2 Malone Hill Park, Belfast BT9 6RD

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Storey-and-a-half Arts & Crafts style, brown brick detached villa with steeply sloping Rosemary tiled roof, built 1932, located on a large corner site on Malone Hill Park with at the junction with Malone Road in South Belfast. The dwelling faces NE and has a large side garden to the NE and a large rear garden to the SW. Chalet-style 1.5 storey extension on the N side, built approx 2022-23.

Refer to survey photographs alongside descriptions:

Front elevation
Asymmetrical façade with overhanging eaves, advanced stairwell and exposed chimney stack with darker brick diapering detail. Window openings of various sizes, but all original leaded lights. Diminutive top-hung metal windows to either side of chimney breast, both with unusual rosemary tile edge headers.
Original timber panelled and glazed front door, and triple garage door with leaded light top panels.

Side elevation (Malone Road)
Gambrel-profile asymmetric gable with the same window proportion repeated in different sized openings with timber surrounds. Arched opening to left wide with Rosemary-tiled voussoirs to open porch containing two timber panelled doors and quarry tiles. Overhanging eaves to first floor. Stepped, stacked Rosemary tiled corbels to each side.

Rear elevation
Asymmetric façade with large 1.5 storey gable with stepped, stacked Rosemary tiled corbels to each side, bow window with flat roof to ground floor level and large window opening above. Dormer window with steep pitched roof and catslide roof to right side. Left side has an open porch leading to living room doors and store.
Long, chalet-style extension to extreme left side, extending SW towards the rear (LA04/2022/0016/F). Modern materials - red brick, timber cladding, aluminium windows and doors.

Side elevation
Gambrel-profile gable with large window openings centrally placed.
Extreme right side abutted by extension.

Setting
Original matching brick entrance piers on SE end of site (piers have been taken down and rebuilt as existing to widen entrance) and matching dwarf boundary wall with timber fence above; original cast metal number ‘2’ on right side pier. New driveway entrance formed at N side of site onto Malone Hill Park (LA04/2023/4063/F). Mature boundary landscaping to boundaries on S side.

Materials
Walls – brown brick in stretcher bond
Roof – original Rosemary tiles
Windows - original leaded lights in metal frames, within painted timber surround
Rainwater goods – painted metal

Historical information

The current dwelling was constructed in an Arts and Crafts style c1932 for Thomas McKee, builder. The architect is currently unknown.
The plot of land on which the house sits was purchased by Thomas R McKee in 1931 and the current dwelling enters street directories in 1933. Thomas McKee was a partner in the Belfast firm of building contractors McKee Bros of Donegall Road (not to be confused with Thomas McKee & Sons Ltd of Imperial Drive). The dwelling house, initially valued at £40, is first shown on the large-scale OS map of 1938. Malone Hill Park was laid out and began to be developed in the late 1920s. All the houses in this road were built in a ten-year period between 1928 and 1937 and by1938, the road was fully developed on both sides (Larmour, large-scale maps).

Original plans for the building survive (but are unsigned) and show that the layout has been preserved much as originally conceived, with the only major change being to the entrance hallway. A dividing wall and cupboards between this and the ‘maid’s room’, overlooking the garden, has been removed to give a large open plan space. Additionally, the staircase was not constructed as originally anticipated, and a window to the maid’s room shown as a canted bay on the plan is actually a bow window, most likely changes made during the course of construction. The garage, which is incorporated into the main body of the house, features a sliding door system utilising Henderson’s ‘Tangent’ door gear. P C Henderson, a company established in 1921, based in Barking, Essex and still in existence today, was a popular supplier of fittings for sliding garage doors at this period when motor houses and garages were becoming a more common addition to domestic dwellings.

In a sales advert of 1974 the design of the house is described as the ‘Sussex style of mellowed rustic brick’ and the building no doubt draws on the English vernacular styles that were influential for the Arts and Crafts movement, exhibiting a high level of asymmetry, decorative use of brick and tiles and extended roofline and chimneys, with small-paned windows. However, it is interesting to note that Thomas McKee’s daughter was given the middle name ‘Hoogendyk’, most likely her mother’s maiden name and this Dutch connection may possibly account for the ‘low countries’ character particularly to the end gable of the house with its multiple windows.

