32 SUNNYSIDE ST.

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Two-storey red-brick house, built in 1904 and 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 single-storey L-shaped return with mono-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/uPVC to rear
Walls: Smooth red clay brick laid in English Garden Wall bond
Windows : Painted timber 2/2 sliding-sash single-glazed to front/ painted timber casements to rear - uPVC to the extension

Front elevation (N)
The front elevation has a painted timber 4-panel door and overlight (plain glazing) to the left and a painted timber 2/2 sliding-sash single-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 blue-brick course and projecting moulded brick course at eaves level, supporting cast metal ogee guttering. Natural slate roof with red-brick chimney stack on the right-hand side with projecting brick course and clay pots.

Rear elevation (S)

The rear elevation of the main house at first floor level has a painted timber top hung window to the centre and a similar smaller staircase window to the right-hand side. There is a similar window on the ground floor to (G03). There is a clay ventilation brick at first floor level. At ground level there is a single-storey L-shaped mono-pitched roof extension. It is built with red- brick and has fibre-cement roof covering, painted timber board to the verge and uPVC rwgs. uPVC rwgs to rear of house. The windows to the kitchen and bathroom are top hung uPVC with concrete lintols and full depth concrete sills.
The extension extends to the original boundary and is abutted to an original section of yard wall. Yard wall is canted at the corner and has a square-headed doorway with painted timber boarded door. It is built with partially cement rendered red-brick with a canted brick coping.

Side elevation (E) abuts No 30 Sunnyside Street - HB26.01.009I

Side elevation (W) abuts No 34 Sunnyside Street - HB26.01.009K

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.32 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.32 appears to have been Stewart Gilkinson, succeeded in c.1907 by Adam Hawthorn, a gardener, and in c.1910 by Mrs. Agnes Smyth. The 1911 census records the building as a second-class dwelling containing five rooms, occupied by Mrs. Smyth, a widowed dressmaker, and her seven daughters, aged from 2 to 12yrs old. Mrs Smyth was still living there in 1918, but by at least 1924 R.J. McKee was occupying the property, with S. Gilkeson [?the original occupant] there in 1925. William Holland, a joiner, is noted as the householder in the 1932 street directory, with Mrs Smyth having returned by 1935. W. Dorman is noted resident in 1943, William Holland again in 1945, Mrs. Sarah Dorman in 1951, William Dorman once again in 1955. A member of the Dorman family was still occupying the house in 1995
The property was listed in 1986.

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 HB26.01.009I (c.1986- )

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

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

Criteria for listing: historic interest

R. Age
Z. Rarity
S. Authenticity
T. Historic Importance
X. Local Interest

Evaluation

2-storey, red-brick terrace house built in 1904. 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 door, sliding-sash windows, stucco surrounds and slate roof. Despite replacement of the original front boundary, the building has significant 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.