14 - 16 Bladon Park

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A semi-detached two-bay two-storey gentleman’s residence with attic and basement, built 1877, now divided into two dwellings. Rectangular on plan, the original pair, formerly 128 and 130 Malone Road, present a symmetrical west front. It has an irregular elevation five-openings wide to north, with projecting porch; lower two-storey return to north-east, projecting beyond the main elevation.

Steeply pitched gabled natural slate roof with flat central section covered in single-ply membrane; overhanging eaves on exposed rafter tails with replacement timber fascia and bargeboards with folded di-bond aluminium capping piece; uPVC rainwater goods; finials to attic gables; attic dormer to west having sheeted plastic cheeks. Two red brick chimneystacks with projecting blue-brick banding, moulded copings and yellow clay pots (one shared with adjoining house). Walling is Flemish bonded red clay brick with flush blue clay brick banding at cill and lintel level. Sandstone plaque located to first floor west elevation between nos 8 Bladon Park and 14-16 Bladon Park - with inscription ‘GRETTON VILLAS/1877.’ Square-headed, shouldered window openings with chamfered red brick surrounds, chamfered flush sandstone sills and profiled shouldered lintels, polychromatic brick voussoirs beneath dog-toothed blue brick hood moulds. Paired window openings to principal rooms. Windows are painted timber 1/1 sliding sashes with horns. Square-headed door opening located in projecting red brick porch, centrally located to north elevation.

West elevation, facing Malone Road has gabled left bay fronted by a two-storey canted bay with attic window over, dormer to right bay. Windows are paired (with exception of canted bay, which has traditional three to each floor).

North elevation is five windows wide, irregularly arranged; extreme right bay has a pair of windows directly aligned to each floor; to its left is the entrance bay; primary entrance is contained within a projecting porch with sandstone cornice over corbel brackets; the opening is shouldered with chamfered brick jambs and sandstone lintel; the door is bolection-moulded six-panelled double-leaf with plain overlight; there is a window to each cheek. Accessed by a set of four original bull-nosed stone steps. Immediately to left, closely spaced, is a single window to each floor, both bays are spanned by a gablet. The two left bays are slightly subservient in detailing, and windows are diminished in size over three floors; all windows are single with exception of paired window to ground floor right. To left side, between the extreme left bay and the projecting return, is an inserted secondary entrance, c.1985, with panelled hardwood door, fibreglass portico and tiled steps.

East elevation (rear) is gabled over each bay; left bay has a pair of windows (plainly detailed) to first floor and attic; window with floating sidelights to ground floor. Right bay has margin-paned windows, and is abutted to right side by the lower two-storey return, which is in turn abutted to east and south by two lean-to brick additions. Windows to north are original; single window to east and south is a casement replacement.

South elevation fully abutted by adjoining building - 8 Bladon Park HB26 01 023A

Setting
Located on the east side of the Malone Road, accessed from Bladon Park in a historic suburb. The property is set back from the Malone Road within a large private manicured garden enclosed with gravel forecourt, bounded to Malone road by a quarry-faced rubble stone wall and mature trees. No. 8 Bladon Park (HB26.17.023A) is attached to the South and there is a contemporary housing development to East. The site is accessed from Bladon Park via a tarmacadam laneway with stained timber fence and masonry boundaries and c.2000 historic style entrance screen. Entrance to Bladon Park from Malone Road flanked by original curved sandstone walls with decorative moulded sandstone piers surmounted by cast-iron urns. Gate lodge, built at the same time, located on south side of Bladon Park.

