263 Belmont Road

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A symmetrical three-bay single-storey gabled house built in Scrabo sandstone dating from c.1874, formerly the northern gate lodge to Ormiston House (listed under HB26.13.001). Regular plan facing east with projecting gabled entrance porch to front and two-flat-roofed extensions to rear (dating between 1938-1954). Located at the corner of Belmont and Pirie road.

Pitched natural slate roof to front part, roll-top stone ridge tiles, projecting ogee cornice supporting half-round uPVC guttering and circular uPVC downpipes. Two original circular cast-iron downpipes and hoppers remain to north and south elevations. Stone chimneystack with corbelled coping and two ornate octagonal buff clay chimney pots. Un-coursed rock-faced Scrabo sandstone walling with red sandstone dressings and quoins. Window openings are square-headed; stop-chamfered jambs and header with replacement uPVC top-hung casement windows throughout.

The principal elevation faces east and has a projecting entrance porch with crow-stepped gable and carved thistle to apex. Square-headed door opening with chamfered lintel and jambs, double vertical-sheeted studded timber door with black iron door furniture, including decorative strap hinges, opening onto a single nosed stone step. Narrow window openings to porch facing north and south. Single window to east and west bays.

South elevation consists of two-bays; the gabled end of the original building and a projecting flat-roofed extension to west. Crow-stepped gable with a carved rose to apex. Parapet with ogee cornice to flat-roofed extension. A window opening to each bay.

The north elevation consists of two bays; the gabled end of the original building and a recessed flat-roofed extension to west. Crow-stepped gable with a carved shamrock to apex and double windows. Moulded cornice to flat-roofed extension.

The west elevation consists of the two extensions. The extension to north has two small window openings and a square-headed door opening with a vertical-sheeted split half door with glazed panel. The extension to south projects above the eaves level of the main house and has a single window opening.

Setting:
Situated east of the junction at Belmont Road and Wandsworth Drive and fronting onto Belmont Road, the site is paved to three sides around the house and has a garden to north. It is enclosed by hedge and two timber gates to east.

Materials:
Roof : natural slate
Walling: Scrabo sandstone
RWG: uPVC
Windows : uPVC

Historical information

No. 263 Belmont Road, a single-storey dwelling formerly the northern gate lodge to Ormiston House (see HB26/13/001), was constructed in c. 1874. The completed building was first included in the Annual Revisions valuation sources in that year. Ormiston House was erected in 1865-67 to a Scots Baronial design by the Edinburgh-based architect David Bryce (1803-76). Dean suggests that the Belmont Road lodge and the lodge on Hawthornden Road were both designed by David Bryce at the same time as the house. This is unlikely as the lodges were in fact constructed in c. 1874 and c. 1904 (respectively) and the Dictionaries of Scottish and Irish Architects record that Bryce did not undertake any contracts in Ireland this late in his career (DIA; DSA).

The Belmont Road gate lodge was built for James Combe, a Scottish-born linen manufacturer and iron founder with Combe, Barbour & Combe Ltd. The Annual Revisions record that the northern lodge was finished by 1874 and valued at £4 in that year; the total rateable value of the lodge was slightly increased to £5 in 1897. In 1890 Ormiston House passed to William Pirrie who became Chairman of Harland & Wolff in 1895 and Lord Mayor of Belfast in 1896-97. Pirrie constructed the second gate lodge to the east side of Ormiston House (see HB26/13/001B) by 1904 when the Annual Revisions first valued at £4 10s.

In 1911 the census of Ireland recorded that the Belmont Road Gate Lodge was occupied by Pirrie’s gardener; in that year the census building return described the lodge as a 2nd class dwelling that consisted of three rooms. Harland and Wolff sold Ormiston House to Campbell College in 1928, but the northern gate lodge was maintained as a private dwelling after the acquisition of its mansion. The value of the former gate lodge was increased to £14 under the First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1935) and was subsequently raised to £18 by the end of the Second Revaluation (1956-72).

The gate lodge originally occupied a T-shaped ground plan, consisting of the entrance porch and two interior rooms; this T-shape layout remained unaltered by the sixth edition of the Ordnance Survey maps in 1938. The two single-storey flat-roof extensions to the rear of the dwelling were added between 1938 and 1954 when they were clearly depicted on the current edition of the Ordnance Survey maps (130-15NE).

No. 263 Belmont Road was First Surveyed in 1984 and was subsequently not listed. Dean, writing in 1994, described the former lodge in the following terms: ‘more architecturally pretentious [than the lodge on Hawthornden Road]. The gables crowstepped as is that to the little central projecting hallway. To the apexes emblems of each of the three kingdoms; sculpted rose, shamrock and thistle’ (Dean, p. 89).

References

Primary Sources
1. PRONI OS/6/3/4/3 – Third Edition Ordnance Survey map (1902)
2. PRONI OS/6/3/4/4 – Fourth Edition Ordnance Survey map (1920-21)
3. PRONI OS/6/3/4/5 – Fifth Edition Ordnance Survey map (1931)
4. PRONI OS/6/3/4/6 – Sixth Edition Ordnance Survey map (1938)
5. PRONI VAL/12/B/17/2B-2H – Annual Revisions (1863-1897)
6. PRONI VAL/12/B/43/N1-9 – Annual Revisions (1897-1930)
7. Ulster Town Directories (1877-1843)
8. Census of Ireland (1911)
9. First Survey Record – HB26/13/011 (1984)
10. First Survey Image – HB26/13/011 (No Date)
11. NIEA HB Records – HB26/13/011 (Not Found)

Secondary Sources
1. Dean, J. A. K., ‘The gate lodges of Ulster: A gazetteer’ Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1994.
2. Larmour, P., ‘Belfast: An illustrated architectural guide’ Belfast: Friar’s Bush Press, 1987.

Online Resources
1. Dictionary of Irish Architects – http://www.dia.ie/
2. Dictionary of Scottish Architects - http://www.scottisharchitects.org.uk

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
H-. Alterations detracting from building
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest
R. Age
S. Authenticity
T. Historic Importance

Evaluation

Formerly the northern gate lodge to Ormiston House, an interesting example of a gate lodge in Scots Baronial style with references to the Mansion House. Crow-stepped gabled single-storey house in un-coursed rock-faced sandstone with the emblems of each of the three kingdoms to apexes. Although some original fabric and detail have been lost internally and externally, the building has retained its character, style and proportions and forms an important group with the house (HB26.13.001A), stableblock (HB26.13.029) and the east gate lodge on Hawthornden Road (HB26.13.001B).

General comments

Previously recorded as HB26/13/11