92 Malone Road

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Substantial ‘semi-detached’ two storey suburban residence of 1875-76 in high Victorian free Italianate style with hipped roof, stucco façade, canted and square bays, Corinthian-columned portico and prominent bracketed verge. The property is the larger of a non-identical pair attached by their rear returns, thus giving the impression, (from the front elevation of each), of two free standing buildings. The property is set to the east side of Malone Road, and approached via a gateway on the south side of Cleaver Avenue.

The front elevation faces W and is asymmetrical. Roughly to the centre of the ground floor is the front entrance, which consists of a panelled timber door with two-light sidelights with panelled aprons and a large rectangular three-light fanlight (all with small leaded panes). Surrounding the entrance is a flat-roofed portico with Corinthian columns and respondents on tall (conjoined) plinths, and a cornice to roof itself with gabled blocking course / parapet above. The cornice and blocking course appear to have been rebuilt in recent times.

To the left of the entrance is a large but shallow single storey square bay with large plain tripartite sash window, cornice as portico and flat blocking course / roof. To the right of the entrance is a large single storey canted bay with plain sash windows to each side with pilaster-like piers between and cornice course and plain parapet above [?which hides a flat roof]. This bay sits within a projecting full height gabled bay. To the first floor left / centre are three unevenly-spaced segmental-headed sash windows with simple (lugged and heeled) moulded surrounds with ‘keystones’. The windows rest on a cill course. To the right of these is the upper level of the projecting bay. This has two windows, as previous, and is topped with a gabled with the bracketed eaves and verge forming a tympanum (which is topped with a finial). The lower half of the front elevation (outside of the bays) is in rusticated render, the upper half is in lined render. The N and S elevations are finished in similar form, with some areas of the façade repaired in recent times (for instance, above the bays on the front elevation).

The N elevation is longer than the front as it includes the (almost flush) N face of the large full height (but three level), return. To the ground floor of the return there are two small sash windows to right. To left of this there may be another opening(s), however rampant tree growth has obscured this end of the return (this applies to the upper levels also). To the first floor right there is a larger sash window, set on a cill course. To the second floor there is a window similar in style to first floor front, but much squatter.

To the ground floor of the N façade of the main section of the house (to right of return face) there are two sash windows to left with a canted bay (as front) to right. To the first floor are four windows, as first floor front, arranged in two pairs.

The S elevation includes (to right), the S face of a low two storey return. To left on the ground floor of the main section of the house is a shallow bay, as front left. To the right of this are two sash windows, with horizontal glazing bars (2/2) to that to far right. To the first floor centre / right are two windows, as first floor front. There appears to have originally been another window to far left, but this has been blocked up.

To the left on the ground floor of the return section there is a window opening with c.1950s steel frame. To the far right of this there is a smaller sash window. To the first floor left there is a sash window with horizontal glazing bars (2/2). This face of this return is finished in plain render.

It was not possible to see the rear elevation.

The hipped roof has an overhang supported on brackets (in typical Italianate fashion) and is slated. There are two tall centrally placed chimneystacks to the main section, both rendered and with a cornice course and six matching octagonal clay pots (to each). There is a narrower stack to the N return in much the same style. Cast iron rw goods.

To W, N and S of the property there is a large garden, with short curving gravel drive to NW end.

Historical information

This house and its attached neighbour (no.94) were built in 1875-76, with either no.92 alone, or perhaps both dwellings together, originally named ‘Carlton House’. They were built on a parcel of land which previously belonged to the property just to the south, ‘Montpellier’ (present no.100), a house erected in c.1840 by Belfast merchant, Thomas Gilmore, on land he acquired from Rev. George MacCartney-Black in 1836. Gilmore died in 1870 and the lot was sold to Samuel Gibson, a Belfast ‘druggist and grocer’, who developed it in 1875-76 by building ‘Carlton House’, a further dwelling to the immediate west of the original house (the present no.96), and, in 1878, a large villa to the south, where he himself was to reside (now demolished). In the process of building Carlton, Gibson appears to have demolished a gate lodge (‘Montpellier Cottage’) which served the original 1840s house. This lodge was situated roughly at the entrance to the present drive of no.92.

The original resident of no.92 was a Moritz Portheim, a German who had settled in Belfast in c.1862 and who became a founding member of the town’s Jewish congregation. He is listed in contemporary directories as a linen merchant. Portheim remained there until the late 1890s and was followed by a Mrs Jane McKeown. The property remains a private dwelling.

References- Primary sources
1 PRONI VAL/2B/1/2a Second valuation, Shankill parish, 1860
2 PRONI VAL/12B/5/6a Annual (valuation) revision book, 1864-65
3 PRONI VAL/12B/5/6b Annual (valuation) revision book, 1866-79
4 ‘Belfast and Province of Ulster directory, 1870-
5 PRONI VAL/12B/5/6c Annual (valuation) revision book, 1879-85
6 PRONI VAL/12B/5/6d Annual (valuation) revision book, 1885-93
7 PRONI VAL/12B/5/63 Annual (valuation) revision book, 1894-97
8 PRONI VAL/12E/192c/57/3 Valuation town plan of Belfast, sh 57, 1894-95

Secondary sources
1 Louis Hyman, ‘The Jews of Ireland’ (Irish University Press 1972), pp.205-6
2 Paul Larmour, ‘The architectural heritage of Malone and Stranmillis’ (Belfast 1994)
3 Information supplied by Professor Alun Evans

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
J. Setting
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Substantial ‘semi-detached’ two storey suburban residence of 1875-76 in high Victorian free Italianate style with hipped roof, stucco façade, canted and square bays, Corinthian-columned portico and prominent bracketed verge. Its frontage is to the Malone Road from which it is sheltered by dense shrubbery. The property is the larger of a non-identical pair attached by their rear returns, thus giving the impression, (from the front elevation of each), of two free standing buildings.