Materials:
Roof: slate/single-ply membrane to flat -roofed section
Walling: red and blue brick
RWG: uPVC
Windows: timber sash

Historical information

The former No.130 Malone Road was designed in 1877 by architect William Batt as a pair with the former no.128 Malone Road to the south and no.128A, a small gatelodge on the opposite corner of Bladon Park. Batt designed numerous houses in the Malone and Stranmillis area, from large Victorian Villas to smaller suburban Edwardian houses. Commonly referred to as Gretton Villas, nos.128-130 Malone Road were built for and let by Robert Atkinson who lived at Beaumont, a large house located north of the Villas on the Malone Road (now demolished). Brett (1978) implies that the name derived from the English brewing firm Bass, Ratcliff and Gretton who owned several warehouses in Belfast at this time. While no connection can be found between the villas and the firm, the company’s ownership of Bladon Castle in Derbyshire and the street name Bladon Park lends weight to this claim. The address at this time is recorded in the valuation revisions as no.2 Bladon Park, later changing to no.96 Malone Road and, perhaps erroneously, being recorded on one occasion as no.128 Malone Road. The house is occasionally referred to as North Gretton - It has been renumbered 14 - 16 Bladon Park.

The first recorded occupant was an Elise Thompson, a retired widow who originated from Dublin. The valuations note the existence of a coachman’s house on the property. Valued at £6, the house was occupied by a William J.Malcolmson, a widower who remarried c.1905 to an Annie Malcolmson.

No.128 was severely damaged by a fire c.1892, which appears to have caused some damage to no.130. The valuation revisions value both houses at £73 c.1897, presumably before the damage to the house had been rectified as this rises to £106 c.1906. Larmour (1991) notes that, after this fire, the elaborate pierced bargeboards seen in a sketch of the houses in the Irish Builder were not reinstated.

By c.1907 the occupant of no.130 is recorded as Robert McBride, a linen merchant and handkerchief manufacturer who lived there with his wife and two children. Occupancy transferred to his son William D. McBride c.1918, also a linen handkerchief manufacturer, and then to a Mrs W.D.McBride c.1932, presumably William’s wife. Notes taken at the time of the first survey in 1984 indicate that at this time work was underway to convert the the house into two dwellings, with a fibreglass portico being added to the north elevation.

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/1/64/2 Second Edition OS map (1823)
2. PRONI OS/6/1/64/3 Third Edition OS map (1901)
3. PRONI VAL/12/B/43/C/31A General Valuation of Ireland – Annual Revisions (1897-1905)
4. PRONI VAL/12/B/43/A/42 General Valuation of Ireland – Annual Revisions (1906-1915)
5. PRONI VAL/12/B/43/A/42 General Valuation of Ireland – Annual Revisions (1916-1930)
6. PRONI D3303/12/T Miscellaneous legal papers relating to Sir Charles Henry Brett
7. PRONI Street Directories 1901-1992

Secondary Sources

1. Larmour, Paul ‘The Architectural Heritage of Malone and Stranmillis’ Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1991
2. Brett, C.E.B. 'Long Shadows Cast Before: nine lives in Ulster, 1625-1977' J.Bartholomew, 1978

Online Sources

1. The National Archives of Ireland, 1901 census (http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1901/Antrim/Cromac/Bladon_Park/)
2. The National Archives of Ireland, 1911 census (http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1911/Antrim/Cromac/Bladon_Park/)

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
I. Quality and survival of Interior
J. Setting
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

V. Authorship
S. Authenticity
R. Age
X. Local Interest

Evaluation

14 -16 Bladon Park is one of a handsome and imposing pair of semi-detached villas, built in the late 1870s to designs by William Batt, who designed several large residences in the Malone area. The villas are a good example of Batt's preferred High Victorian style, defined by finialled gables and polychrome brick tempered with sandstone dressings. The pair are well-proportioned and retain a largely original aspect with consistent detailing. Although subdivided into two separate dwellings, this has been carried out with little disruption to the original layout, and so is not considered to detract unduly from the special interest of the house. The pair are prominently located along the main road, within Malone Conservation Area, and are much enhanced by a fine mature setting with some boundary features intact, and the original gate lodge, which is located at the corner of Bladon Park. Historically the villas are representative of the development of prestigious suburbs to the south of Belfast city, to accommodate the city's wealthiest citizens. No 14- 16 Bladon Park has group value with it neighbour No 8 Bladon Park (HB26 17 023A) and its original gate lodge 1 Bladon Park (HB26 17 024).