40 FLORENCEVILLE AVENUE

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Two storey mid Victorian sandstone and red brick semi detached house, one of a terrace of three, which together form a palace front. Situated at the end of Florenceville Avenue off the Ormeau Road – c2.5 miles from the centre of Belfast. They are set back from the earlier Victorian building line and have relatively large front gardens. It was built c1872.

Materials
Roof : Concrete tiles
Walls: Ashlar sandstone to the ground floor with red clay brick above
Windows : Generally 2/2 painted timber sliding sash to the original part of the house with stained timber top hung to the extensions.
RWG uPVC

The front elevation faces North and has an original painted 4 panel door at the right with a single glazed 2/2 sliding sash window to the left. Two similar windows are on the first floor. The door has a painted bracketed hood and the windows have decorative architraves with flower motifs – the ground floor sill is supported on ornate brackets, which sit on a slightly projecting sandstone string course above a plinth which has cast iron floor ventilation grilles . The ground floor is random coursed sandstone ashlar with a semi-rockface finish and the first floor, separated from the ground floor with a painted smooth string course, is built from red clay brick laid in Flemish Bond. The eaves project and are supported on painted timber brackets. The. Roof is hipped at the side and has two red brick corbelled chimney stacks - one with octagonal clay pots

Attached to the East is No 42 Florenceville Avenue HB26 01 010B which projects slightly forward.

The West elevation has two similar windows on each floor positioned close to the corners - which have alternating painted quoins. Other detailing is as the front elevation. Beyond the main house, the string course curves down and originally formed the external wall of what was probably an open yard. It is now the external wall of a late twentieth century single storey extension (G6) - the mono pitch roof of which can be seen over this wall. A former door opening is now a stained timber window with two top hung openers.

The rear yard is accessed through a palisade steel gate. There are various outbuildings built in brick and concrete block arranged around the yard – of limited interest. The main structure is the single storey extension with modern top hung stained timber windows and a flush door that enters into the dining room.

To the West of this yard is a mid twentieth century garage with interesting folding doors and a stepped gable facing the road.
The rear elevation facing South has the dining room extension to the right – and a mono pitched kitchen extension, with a felt roof and stained timber picture window, covering the rest of the ground floor.

Above these extensions, the brick first floor has a large staircase landing window which originally had coloured glass margin panes but is now a 1/1 sliding sash with plain glass. To the right is a replacement top hung timber window and to the extreme right is an original 2/2 window.

Part of a terrace of three similar, but not identical houses, on the South side of Florenceville Avenue - which connects to the Ormeau Road, c 2.5 miles south of the centre of Belfast. The houses opposite are semi detached - constructed in the early twentieth and those closer to the Ormeau Road are late Victorian red brick terraces. No 40 has a front and side garden, bounded by a twentieth century red brick wall with vertical boarding above. The garden is set out in grass with some mature trees and shrubbery. A tarmac path leads to the front door. There is a small rear yard with variously detailed outbuildings and a large garage to the side. A 3m high red brick boundary wall separates the yard from Rossmore Avenue.

Historical information

This short ‘terrace’ of three is first recorded in the valuation book in 1872 and is shown on the OS town plan of 1871-73. It is located on land that previously belonged to the garden of Locust Lodge, a house of probable pre-1833 construction and one of the several small semi-rural gentleman's’ residences that characterised the Ormeau and Ravenhill areas before the spread of suburban growth in the late Victorian and Edwardian periods. The group itself was developed by William Fitzpatrick a Belfast builder who had acquired Locust Lodge in 1865 and who, as well as embarking on other building projects in the vicinity, donated the plot for and contributed to the building cost of nearby St. Jude’s church (1871-73). The architect responsible for Florenceville (if any) is not known.

For the two decades following the construction of the terrace, the ‘Avenue’ itself served merely as a drive connecting the three houses to the Ormeau Road (then known as ‘Old Ballynafeigh Road’). In the mid-1890s the whole of the south side was developed with the buildings to the north side largely products of the 1920s.

No.40 The original occupant of no.40 seems to have been James Templeton, followed Alexander McKeag (or McKaig) - ‘clerk’ - sometime before 1877, William H. Roberts (‘manager Ulster Works’) by c.1889, Robert O. Stanley (‘buyer’) c.1891, and William H. Roberts (‘carpet buyer’) from c.1894. In the 1901 census, Mr. Roberts is recorded as occupying the house with his wife, Helen, and their son and daughter, with the building itself a 2nd class dwelling containing somewhere between 7-9 rooms, 4 of which were at that point occupied by the family. Mr and Mrs Roberts and their son were still living there is 1911, the family remaining until c.1920 when they were succeeded by estate agent R.G. McDowell. Mrs Gertrude E. Leech is listed as resident in 1932, remaining until at least the early 1960s. D.G. Ryder, a ‘draughtsman’ is named as the householder in the 1967 directory and S. Kennedy in that of 1980.

References – Primary sources
1 PRONI VAL12B/43A/7, annual valuation revision book, 1862-73
2 OS town plans of Belfast, 1871-73, 1884, 1896, 1901-03, 1919, 1931
3 ‘Belfast and Province of Ulster Street Directory’, (Belfast News-Letter, Belfast), various dates from 1870 to 95
4 Marcus Ward’s ‘Shilling Map of Belfast’, 1879
5 Census of Ireland, 1901, 1911 [online]

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
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

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

Evaluation

No 40 is a very fine High Victorian house built c1872. Together with its neighbours No 42 and 44 Florenceville Avenue, also listed, they are set back from the original building line and were designed to form an important group with a palace front. The external detailing, in particular, is of high quality with ornate window architraves and eaves detailing. They form an important group as the earliest and most important historic houses in Florenceville Avenue and some of the most significant in this part of South Belfast.