561 ORMEAU ROAD

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Two storey with attic, terraced house rendered to the ground floor and red brick, laid in Flemish bond 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 laid in Flemish bond, to the first. Return is partially rendered and partially red clay brick.
Roof: Natural Bangor Blue slates to the main house
Windows: 1/1 painted timber single glazed sliding sash to the front elevation and top hung painted timber to the rear.
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 the original 4 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 1/1painted 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, as the bay below. A pitched roof dormer sits on the wall head and contains a painted timber 1/1 sliding sash window with a semi circular head. There is a Velux type roof-light to the right side 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 563 Ormeau Road - HB26 01 019I

Side elevation (N)
Abuts No 559 Ormeau Road - HB26 01 019G

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 563 to the other side of a yard. The main part of the building, which is lined smooth render, has a 1/1 painted timber window to the first floor and replacement painted timber double doors below. A smaller painted timber window is located to the left on the first floor.
The double pitched return has a painted render gable. The North side is red clay brick at first floor level and there is a 1/1 painted timber window at the first floor landing. The other side, facing the yard, is unpainted render and has two windows at first floor level.

Beyond and attached to the return is a rendered single storey mono-pitched structure with a slate roof.
The concrete yard is separated from the communal alley by vertical timber gates supported on substantial concrete block piers.
The small mainly grassed front garden is bounded by shrubs and a tall tree. It is separated from the pavement by a dwarf brick wall and a tall hedge.

The front path, finished in replacement concrete paviors, leads from the footpath to two steps 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.561 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: Alexander Wilson (‘paint and colour merchant’) c.1889-1906, Charles Payne (‘assistant manager’) 1907-10 and S.H. Strain c.1910. In the 1901 census, Mr. Wilson 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 a relation of Hugh – see above), 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. James McKimmon is named as the occupant in the 1918 directory, remaining there until 1924 with Alexander Wilson taking up the lease again in 1925. He was followed by R.H. Smith (‘commercial agent’) c.1930-40, James McKimmon c.1940-47, R.H. Smith again from c.1947 to 1964, R.W. MacKenzie (‘P.O. Engineer’) c.1964-77, and Francis Lynch who was living there 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
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 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.