16 McMaster Street

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A two-storey-with-attic single-bay late Victorian terrace built c.1898 by John McMaster to designs by J. Frazer and Son, located on the east side of McMaster Street, East Belfast.

Roof is pitched natural slate with clay ridge tiles, central rooflight window on west slope, modern red brick chimney stack at south side; painted ogee profile cast-iron rainwater goods supported on projecting polychrome brick eaves course on ovolo moulded corbel course. Walls are English garden-wall bonded red brick laid with alternating courses of headers and stretchers with three polychromactic brick string courses (including a continuous brick and sill course at first floor) and decorative detailing above first floor windows; windows are replacement square headed 1/1 timber sliding sashes and replacement timber panelled glazed door with camber headed leaded transom light, windows and door contained within camber headed openings with polychromactic brick chamfered reveals and voussoirs, projecting masonry sill. (All polychrome brickwork now painted with exception of that above first floor windows).

Principal (west) elevation contains entrance door at left accessed by original polychromatic tiled threshold; entrance flanked by window at right; two windows at first floor offset slightly to the right.

North gable is abutted by No.14 McMaster Street (HB26/08/001L).

Rear (south) elevation was not accessible at time of survey. Rear elevation is abutted at right by a modern single-storey lean-to extension (lean-to extending from yard north wall). Access to enclosed yard from entry via a timber sheeted door at east, contained within high level modern brick walling at all sides.

South gable is abutted by No.18 McMaster Street (HB26/08/001P).

Setting:

Located at the north end of the east terrace (two-storey-with-attic block) the house faces onto McMaster Street. The wide street formerly cobbled is now largely concrete with small cobbled area at each end. The house opens directly onto a wide pavement with granite kerbs and original lamp posts and electric lighting (former gas lights). Original tiled street signage at north and south. Rear elevation is enclosed by high level stretcher bonded modern red brick walling with painted vertically sheeted timber entrance door at centre, assessed via narrow entry which runs north south between back yards of Lendrick Street and McMaster Street. The street narrows towards Major Street at south.

Roof: Natural Slate
Walling: English garden-wall bonded red brick
Windows: Replacement square headed 1/1 timber sliding sashes
RWG: Ogee profile cast-iron

Historical information

No. 16 McMaster Street first appears on the fourth edition of the Ordnance Survey map for Belfast in 1920-21 which depicted that both terraces of McMaster Street had been constructed by that time. The Belfast Street Directories indicate that although all the houses on the western terrace (nos 1-37 McMaster Street) and nos 6-14 McMaster Street were constructed in 1898 and 1899, the rest of the eastern terrace (nos 16-52) was not added until 1908. The Annual Revisions indicate that the first occupant of No. 16 McMaster Street was a Mr. James Johnston who came into possession in the year that the terrace was completed. In 1908 the house was valued at £10 (the rest of the houses on the terrace built in 1908 were smaller and valued less than No. 16). James Johnston let the house from a Mr. John McMaster who originally owned the land on the south side of the Newtownards Road on which he constructed the present street.

The Belfast revaluation of 1900 recorded that the adjoining No. 14 McMaster Street, which was identical in design to No. 16, was a two storey house with an attic floor and measured 13.6 ft in width by 25 ft depth and 24 ft in height; the house was fitted with gas lighting and cost an estimated £131 to construct. McMaster let No. 16 McMaster Street at a monthly rent of £1 8s. 4d. (£17 annual) and it is likely that this was maintained with No. 16.

During its history the occupants of No. 16 McMaster Street, like the majority of residents of the street, were employed in the nearby shipyards or ropework industries. The 1911 Census records that Johnston worked as a Caulker (a shipyard worker who made ships watertight) while his sons were also employed in the yards as an engineer, and a clerk; the Census Building Return described Johnston’s house as a 2nd class dwelling which consisted of seven rooms. The Belfast Street Directories indicate that a Mr. James Forrester, also an engineer in the shipyard, had come into possession of No. 16 McMaster Street by 1918 and resided there until the 1940s.

By the end of the Annual Revisions in 1930 the value of No. 16 remained at £10; however by the First General Revaluation of Northern Ireland in 1935 its value had increased to £15. McMaster Street escaped damage during the 1941 Belfast Blitz when the Luftwaffe targeted the Belfast Shipyards and caused huge destruction to buildings and residential terraces along the Newtownards Road (Haines, p. 44). With the end of the war the government carried out the second revaluation of property in Northern Ireland; this revaluation recorded that ownership of the street had passed from John McMaster to an L. McMaster (unknown relative), while a Mr. James Stevenson, who was also employed as a Caulker in the shipyards, occupied No. 16 McMaster Street c. 1950. Stevenson continued to reside at the address until his death c. 1970 when his widow Lily was recorded as occupant (Belfast Street Directories).

