10 Mount Pleasant, Belfast, BT9 5DS

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Two storey detached Victorian gabled house built in 1871 , rectangular on plan with a two storey return, located near the end of a U-shaped cul-de-sac adjacent to the listed Summer Hill HB26 17 008 and facing a listed terrace of 9 houses HB26 17 001A – I across a private central garden. The section containing the projecting bay to the right was added slightly later, within two years of the original construction and a vertical joint in the brickwork can be seen to the immediate right of the front door.

Materials:
Walls Red clay brick laid in Flemish bond to the front elevation and English Garden Wall bond to the rear elevation and the return. Two side elevations are painted smooth render.
Roof Natural Bangor Blue slate
Windows Generally 2/2 single glazed painted timber sliding sash with horns
RW goods Cast iron

The front elevation faces South and comprises a central 6-panelled door - the top 4 panels of which have been replaced with glass. It has a rectangular overnight and is set within a painted aedicule with a triangular pediment which may be stone. Above the door is a 2/2 painted timber sliding sash window with two more on the first floor and two to the left of the door. To the right is a painted, smooth rendered, canted 2-storey bay with three similar windows on each floor.

The natural slate roof is double pitched with gables and a red brick chimney stack, with corbelled top rising from each gable. Eaves project and are supported on paired timber brackets and the verges also project with the purlin ends exposed.

Side elevation (E) is blind.

Side elevation (W) is also blind apart from a 2/2 window and an adjacent glazed door with margin panes and overlight – also margin paned.

Rear elevation (N) has original margin paned steel double doors with overlights on the ground floor and two 2/2 windows above. To the right is a two storey red brick return with double pitched slated roof and a rendered chimney stack on the ridge. The East facing facade has a modern picture window to the left and a modern glazed door to the right with an original 2/2 window between. A modern double flat roofed garage has been constructed to the East of the return and is connected to the return with a flat roofed link with a timber arched support on one side. The gable of the return is blind and the other garden side, facing W, is aligned with the main house. It has a complementary breakfast room extension which was constructed c2007, complete with fully glazed lantern and double doors similar in design to the two sets in the main house. There are two 2/2 windows to the first floor of the return and one to the main house rear elevation on this side.

The front door is approached by a short quarry tiled path with coxcomb terracotta edgings. There is a gravelled path to the right of the house with fine cast iron gates at the side which suit the house but are not original. The small front garden is mainly gravelled with two mature trees – one on either side. There is a tall red brick boundary wall with a rounded terracotta coping and brick piers along the rear site boundary in English garden wall bond.

Historical information

Background - The beginnings of Mount Pleasant can be traced to c.1854 when a roughly 4-acre plot to the west of what was then known as ‘Friar’s Bush Road’, was acquired by Arthur Alexander, a Belfast coal merchant. On the western edge of this plot, which was previously part of the estate of the Blacks of Stranmillis, Mr. Alexander built himself a new house, originally called ‘Mountpleasant’ (or ‘Mount Pleasant’, now ‘Summer Hill’ [HB26.17.008]), laying out a long narrow garden in front (south) of it, with a tree-lined drive –complete with gate lodge - to the northeast, where the property bordered onto the garden of Sandymount. In 1862-63 he gave over about half of the remained of the holding to the east for what was to be the earliest terrace development in the vicinity- the row of nine (mainly) double-fronted dwellings we now know as nos.1-9 Mount Pleasant, in front of which a communal garden was laid out (and a communal pump installed). The land to the north of this left untouched until 1871 when the present no.10 was built at the western end.

In 1925 the remaining undeveloped land to the east of no.10 was acquired by the (C of I) Parish of St. Bartholomew, who built the present church [HB26.17.053] in 1929-30, with the residue of the plot to the immediate north and west given over to housing- nos.12 and 14 Mount Pleasant built in 1928-29 (to designs by WDR Taggart), with the three pairs of semi-detached dwellings along Stranmillis Road (nos.173-181) dating from roughly the same time. The building of the latter houses entailed the demolition of Summer Hill’s gate lodge and the moving of the entrance to its present location off Mount Pleasant itself. The parish utilised what remained of the plot to the north and northwest of the church in 1963 with the building of a hall and rectory.

No.10 As stated above, no.10 was built in 1871 and is undoubtedly that ‘newly-erected and well-finished detached house’ at ‘Mountpleasant’ advertised to let in March 1872. The building is shown on the OS town plan dated 1871-73 as considerably narrower than present and this, combined with the subtle but noticeable vertical join in the brickwork to the immediate right of the entrance, suggests that the eastern portion fronted by the canted bay is an addition. Strangely, however, the valuation book indicates that the latter was added in 1873, relatively shortly after the original western section was completed; in fact the house may never have been occupied in its original smaller form. The identity of the architect is uncertain, but the similarity to nos.1-9 suggests the same hand was involved.

The first occupant recorded in the valuation book in 1873 seems to have been a Mrs Magee, with a Hamilton Joseph Magee (‘wine and ale merchant’) listed as the householder in the 1877 street directory, Jones Gray – ‘Collector of Customs’ - in 1889 and a Mrs. Robinson who was there from 1892 until 1900. The property lay vacant for a year after this (and consequently does not feature in the 1901 census), after which the lease was taken up by Mrs. Elizabeth Munce, who is noted in the 1911 census as occupying the house with her son, granddaughter and a domestic servant, with the building itself recorded as a 1st class dwelling containing 13 rooms. By 1918 Thomas W. Henry had taken up residence. Henry (the brother of artist Paul Henry) was a local architect who specialised largely in commercial buildings, but was also responsible for the large Ainsworth housing development in the north of the city, as well Shankill Library. He remained at no.10 until 1927, moving to a house he had designed himself in Malone Park. G.W. Bannister is noted as the resident in 1932, Dr. R. Jones in 1943, and Mrs Jones (presumably Dr. Jones’s widow) in 1951, remaining there until at least 1967. The current owners acquired the property in the 1970s.

References – Primary sources
1 OS maps 1858, 1871-73, 1883-84, 1896, 1931, 1961-66
2 PRONI VAL2B/7/1D (c.1859)
3 PRONI VAL12B/43/A/4 (1862-81)
4 ‘Belfast News-Letter’, 21 March 1872
5 ‘Belfast and Province of Ulster Street Directory’, (Belfast News-Letter, Belfast), various dates from 1877 to 1996
6 PRONI VAL12B/43/A/14 (1882-97)

Secondary sources
1 Carleton, S.T., ‘The growth of South Belfast’, (unpublished QUB MA thesis), 1967
2 Rowan, A.J. and Brett, C.E.B., Historic Buildings…Queens University of Belfast, (UAHS, 1968), p.36
3 Larmour, Paul 1991 The architectural heritage of Malone and Stranmillis, (Belfast), pp.136, 163

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

Criteria for listing: historic interest

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

Evaluation

Two storey detached Victorian house built in 1871, L-shaped on plan and located near the end of a U-shaped cul-de-sac adjacent to the listed Summer Hill, HB26 17 008 and facing a listed terrace of 9 houses HB26 17 001A - I across a private central garden. Constructed in a mixture of red clay brick and render, with a natural slate roof it has retained its original Victorian character both internally and externally and is a fine example of a detached house from this period in this part of Belfast. Although the right-hand bay was added shortly after the main construction the house reads as a single composition.
It's interest is enhanced by the secluded setting across from a private garden, it's proximity to several other listed houses and also by its small but well tended side garden, bounded by a tall red brick boundary wall.