595 ORMEAU ROAD

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

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 modern single-storey rectangular-shaped extension 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 : Fibre-cement slate
RWG: Cast metal to front/uPVC to rear
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 replacement painted timber 3-panel door and overlight (plain glazing) to the right and a 1/1 uPVC double-glazed top-hung window to the left. The doorway is segmental-headed with a masonry keystone and is stepped at the reveals. The window is also segmental-headed and both window and door have soldier course headers. There are 2 no. similar windows at first floor level with square-headed openings also with soldier course headers. All the window openings have smooth painted plaster reveals. Brickwork is laid in Flemish bond with a series of slightly projecting decorative polychromatic brick courses (painted white) at eaves level. There is a tiled road sign plate attached to the outer edge of the house at first floor level with the lettering ‘Ormeau Road’. There is a fibre-cement slate roof with 2 no. modern rooflights and metal guttering. There is a large replacement profiled red-brick chimney stack on the left-hand side with red clay pots.

Rear elevation (W)
The ground level of the rear elevation is abutted to a large modern single-storey extension extending the entire width of the elevation. The extension roof is part flat-roofed and part mono-pitch finished in fibre-cement slates. The extension walls are smooth cement render and windows and doors are uPVC. The rear elevation of the main house at first floor level has on the right-hand side 1 no. modern square-headed window opening with a uPVC double-glazed top hung window. To the left-hand side is a round-headed window opening with a uPVC double-glazed arched window. There is a taller similar arched window above this at second floor level. Arched window openings have smooth painted plaster reveals and soldier courses at the heads. Walls are generally red-brick in English Garden Wall bond (partly painted white). The main roof of the house at the rear is fibre-cement slate. There is a modern rooflight. There are uPVC rwgs and soil stacks to the rear of house.

Side elevation (N) abuts No 589 Ormeau Road - HB26.01.002F

Side elevation (S) This is the gable end of the terrace. It is blank and has been finished in slap dash render with smooth plaster bands to the edges. It has clipped verges and a replacement profiled red-brick chimney stack at the apex with red-clay pots. A modern red-brick wall approx. 2m high has been erected along the face of the gable at ground level (possibly connected to the modern apartment development adjacent) and extends W along the single-storey rear extension and along the rear garden. The roof of the single-storey flat-roofed extension projects slightly above the wall.

There is a small front garden with a concrete path, set behind a replacement painted brick wall with metal railings and gate. Modern low red-brick wall enclosing S. The rear of the terrace is bounded by a laneway. The original rear yard has been removed and replaced with the new extension. On the other side of the laneway is a large modern detached garage with similar materials used in the house extension. Original garden area extends W to rear of garage.

Historical information

No.595 This house and its near-matching neighbour to the north (no.593) were built in 1871 as additions to the short terrace of five slightly smaller dwellings further to the north (nos.583-91 Ormeau Road - originally known as ‘Belvoir Place’), which were largely constructed c.1864, apart from No.591 which dates from 1870-71. The whole group was probably developed by Thomas Courtney, who is listed as the immediate lessor in the valuation book. The new additions to the terrace are referred to in an advert of May 1871 as the ‘new two-storey houses, with good attics, situate in Ballynafeigh...neatly and comfortably finished...good gardens front and rere...in the most healthy locality, with a dry soil and mild, salubrious air.’

The sequence of occupation of no.595 is as follows: William Templeton (1871-c.75); John Millin – ‘manager’ (c.1885-c.88); George Long – ‘clerk, Custom House’ (c.1888-1906), who is noted in the 1901 census as occupying the property with his wife, Susanna, and their grown-up daughter. The Long family were followed by Catherine Duffin, who in the 1911 census was living there with her four grown-up children, with the building itself a second class dwelling containing eight rooms. The Duffin family were followed by John Lindsay, a nurseryman (c.1914-24), then Mrs. Long (1924-c.29), John Lindsay (c.1929-c.33), Thomas Duffin – ‘stone cutter’ (c.1933-c.40). The Lindsay family held the property again from c.1940 until c.1968 (latterly Miss Lizzie Lindsay), followed by John O’Hara, a chef, who was still living there in 1995.

The extension to the rear was added in 2016.

References – Primary sources
1 PRONI VAL12B/43A/7, annual valuation revision book, 1862-73
2 ‘Belfast and Province of Ulster Street Directory’, (Belfast News-Letter, Belfast), various dates from 1870 to 1996
3 ‘Belfast Telegraph’, 2 May 1871
4 PRONI OS8/30/2/OS town plan of Belfast, 1871-73
5 Marcus Ward’s ‘Shilling Map of Belfast’, 1879
6 PRONI VAL12B/43A/18, annual valuation revision book, 1882-96
7 PRONI OS8/30/3/59 1883-84
8 PRONI OS8/30/4/59 1896
9 PRONI VAL12B/43A/34, annual valuation revision book, 1897-1905
10 Census of Ireland, 1901, 1911 [online]
11 PRONI OS8/30/5/59 1903
12 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

3-storey, red-brick late Victorian terrace house built 1871. Part of a terrace of 7 no. Similar houses (HB26/01/002A-F), located on the Ormeau Road just South of the intersection with the Ravenhill Road, approx. 3 km from Belfast city centre. The house is one of 2 no. n the south end of the terrace that have an expressed attic level. It retains its character externally, despite replacement of the original sliding sash windows, door and front boundary and large extension to rear. 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. A good 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.