34 Station Road

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A mid-Victorian two-storey red-brick house dating from c.1865. Rectangular plan form with two single storey bay windows to front and a two-storey lean-to extension to rear. The house is the central house of a three-part terrace (listed under HB26.09.001 A-C) to the S side of Station Road, accessed through Inglewood Court.

Pitched natural slate roof with angled black-clay ridge tiles. Dentilled cornicing supports ogee cast iron guttering discharging to circular downpipes to the principal elevation; uPVC rainwater goods to the rear. Two red brick stepped chimney stacks with buff brick dressings and corbelled coping to E and W end of the house. Rustic red brick walling to Flemish bond with projecting plinth, now rendered. Square-headed window openings with flat relieving arches and painted cills having double hung original timber sashes with ogee horns (unless otherwise noted), 1/1 pane to GF and 2/2 horizontal panes to FF.

The three-bay symmetrical principal elevation faces N. Square-headed door opening to centre with painted architrave and moulded hood supported on floriated brackets. Timber panelled door with fanlight opening onto two concrete steps with a low stone wall either side. The door opening is flanked by single storey three-part canted bay windows having 1/1 double hung timber sashes and topped by moulded cornicing. A window to each bay to FF.

The E elevation is abutted by the neighbouring property 32 Station Road (listed under HB26.09.001 A).

The W elevation is abutted by the neighbouring property 36 Station Road (listed under HB26.09.001 C).

The four-bay wide rear elevation is rendered and faces S with a two storey two-bay return to centre with cat-slide roof. Square-headed window openings throughout, with top hung timber casement windows to rear elevation of return. Door opening to the E face of the return with a modern sheeted timber door opening to the yard; margin paned sash window with patterned coloured glass to W elevation of return. 6/6 pane double hung sash to W bay at FF; remaining windows are 2/2 sashes with horizontally divided panes.

Setting:
Graveled driveway and a modest landscaped garden to N of the site shared by the terrace. The driveway continues to E leading to a modern single storey pitched roof garage at the SE end of the site.
The site is enclosed to N, facing Station Road, by a hedge. Curved red brick dwarf walling ending in plain square section piers forms the main driveway to Inglewood Court and serves as the main entrance to the site.
An iron gate survives to the NE end of the site onto Station Road, now partially covered by the hedge. The gate is supported on simple rectangular section piers and has a small iron plaque with the name ‘Sandringham’ engraved (the original name of the houses as noted in the Historical Information).
Partly tiled yard to the rear with a shed and a conservatory. The rear yard is enclosed by a red brick wall with a square headed sheeted timber door.
A modern two-storey red-brick housing development is constructed to the S of the site accessed through Inglewood Court.

Materials:
Roof: natural slate
RWG: cast iron to front/ uPVC to rear
Walling: red brick
Windows: timber sash windows/ uPVC to rear/ timber casement

Historical information

Nos 32-36 Station Road, a terrace of three two-storey red brick houses, were constructed in c. 1865 and were originally known as ‘Sandringham Villas.’ The First Survey described the villas as a ‘two-storey terrace [of] late 19th century’ and suggested that they were similar in appearance to the terraces on Windsor Park in South Belfast (HB26/28/031A-D and HB26/28/058A-K). The villas more closely resemble nos 268-272 Antrim Road, a contemporary red brick terrace in North Belfast which possesses almost exactly the same layout as the terrace on Station Road (HB26/47/003).

The first and second edition Ordnance Survey maps (1830; 1858) show that prior to the development of the Belfast, Holywood and Bangor Railway, the townlands of Strandtown and Ballymisert were predominantly rural in character with only a small number of gentlemen’s manors (such as Strandtown Cottage and Bunker’s Hill) dotting the land. With the laying of the railway line, and the opening of Sydenham Railway Station on 1st November 1851, housing began to develop in the area from the mid-19th century onwards. The third edition map (1902) records that only a few buildings had been erected along Station Road by the turn of the 20th century (the large scale construction of housing along the road did not commence until the 1920s and 1930s). Nos 32-36 Station Road is one of the few surviving remnants of the Victorian development along the road (DIA).

No. 34 Station Road, the central house along the terrace, was first recorded in the 1865 Ulster Town Directory and was first valued in the Annual Revisions in 1867. The valuer noted that No. 34 was originally valued at £28 when first completed and that the three dwellings were constructed for James Shaw, a local merchant, and his brother Thomas Shaw (PRONI Wills). Upon James Shaw’s death, sole ownership of Sandringham Villas passed to Thomas Shaw in 1875. The Annual revisions note that nos 32-36 Station Road remained vacant until the 1880s although the Ulster Town Directories record that the dwellings were in fact occupied from 1868 onwards (the first confirmed occupant of No. 34 was Thomas Shaw himself).

Thomas Shaw continued to own Sandringham Villas until 1901 when William Minnis, a retired gardener, took over ownership of the terrace. In addition to owning the terrace William Minnis also occupied No. 32 Station Road as his private dwelling. In 1901 the census recorded that No. 34 Station Road was occupied by Arthur Hill Dudley, a brewer’s agent. In that year the census building return described Dudley’s house as a 1st class dwelling that consisted of eight rooms. William Minnis continued to reside at No. 32 until his death in 1913, but his family retained ownership of nos 32-36 Station Road until at least the 1970s (PRONI Wills). By the First Revaluation (1935) the value of No. 34 had been increased to £29. The value of the building was raised to £33 by the Second Revaluation (1956-72) which recorded that No. 34 Station Road was occupied by W. T. S. Dobbin, a local accountant, and that Sandringham Villas were owned by William F. Minnis. Nos 32-36 Station Road were listed in 1982.

References

Primary Sources
1. PRONI OS/6/3/4/2 – Second Edition Ordnance Survey map (1834)
2. PRONI OS/6/3/4/3 – Third Edition Ordnance Survey map (1902)
3. PRONI OS/6/3/4/4 – Fourth Edition Ordnance Survey map (1920-21)
4. PRONI OS/6/3/4/5 – Fifth Edition Ordnance Survey map (1931)
5. PRONI OS/6/3/4/6 – Sixth Edition Ordnance Survey map (1938)
6. PRONI VAL/12/B/17/2B-H – Annual Revisions (1867-1897)
7. PRONI VAL/12/B/43/N/2-8 – Annual Revisions (1897-1930)
8. PRONI VAL/3/B/3/20 – First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1935)
9. PRONI VAL/4/B/7/45 – Second General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1956-72)
10. PRONI Wills Catalogue (13 Jan 1875; 1 May 1913)
11. Ulster Town Directories (1868-1943)
12. Census of Ireland (1901; 1911)
13.First Survey Record – HB26/09/001 (1981)
14.First Survey Image – HB26/09/001 (No Date)

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

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
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
Z. Rarity
X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Well proportioned and detailed mid-Victorian two-storey red-brick house dating from c.1865, one of a terrace of three fronting onto Station Road. Timber sash windows to main elevations. It has group value with no's 32 and 36 (HB26.09.001A and C) These buildings were one of the first developed on Station Road following the opening of the Sydenham Railway Station on 1st November 1851 and are therefore quite rare and among the most significant buildings in the area. Despite the new housing development to the rear no 34 enjoys a fine setting to the front.

General comments

Record re-numbered from HB26/09/001.