42 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, similar, but not identical houses, which together form a palace front. Situated on the South side 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 raised front gardens. It was built c1872.
The houses opposite are semi detached - constructed in the early twentieth and those closer to the Ormeau Road are late Victorian red brick terraces.

Materials
Roof : Front and rear slopes - natural slates
Walls: Front elevation - rock faced ashlar sandstone to the ground floor with a red clay brick to first. Rear elevation is red clay brick.
Windows: 1/1 painted timber top hung
RWG : Cast iron

The symmetrical front elevation faces North and projects about 1m forward of the adjoining houses on either side - the cheeks are painted lined render on the ground floor. It has an original painted 4 panel door in the centre with a plain glazed overlight with 42 painted on it. Either side are painted single glazed 1/1 top hung painted timber windows. There are three similar windows symmetrically arranged on the first floor. The doorway has a decorative surround consisting of painted pilasters with foliate capitals and a large rectangular hood with keystone, stringcourse and a band of quatrefoil mouldings above - possibly in sandstone. All the windows on this elevation have raised decorative architraves with flower motifs – the ground floor sills are supported on ornate brackets. The ground floor walling is random coursed sandstone ashlar with a semi-rock face 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 from the front and has two red brick corbelled chimney stacks on the ridge – each one positioned on the party wall with their neighbours.

Attached to the East is No 40 Florenceville Avenue HB26 01 010A.

Attached to the West is No 44 Florenceville Avenue HB26 01 010C.

The rear elevation (S) could not be fully recorded as access was not gained to the rear garden, however the upper floor could be viewed from the neighbouring property.
The first floor has two square headed 1/1 top hung painted timber windows to the right with thin painted concrete sills. Towards the centre is a flush door with a glazed top panel. This was presumably the fire exit from the top flat when the property was separated into two flats. Above this door opening is evidence of a former segmental headed window that is now blocked up with clay brickwork. To the left of this doorway is a 1/1 top hung painted timber window set in a segmental headed opening. A wide segmental arch spans an enlarged opening on the ground floor. Details of this opening and the rest of the ground could not be seen.

No 42 has a small raised paved and gravelled front garden, bounded by a twentieth century red brick wall with vertical boarding on the boundary with No40 and horizontal boarding on the other side. The garden is accessed up 4 steps though a replacement painted steel gate, with a small sign attached – CLOREEN. The boundary to the front is red brick walling with steel railings above – the gate is supported on red brick pillars.

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.42 The original occupant of no.42 seems to have been Peter Miller or Mills, described in the directories as a ‘warehouseman’ and later as a ‘commission agent’. He was followed c.1885 by Mrs. Elizabeth Steel, who was in turn succeeded in c.1891 by Rev. William Tanner Hughes, minister of the Donegall Street Congregational Church, and, he in turn by H. Angliker (‘linen business’) in c.1894. Mrs. Margaret Kertland was in residence at the time of the 1901 census, living there with her three daughters and a domestic servant with the house itself a 2nd class dwelling containing somewhere between 10-12 rooms, 5 of which were at that point occupied by the family. A Mrs Patterson appears to have been the next leaseholder (from c.1905), followed in c.1909 by Robert Gardner Laughlin, an ‘ironmonger and hardware merchant’, who is noted in the 1911 census as occupying the house with his wife, Catherine Maud Mary, their two young sons and a domestic servant. The Laughlins retained the property until c.1921, with Mrs. Helen Corry resident by 1924 and J.G. Hamilton (‘butcher’) by 1932. Mr Hamilton seems to have stayed on until the mid-1950s, with Mrs Vera Swindells resident by 1960, William E. Gregory by 1967 and a Ms Ellis by 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
H-. Alterations detracting from building
J. Setting
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

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

Evaluation

No 42 is a very fine High Victorian house built c1872. Together with its neighbours No 40 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 significant historic houses in Florenceville Avenue and some of the most important in this part of South Belfast.