557 ORMEAU ROAD

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Two storey with attic terraced house rendered to the ground floor and red clay brick to the first. One of a terrace of 9 houses built in 1886 on the upper Ormeau Road in a mainly residential area c 4km from the centre of Belfast. House is rectangular on plan with two storey return and a small garden to the front and an enclosed rear yard.

Walls: Painted render to the ground floor and red clay brick to the first laid in Flemish bond. Return is partially rendered and partially exposed red clay brick .
Roof: Natural Bangor Blue slates to the main house.
Windows: 1/1 top hung uPVC windows to the front and rear elevations and the return.
RWGs : Cast iron

Front elevation (E)
The front elevation has smooth painted render to the ground floor and red lay brick laid in Flemish Bond to the first, with two rows of blue brick laid underneath a decorative brick cornice. The ground floor has a replacement 6 panelled door to the right, with a glazed overlight, set under a hood which is supported on ornate brackets. To the left is a canted bay with 1/1 top hung uPVC windows. The first floor is separated from the ground floor with a plaster string course and contains two 1/1 top hung windows detailed as the bay below. A pitched roof dormer sits on the wall head and has a 1/1 painted timber sliding sash window with a semi-circular head. There is a large Velux type roof-light to the left of the dormer and a smaller similar rooflight to the right. A large clay brick chimney stack set on the ridge to the left – detailed as the front elevation.

Side elevation (S)
Abuts No 599 Ormeau Road - HB26 01 019G

Side elevation (N)
Abuts No 555 Ormeau Road - HB26 01 019E

Rear elevation (W)
Access was not available to the rear yard and this description was taken from the communal lane.
The rear elevation has a lower two storey return to the left hand side and the return of No 559 to the other side of a yard. The main part of the building, which is painted, lined, smooth render, has a 1/1 uPVC window to the right on the first floor and a top hung timber window to the other side. There is a larger top hung window on the ground floor facing the yard.

The double pitched return is painted render to its gable – red clay brick to its North side on the first floor, with a window at the first floor landing - and painted brick below. The yard side is red brick to the first floor with two top hung uPVC windows and is painted render below.

Beyond the return and attached to it is a single storey painted brick structure with a corrugated iron roof.
The L-shaped yard is separated the communal alley by a modern timber fence.
The small mainly gravelled front garden is separated from the pavement by a high modern timber fence and matching gate. The original quarry tile path leads from this gate to two concrete steps and a concrete landing at the front door.

Historical information

Nos.547-63 Ormeau Road - This row, originally known as ‘Rosetta Terrace’ appears in the valuation book in two stages, the four southernmost dwellings (present nos.557-63) completed in 1886 and nos.547-55 the following year. The developer appears to have been one H. Scott, who occupied what is now no.557 and who is noted in the earliest valuations as the immediate lessor. He is listed in contemporary directories as a pawnbroker with premises at 117 Shankill Road, and is presumably the Hugh Scott (or a close relation thereof) who developed much of the south-eastern end of Sunnyside Street in the early 1900s [see HB26.01.009A-U]. The identity of the architect is not known. A letting advert of October 1886 describes one of the properties finished in that year as a ‘large house’ with ‘three reception, five bedrooms, hot and cold water, with all modern improvements; warm, healthy situation, with gardens; trams pass door’, with a subsequent advert of July 1887, relating to the five dwellings finished in that year referring to, ‘those new houses; well finished; two reception rooms on ground floor [and] six bedrooms’.

No.557 From the evidence provided by the annual Belfast and Province of Ulster Directories, the valuation books and the 1901 and 1911 census returns, the sequence of occupation of this property is as follows: Hugh Scott (the developer of the whole terrace – see above) c.1887-95, Robert Carlile Blakley (‘warehouse manager’) c.1896-1902, Mrs Thompson c.1902-06 and John Frizeel c.1907-09. In the 1901 census, the aforementioned Mr. Blakley (or Bleakely) is recorded as living there with his wife, Nellie Rosetta, their three young children and a domestic servant, whilst in that of 1911 a James Scott (a ‘civil engineer and architect’ and possibly the son of Hugh), was living there with his wife, Emily, their son and a domestic servant, with the house itself is noted as a first class dwelling containing 12 rooms.

J.E. Logan is noted as the occupant in 1918. A member of the Logan family appears to have retained the house until the early 1960s, after which a William Moore is listed as the householder. The Moore family remained at no.557 until the 1980s. Gerard Teague is noted as resident in 1990 and Mary J. Teague in 1995.

The building 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 VAL12B/43A/18, annual valuation revision book, 1882-96
4 PRONI OS8/30/3/59 1883-84
5 Belfast Telegraph, 16 October 1886, 29 July 1887
6 ‘Belfast and Province of Ulster Street Directory’, (Belfast News-Letter, Belfast), various dates from 1890 to 96
7 PRONI OS8/30/4/59 1896
8 PRONI VAL12B/43A/34, annual valuation revision book, 1897-1905
9 Census of Ireland, 1901, 1911 [online] (Building details for 1901 not available.)
10 PRONI OS8/30/5/59 1903
11 HED File relating to HB26.01.019A (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
X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Two storey with attic terraced house rendered to the ground floor and red brick to the first. One of a terrace of 9 houses built in 1886 on the upper Ormeau Road in a mainly residential area c 4km from the centre of Belfast. This house is well detailed externally with a wealth of Victorian architectural interest and was 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. It has group value with the other houses in this listed terrace – 547 to 563 Ormeau Road – HB26 01 019 A to I.