138 Upper Malone Road

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Symmetrical, three bay, two storey, painted, dash render, northwest facing, detached dwelling built in 1937-1938 in Neo-Georgian style. Main block of dwelling rectangular in plan with attached single storey garage block to left hand side.

Front elevation having hipped, natural clay tile roof with terracotta ridge tiles, tall slender brick chimneys, two at front and two to rear, located on the hip slope, crowned with cantilevered brick copings and topped with two terracotta chimney pots on each chimney. Front elevation having projecting two storey bays, with sloping hipped roofs back onto main roof, either side of single storey flat roofed central Doric column supported entrance portico. Flanking bays having two six over six painted sliding sash windows on each floor and all resting on slim concrete cills.

Roof generally has wide projecting eaves with rafter ends on soffit and Cast Iron rainwater goods.
Central, recessed bay with 6/9 painted sliding sash window to stairwell to left at first floor with 6/6 on right. Flat roofed portico on three pairs of slim Doric columns. Stone cornice over four stone steps. Glazed entrance door and screen which is further recessed, and stone clad, to right hand side with small 2/2 painted sliding sash window to left.
Smooth render painted plinth to entire building.
To right hand side of front elevation there is a curved extension with projecting lead-finished flat roof with a fixed nine-paned painted window.
To left side there is an attached single storey garage with hipped roof and six vertical door panels, each topped with four segmented glazed window screen.

Elevation facing southwest has curved extension with projecting lead-finished flat roof with nine-paned painted window to left and with glazed multipane window to right.

Rear elevation – wall and roof finishes, eaves and rainwater goods as before.
From left - single storey extension hipped to dwelling with Georgian style transoms to outward opening garden doors and side lights. Main two storey block with large semi-circular bay window with like-for-like replacment metal frames below 6/6 painted sliding sash window at first floor. Progressing to right with similar, single 6/6 painted sliding sash window stacked vertically to right of which are similarly arranged 2/2 sliding sash above similar 4/4 sliding sash.

Projecting modern orangery with 4x4/8 door and window screen, large 4x4/8 window to garden elevation. On right is rear of hipped roof garage block with centrally positioned 3/6 painted sliding sash window.

Elevation facing northeast with two 6/6 painted sliding sash windows stacked vertically to RHS and similar to left at ground floor level. Blank garage wall elevation.

SETTING;
Situated in a prominent position on the Upper Malone Road at the junction with Finaghy Road South.

MATERIALS;
Roof; Natural clay tiles.
Walls: dash painted render with smooth plinth – with stone portico to entrance porch
Windows: generally painted timber sliding sash, some replacement metal and some fixed lights
RWG: Cast iron

Historical information

The current house was built 1937-1938, for E T Green, animal feed merchant with premises known as Marlboro Mills in Donegall Quay.
The current owner notes conversation with the former owner Mr Moore's son who indicated that the architect was the nephew of E.T Green, however this remains unconfirmed.

E T Green was the proprietor of a Belfast feed mill business that was active in the 1920s in Glenavy. By 1924 it had become so successful that Green had moved to Belfast and by 1927 he had opened extensive mills at Donegall Quay, producing his signature product ‘Green’s chick mash’ among others. Building a house (named ‘Cormeen’ by Green) in the Upper Malone Road was a reflection of his success but Green only occupied the dwelling for a few years. His firm was bought out by Joseph Rank Ltd in 1941 (perhaps following blitz damage at Donegall Quay) and Green then moved out of Belfast.

From 1942 the resident is noted as the Right Rev John Hind who named the house ‘Nantai’. Rev Hind’s wife was Winifred Hind, a medical doctor. It is likely to have been Rev and Dr Hind who built a glass conservatory to the S elevation of the house.
Hind had recently returned to Belfast, having been a bishop and missionary in China, in the city of Fuzhou, capital of Fujian province in SE China. His former residence in Guling, Fuzhou is a protected historic building. John Hind laid the foundation stone of Christ Church cathedral in Cangxia in 1924 (completed 1927) and is said to have designed the building. After returning to Northern Ireland, Bishop Hind wrote a book about his time in China called Fukien memories.

Florence Winifred Hind (nee Heyworth) (1885-1976) qualified LRCP and LRCS from Edinburgh University and LRFPS from Glasgow in 1914 and was subsequently attached to the Scottish Women’s Hospital in France. In 1915 she travelled as a missionary doctor to China where she met and married John Hind in 1928. She was awarded British Victory and War medals in 1921.
From 1960 the resident was Scotsman Peter Herbert Butter, Professor of English at Queen’s from 1958-64 (he died 1999). Butter specialised particularly in the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley and the Orkney poet Edwin Muir and had spent time in India. He moved to Glasgow c1965 following his appointment to the Regius Chair of English in Glasgow University. Professor Butter renamed the house ‘Harmeny’, a name it retained until at least 1992 and may have been responsible for adding a curved extension to the S elevation (added between 1957 and 1966).

From 1970 the resident was George T Moore, chartered surveyor, a founding director of the Building Centre of NI Ltd, a Chairman of Belfast Round Table, and Vice Chair of the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors.
Permission was granted to build another dwelling house in the grounds of the current house in 1992 and in 2001 further permission was gained to replace the existing glass conservatory with an orangery.

References:
Primary Sources:
1. PRONI OS/6/1/64/5 – Fifth Edition Ordnance Survey Map (1920 and 1931)
2. Large-scale OS maps (https://shop.centremapslive.co.uk/) 1920, 1931, 1937, 1957,1966, 1973
3. Belfast Street Directories 1939-1995
4. Planning applications: Z/1999/0164, Z/2001/2380/F
5. Lisburn Standard, 27th February 1920
6. Liverpool Evening Express, 17th September 1928
7. Belfast Newsletter, 13th May 1935
8. Belfast Newsletter, 8th July 1958
9. Belfast Telegraph, 7th November 1960
10. The Scotsman, 1st July 1964
11. Belfast Telegraph, 17th February 1965
12. Belfast Newsletter, 5th June 1976

Secondary Sources:
13. Faulkner, Michael (2013) Gentle Giant: An illustrated history of John Thompson & Sons Ltd. Belfast: Blackstaff Press

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

Detached, three bay, two storey dwelling built in 1937-1938 in Neo-Georgian style in a mature setting. Dwelling has projecting two storey bays, with deeply modelled projecting eaves and pitched natural clay tiled hipped roofs with brick chimneys over, with single storey central entrance portico replete with pairs of Doric columns supporting the flat roof over and accessed by steps framing the entrance. Modern extension to right hand side. Sliding sash windows on each floor. The current house was built c1937, for E T Green, animal feed merchant with premises known as Marlboro Mills in Donegall Quay. Despite the retention of some historic detailing, the dwelling does not meet the threshold to merit protection by listing as buildings of post 1935 date will generally be outstanding buildings including the best work of important architects.