20 SUNNYSIDE ST.

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Two-storey red-brick house of 1903, located on Sunnyside Street - a canted busy thoroughfare connecting the Ormeau Road with Annadale Embankment, approx. 3 km from Belfast city centre. The main part of the house is rectangular on plan with a two-storey rectangular-shaped return with a double-pitched roof. One of a row of 21 no. Terraced houses set on the South side of Sunnyside Street, the area is residential with mainly small terraced houses built at the end of the nineteenth century and some semi-detached houses dating from the beginning of the twentieth century.

Materials:
Roof: Natural slate
RWG: Cast metal to front/ Cast metal and uPVC to rear
Walls; Smooth red clay brick laid in English Garden Wall bond
Windows ; uPVC top-hung double-glazed to front and 1/1 painted timber sliding-sash single-glazed to rear

Front elevation (N)
The front elevation has a painted timber 4-panel door and overlight (obscure glazing) to the left and a uPVC top-hung double-glazed window to the right. The door has a semi-circular head with a moulded architrave and the window has a segmental head also with a moulded architrave. A similar but smaller window is almost centrally positioned on the first floor. Brickwork is laid in English Garden Wall bond with clay ventilation bricks at each level and a projecting moulded brick course at eaves level, supporting cast metal ogee guttering. Natural slate roof with a red-brick chimney stack on the right-hand side with projecting brick courses and clay pots.

Rear elevation (S)
(The rear yard of the house was not accessible at the time of the 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 a 1/1 painted timber sliding-sash single-glazed window to the left-hand side and a two-storey extension to the right. uPVC rwgs to rear of house. The extension has a double-pitched roof covered in fibre-cement roof covering with clipped verges at gable. It is built with smooth red-clay brick and has painted timber top-hung casement windows on W elevation, cast metal rwgs and uPVC soil stack. S and E elevations to the extension are blank. There is a yard wall in replacement smooth red-brick with square-headed yard doorway with painted timber boarded door.

Side elevation (E) abuts No 18 Sunnyside Street - HB26.01.009C

Side elevation (W) abuts No 22 Sunnyside Street - HB26.01.009E

There is a small front garden finished in concrete block paviors, set behind a replacement red-brick boundary wall and gateway with painted metal railings and small painted metal arched gate. This boundary treatment was installed along with the new front doors and windows c1988 as part of an improvement scheme encompassing the whole terrace. The rear of the terrace is bounded to south by communal laneway shared with Whitehall Gdns.

Historical information

Sunnyside Street is shown for the first time on the OS town plan of 1871-73 as a lane stretching from the Ormeau Road to the current junction with Whitehall Parade, the sole development along it a terrace of six houses on the north side marked as ‘Sunnyside’ (present nos.43-53). On Marcus Ward’s 1879 map of Belfast it is designated ‘Sunnyside Street’ (undoubtedly taking its name from the original terrace) and is shown extending slightly further west, just beyond the intersection of the present Rushfield Avenue, but no new developments are marked on this or on the OS town plans of 1883-84 and 1896. On the 1901-03 plan the present nos.14-24 are shown, with greater development on northern side also, and the street itself extended as far as the junction with Walmer Street, with brick fields between this and the River Lagan. The opening of King’s Bridge in 1912 allowed the street to reach its current extent, making it a thoroughfare linking directly through to Ridgeway Street on the other side of the River Lagan.
No.20 This house is part of a long terrace of twenty one dwellings which although virtually identical are of slightly different dates. Nos.14-24 are shown on the OS map of 1903, and recorded in valuation book during that year, with nos.26-42 entered into the same book the following year, and nos.44-52 first noted in the succeeding book during 1910. The developer of nos.14-42 appears to have been Hugh Scott, who is listed as the lessor for all of these particular properties in 1906, but the identity of the architect (if any) is not known. The first occupant of No.20 appears to have been John Houston, noted in the contemporary street directories as a carpenter. The 1911 census records the building as a second-class dwelling containing five rooms, which was occupied by Mr. Houston and his wife Hanna Jane and their two children, the elder of these, William James Houston, recorded as a ‘coach painter’. Mr Houston is still noted as the householder in 1945, but by 1955 a Mrs. Ethel Collins was in residence (a ‘chaffeur’, but later noted as a ‘fitter’) is recorded as the householder in the 1955 street directory and was still there in 1990 with Leonard Patrick J. Ward named as resident in 1995.
The property was listed in 1986. A two-storey extension was added to the rear c.1992-93, and at some point between this date and late 2005 the front window frames were replaced with uPVC.

References – Primary sources
1 PRONI OS8/30/2/OS town plan of Belfast, 1871-73,
2 Marcus Ward’s ‘Shilling Map of Belfast’, 1879
3 PRONI OS8/30/3/59 1883-84
4 PRONI OS8/30/4/59 1896
5 PRONI VAL12B/43A/34, annual valuation revision book, 1897-1905
6 Census of Ireland, 1901, 1911 [online]
7 PRONI OS8/30/5/59 1903
8 ‘Belfast and Province of Ulster Street Directory’, (Belfast News-Letter, Belfast), various dates from 1903 to 95
9 PRONI VAL12B/43K/4, valuation book, 1906-15
10 HED File relating to HB26.01.009D (c.1986- )

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
T. Historic Importance
Z. Rarity
X. Local Interest

Evaluation

2-storey, red-brick terrace house, built in 1903. Part of a larger terrace of 21 no. Similar houses (HB26/01/009A-U), located on the South side of Sunnyside Street approx. 3 km from Belfast city centre. The house retains its external character, including panelled timber front door, stucco surrounds and slate roof. Despite replacement of the original windows and addition of a new-build 2-storey extension to the rear, the building has group value with the rest of the terrace. A good example of modest Edwardian urban terraced housing, 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.