52 SUNNYSIDE ST.

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Two-storey red-brick terrace house, built in 1909 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 two-storey rectangular-shaped return with 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/ uPVC to rear
Walls: Smooth red clay brick laid in English Garden Wall bond
Windows: Original painted timber 2/2 sliding-sash single-glazed to front/ painted-timber casement to rear

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 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 replacement 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 is rendered in smooth cement plaster and has a painted timber top-hung casement window to the left hand-side on each level and a two-storey extension to the right. The extension has a double-pitched roof with fibre-cement roof covering and painted timber boards to verges and eaves. It is built with rustic red clay brick and has painted timber casement windows at each level and uPVC rwgs. The extension extends to the original yard wall. There is a square-headed yard doorway to the left-hand side with a concrete head with brick header course and varnished timber boarded door. Narrow laneway to rear of yard wall shared with nos. 44-52, bounded to S with corrugated tin fence enclosing an industrial yard. Large group of red-brick single and two-storey industrial outbuildings S of industrial yard.

Side elevation (E) abuts No 50 Sunnyside Street - HB26.01.009S

Side elevation (W) abuts No 54 Sunnyside Street - HB26.01.009U

There is a small front garden finished in concrete with red and yellow quarry tile pathway to door. Set behind a plain red-brick boundary wall with canted coping and gateway with 20th C painted metal gate. 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.52 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 referred to 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, with John McBride noted as lessor for nos.44-52 in 1910; however, the identity of the architect (if any) is not known.
The first occupant of No.52 appears to have been Trevor McConnell, noted in the street directories as a carpenter. The 1911 census records the building as a second-class dwelling containing five rooms, which was occupied by Mr. McConnell (a bricklayer), his wife, Lizzie, and their three daughters. By 1918 John Kinghan, a painter, had taken up the lease of the property, with J. Finlay noted as resident in 1932, Thomas Patterson (a tailor) in 1935 and Miss H. Francy in 1943. John Kinghan living there again by 1945, W.S Middleton (a baker) by 1951, A.E. Amery by 1960, Mrs Mary Osborne by 1970, and an S. Donnegan by 1980.
The property was listed in 1986. The rear return appears to be c.1990s. The current owner purchased the house in approx. 2012. They report that there were late 20th century hollow core doors in the house when it was purchased and that they replaced these with the current 4-panelled solid pine doors.

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 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 HB26.01.009T (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
Z. Rarity
S. Authenticity
T. Historic Importance
X. Local Interest

Evaluation

2-storey, red-brick terrace house, built in 1909. 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, sliding sash windows, stucco surrounds and slate roof and is one of the few houses with its original early 20th century front windows. Despite replacement of the original front boundary and addition of a new-build 2-storey extension to the rear, 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.