Today there appears to be no physical evidence of this former use. The building appears to have reverted to purely domestic use later in the decade and J. Tohill, a ‘lorry driver’ is noted as resident in the 1960 street directory. He was followed by Mrs. Molly Conway (c.1972-c.85), Joyce Boyd (c.1985-c.90), with Patrick T. McElhinney recorded is the occupant in the 1995 street directory.

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
D. Plan Form
H-. Alterations detracting from building
I. Quality and survival of Interior
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 the inclusion of inappropriate windows and some internal changes. 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.