28 Florenceville Drive

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Two storey mid-terrace red brick house, built in 1923, located on the North facing side of Florenceville Drive, a quiet residential street off Ormeau Road, approximately 3km from the centre of Belfast.

Materials
Windows: 4/4 single glazed painted timber sliding sash with horns (Except for a single rear window)
Walling: Red clay brick laid in stretcher bond.
Roof: Natural Bangor Blue slate
RWGoods: uPVC

Front Elevation (N)
The front elevation faces almost due North and has a replacement painted door on the right, in the style of the original early twentieth century door, with three raised panels and a shaped light above containing patterned glass. The door is protected by a projecting painted concrete hood supported on brackets. To the left of the door are two identical 4/4 painted timber sliding sash, single glazed windows with horns, set in segmental headed openings. Cills are painted. Directly above these windows on the first floor, are two identical ones.
The double pitched roof is covered in natural slate and has exposed rafter ends front and back and a red brick chimney on the left with plain corbel courses at the top.

Side Elevation (W)
West elevation abuts No 30 Florenceville Drive

Side Elevation (E)
East elevation abuts No 26 Florenceville Drive

Rear Elevation (S)
Rear elevation faces South and consists of a painted vertical boarded door with an original small 1/1 painted timber sliding sash window to the left, detailed as the front elevation. To the right is a replacement uPVC window set in an enlarged opening with a thin painted concrete sill. On the first floor are two 4/4 windows detailed as the front elevation.

The small rectangular rear yard is finished with concrete paving slabs and gravel and bounded with painted vertical timber boarding. A gate opens into a narrow lane accessed from further down Florenceville Drive. On the other side of this lane are the rear yards of two storey houses in Whitehall Parade.
The small front garden, bounded with privet hedging, has a replacement tiled path to the front door and is otherwise finished in concrete paving slabs.

Historical information

Florenceville Drive was laid out in the wake of the building of Ballynafeigh Methodist Church in 1897-98, but apart from the two dwellings to the north-eastern end (nos.1-3 built c.1903) and the school house to the rear of the church, the street remained largely undeveloped until 1923 when Belfast Corporation built the present rows of two-storey dwellings (nos.15-35 and 18-34), with the slightly larger row of (bay-windowed) houses to the eastern end of the north side constructed by a private developer in 1928, with a further group of Corporation dwellings on the south side (nos.10-16) following in the mid-1930s.

No.28 is one of the ‘local authority’ properties built by Belfast Corporation in 1923. The property was occupied by Miss S. Gillespie in 1932, with W.J. Deans (a male nurse) listed as resident in 1943 until the later 1970s. He appears to have been succeeded by Andrew McConnell (listed in the street directories as a slater), followed by Kieran Heaney by 1986, William Deans (the former occupant or a relative?) by 1991. Mr Deans was still living there is 1996.

References – Primary sources
1 PRONI VAL12B/43K/7, annual valuation revision book, 1915-30
2 OS town plans of Belfast, 1901-03, 1919, 1931
3 ‘Belfast and Province of Ulster Street Directory’, (Belfast News-Letter, Belfast), various dates from 1924 to 1996

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
D. Plan Form
I. Quality and survival of Interior
J. Setting

Criteria for listing: historic interest

R. Age
S. Authenticity
Z. Rarity
X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Two-storey mid-terrace red-brick house, built in 1923, located on the North facing side of Florenceville Drive, a quiet residential street off Ormeau Road. No 28 is the only house in this designed terrace of 13 houses, to retain its external and some internal detailing and in particular, its original sliding sash windows. Although modestly sized and with some replacement interior fittings, it has been sympathetically restored internally and is a rare survivor in the South Belfast Area. Built by Belfast Corporation in 1923 it is a good example of an intact ‘local authority’ house from the inter-war years.