10 St Johns Park

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Two-storey, red-brick, 1930s semi-detached house; rectangular on plan with a small two storey return. Set within a network of streets of similar style houses, located near the Ormeau Road just south of the intersection with the Ravenhill Road, approx. 3 km from Belfast city centre.

Materials:
Roof: Rosemary tiles
RWG: uPVC
Walls : Orange clay brick – stretcher course
Windows : uPVC double glazed with reconstituted stone cills, surrounds and lintels.

Front elevation (W)
The front elevation has a double-height canted bay to the left. At ground level there is varnished timber 4-panel door with fan-shaped glazing and overlight (plain glazing) to the right and a tripartite bay window to the left with top-hung uPVC double glazed windows. The doorway and bay windows have reconstituted stone surrounds and lintels with quoins and ovolo edge mouldings. There is a similar bay window detail directly above on the left at first floor level. There is a plain narrow window to the right directly above the door with recon. stone cill and lintel; lintel with ovolo moulding. Brickwork is laid in stretcher bond. There is a hipped roof over the double-height canted bay. The main roof is double-pitched with deep overhanging eaves with painted timber soffits and uPVC gutters. Roof tiles are Rosemary red clay. There is a plain red- brick chimney on the left-hand side with slim concrete cap and red clay pots.

Rear elevation (E)
The rear elevation of the main house has at the left-hand side a double-height return shared with no. 12. To the right-hand side there is a uPVC casement window at each level with plain recon. stone lintel. To the North façade of the return on the left-hand side are 2 no. door openings; one completely blocked up with brick and one with a replacement boarded pine door. To the right-hand side of this elevation are uPVC casement windows at both levels with plain recon. stone lintels. The rear (E) elevation of the return has a uPVC casement windows at each level; landscape window at ground level and narrow portrait window above. The return is double-pitched. Eaves to rear of main house are similar to front.

Side elevation (N)
The side elevation of the main house is blank, with 2 no. double-height brick projecting chimney flues joined at first floor level with brick arched recess; orange clay brick in stretcher bond.

Side elevation (S) abuts No 12 St John’s Park

There is a small front garden area finished with tarmac and bounded to front (W) with modern timber boarded fence and replacement steel gates. This is connected to a larger lawned area to the rear via a tarmac driveway. There is a detached garage to the NE corner with steel replacement door, pebble-dashed walling and corrugated asbestos roof. N boundary hedgerow and E and S boundaries boarded timber.

Historical information

St. John’s Park was laid out in the mid-1930s on land previously used largely as tennis courts [see HB26.01.075A-B], with most of the houses were built between 1934 and 1936 to a uniform semi-detached design by Belfast architect Thomas H. Guthrie. A newspaper advert of July 1934 describes the first of the new properties (then in the course of construction) as ‘artistic new semi-villas’ in an ‘open healthy situation’, with another ad of December that year referring to them as ‘beautiful double-bay semi-villas with rosemary tiled roofs, and another of August the following year mentioning ‘2 reception, 3 bedrooms, panelled hall and tiled bathroom’. No.10 appears to have been completed in 1935 and seems to have been originally occupied by a family named Belford up until c.1990.

References – Primary sources
1 ‘Belfast News-Letter’, 28 July, 7 December 1934, 1 August, 1935
2 ‘Belfast and Province of Ulster Street Directory’, (Belfast News-Letter, Belfast), various dates from 1935
to 1996
3 ‘Irish Builder’, 16 June, 1 Dec, 29 Dec 1934, 9 March, 29 June, 5 Oct 1935, 30 May, 8 August 1936

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

A modest two-storey, red-brick, 1930s semi-detached house; rectangular on plan with a small two storey return. The house has a two-storey canted bay, deep overhanging eaves, Rosemary red clay roof tiles and reconstituted stone dressings typical of the period. The house has replacement uPVC windows externally and has some interesting original 'Art Deco' features internally. Set within a network of streets of similar style houses, located near the Ormeau Road just south of the intersection with the Ravenhill Road, approx. 3 km from Belfast city centre. Although of interest, it is a common house type in the area and is not deemed of special interest.