559 ORMEAU ROAD

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

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. House is rectangular on plan with two storey return and a small garden to the front and a paved yard to the rear.

Walls: Painted render to the ground floor and red clay brick to the first. Return is a mixture of render and red brick.
Roof: Natural Bangor Blue slates to the main house and return.
Windows: 1/1 painted timber double glazed sliding sash to the front elevation and mainly 2/2 painted timber sliding sash to the rear and return. Some windows to rear are single glazed.
RWGs: Mainly 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 4 panelled door to the right set under a hood which is supported on ornate brackets. To the left is a canted bay with 1/1painted timber sliding sash windows. The first floor is separated from the ground floor with a plaster string course and contains two 1/1 painted timber sliding sash windows. A pitched roof dormer sits on the wall head and has a 1/1 sliding sash window – the top light being semi-circular. There is a Velux type roof-light to the right of the dormer and a large clay brick chimney stack set on the ridge to the left – detailed as the front elevation.

Side elevation (S)
Abuts No 561 Ormeau Road - HB26 01 019H

Side elevation (N)
Abuts No 557 Ormeau Road – HB26 01 019F

Rear elevation (W)
The rear elevation has a lower two storey return to the left hand side and the return of No 561 to the other side of a narrow yard. The main part of the building, which is smooth rendered, has a replacement painted timber double door on the ground floor, and a large Velux type roof light in the roof above. There is also a smaller 2/2 sliding sash window in the attic storey on the other side of the return. The return, which is red brick facing the internal yard contains the kitchen on the ground floor. It has a 4/4 original single glazed window to the right with a replacement painted timber door with 6 top panes in the centre and a large picture window to the left with two top hung lights. Above are two 2/2 painted timber sliding sash windows.

Beyond the two storey return is a painted render single storey former garage which has a mono-pitched corrugated iron roof – the former vehicular door has been replaced with fixed painted timber sheeting with three square lights above.

The paved yard is T-shaped and now incorporates the former small garden. It is separated from a rear lane by tall stained timber gates and fencing
The small front garden is separated from the pavement by a modern dwarf brick wall and a tall hedge. The garden is entered through a modern stained timber gate, and a concrete path leads to 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.559 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: A.T. Osbourne (‘inspector’) c.1887-89, David McGonagle (solicitor) c.1889-95, Mrs Templeton c.1895-98 and Frederick R. Strafford from 1898. In the 1901 and 1911 census, Mr. Strafford is recorded as living there with his three grown-up daughters 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 in that latter year as a first class dwelling containing 12 rooms. One of Mr. Strafford’s daughters appears to have retained the property until the early 1960s (at which point she was at least 100yrs old!).

G.H. Giffin (‘bank official’) is noted as the householder in 1967 and Maureen Giffin after c.1974. Catherine Quinn is named as the occupant in 1990 and she was still in residence 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
D. Plan Form
I. Quality and survival of Interior
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 both internally and 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.