Nos 16-52 were constructed in 1908 a decade after construction of McMaster Street had begun. The Department of the Environment Conservation Area plan for the street records that McMaster Street was designed by John Frazer & Sons; Frazer was active between the 1890s and the second decade of the twentieth century and also designed a number of other terraced streets in Belfast including Chadwick Street and Meadowbank Place which are similar in design to McMaster Street. Chadwick Street was built in 1899 when McMaster Street’s first phase of construction had finished (Dictionary of Irish Architects).

The land owned by John McMaster was wedge shaped and so when the terraces were constructed they progressively became narrower, and the gardens became smaller, as they were built towards the end of the street. No. 16 McMaster Street is one of the largest houses on the street and is unique as the only house built on the eastern terrace in 1908 which possessed a large attic storey (nos 18-52, along with nos 13-37 on the western terrace, are smaller than the houses constructed closer to the Newtownards Road). The parlour houses on McMaster Street were constructed to new housing and planning regulations which were designed to improve the standard of living in Belfast and so the terraces were amongst the first late-Victorian industrial houses in Belfast to be supplied with running water and flushable toilets; this was made possible due to the construction of a new city drainage system. Further, the piping of gas into each house to provide lighting was a new practice which along with the increased sanitary facilities set McMaster Street apart from the more squalid housing common in Belfast during the early Victorian period. Haines records that electricity was not introduced to the street until the 1930s (Haines, p. 44).

During the 1970s the Ballymacarrett area was extensively redeveloped with the demolition of many redbrick terraces similar to McMaster Street. Due to this redevelopment the preservation of McMaster Street, an intact remnant of late-Victorian working class housing, was desired and in 1987 No. 16 McMaster Street was listed along with the rest of the terrace. In 1994 the neighbourhood was designated a conservation area by the DOE and criteria was put in place to ensure that additions to the terrace were in keeping with the original design and fabric of the late-Victorian street.

References

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/3/1 – First Edition Ordnance Survey map 1834
2. PRONI OS/6/3/2 – Second Edition Ordnance Survey map 1858
3. PRONI OS/6/3/3 – Third Edition Ordnance Survey map 1902
4. PRONI OS/6/3/4 – Fourth Edition Ordnance Survey map 1920-21
5. PRONI OS/6/3/5 – Fifth Edition Ordnance Survey map 1931
6. PRONI VAL/7/B/8/4 – Belfast Revaluation Field Books 1900
7. PRONI VAL/12/B/43/A/28 – Annual Revisions 1897-1905
8. PRONI VAL/12/B/43/L/4 – Annual Revisions 1906-1914
9. PRONI VAL/12/B/43/L/8 – Annual Revisions 1915-1930
10. PRONI VAL/3/B/3/11 – First General Revaluation of Northern Ireland 1935
11. PRONI VAL/4/B/7/28 – Second General Revaluation of Northern Ireland 1956-1972
12. Belfast Street Directories (1901; 1907; 1908; 1910; 1918; 1930; 1940; 1950; 1960; 1970; 1980; 1990)
13. Census of Ireland (1901; 1911)

Secondary Sources

1. ‘McMaster Street Conservation Area’ Belfast: Department of the Environment, 1994.
2. Haines, K., ‘East Belfast: Paintings and stories from harbour to hills’ Donaghadee: Cottage Publications, 2001.
3. First Survey Record – HB26/08/001 (1984)

Online Resources

1. Dictionary of Irish Architects - http://www.dia.ie

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
X. Local Interest

Evaluation

A two-storey-with-attic single-bay late Victorian terrace built c.1896 by John McMaster to designs by J. Frazer and Son, located on the west side of McMaster Street, East Belfast. Having survived the German Blitz in 1941 and the widespread demolition during developments of the 1970s the terrace is part of a complete street of late Victorian terraced housing. The terrace retains much original character, including polychromatic brick string courses and camber headed window openings. Built close to Harland and Wolff ship yards, this terrace provides a link with Belfast’s industrial past and is of further significance as it was originally designed to new housing and planning regulations, intended to improve the standard of living for working class people in Belfast at the turn of the twentieth century. Number 16 has group value with the other listed buildings in McMaster Street and is of local interest.