The building was assessed in the First General Revaluation of 1933 at which time it had electric light and was centrally heated with about eight radiators, suggesting that the radiators are likely original survivals. Consequently, although there were fireplaces to the living room and dining rooms (the latter has been removed), only one bedroom was built with a fireplace. The living room fireplace was made by the Minsterstone company of Somerset and is their ‘Dillington’ model. This design has been in manufacture for over a century making it possible that the fireplace is original to the house.

In 1963, the contents of the house were sold, a complete list of items appearing in the Belfast Newsletter. The house was then taken over by H M McManus, Civil Engineer and his wife Irene. Irene and Hugh McManus were Directors of Liscon Developments Ltd, a company which built thousands of houses in Belfast and further afield in Northern Ireland in the 1960s and 70s. The couple had travelled coast to coast in Canada studying house design and building techniques which led them to incorporate features in the houses they built which were unusual in NI, such as central heating through hot air ducts, aluminium foil insulation in ceilings, and carports. In the mid-1970s, Hugh McManus was chairman of the House Builders Committee of the Federation of Building Trade Employers. In June 1968 designs were drawn up for Mr McManus by Mitchell McDade, architect and artist (known locally for his portraits of local characters) of Newtownards, for an indoor swimming pool extension, first shown on the large-scale OS map of 1982 together with glass-roofed car port (a later addition). The pool extension has recently (2022) been converted into living accommodation to designs by McCartan Muldoon of Magherafelt.

The original plans for the house show that, with the exception of the addition of the swimming pool extension, there have been relatively few changes to the layout. The external form and detailing remains intact with good survival internally. The Arts and Crafts inspired design has endowed this dwelling house with character, differentiating it from the inter-war development of relatively modest middle-class houses that characterise this part of the Malone ridge.

References:
Primary Sources:

1. PRONI OS/6/1/64/1 – First Edition Ordnance Survey Map (1832-3)
2. PRONI OS/6/1/64/2 – Second Edition Ordnance Survey Map (1858)
3. PRONI OS/6/1/64/3 – Third Edition Ordnance Survey Map (1901)
4. PRONI OS/6/1/64/4 – Fourth Edition Ordnance Survey Map (1920-21)
5. PRONI OS/6/1/64/5 – Fifth Edition Ordnance Survey Map (1920 and 1931)
6. PRONI VAL/3/D/1/P/53 – First General Revaluation 1934-1957
7. Copies of original plans supplied by Owner (undated and unsigned)
8. Belfast Telegraph, 14th September 1940
9. Northern Whig 1945
10. Belfast Telegraph, 14th January 1957
11. Belfast Telegraph, 20th August 1959
12. Belfast Telegraph, 28th February 1962
13. Belfast Telegraph, 7th March 1963
14. Belfast Telegraph, 3rd July 1963
15. Belfast Newsletter, 10th September 1963
16. Belfast Telegraph, 20th February 1964
17. Belfast Telegraph, 26th February 1974
18. Belfast Newsletter, 6th November 1974
19. Belfast Newsletter, 14th April 1994
20. Street Directories (1933-1995)
21. Large-scale OS maps (https://shop.centremapslive.co.uk/) 1931, 1938, 1957, 1965, 1982

Secondary Sources:

22. Dictionary of Irish Architects www.dia.ie
23. Larmour, Paul (1991) The Architectural Heritage of Malone and Stranmillis. Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society
24. Minsterstone (www.minsterstone.ltd.uk)
25. P C Henderson (www.pchenderson.com)

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
H+. Alterations enhancing the building
I. Quality and survival of Interior
J. Setting

Criteria for listing: historic interest

R. Age
S. Authenticity
X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Asymmetric storey-and-a-half Arts & Crafts style, brown brick detached villa with steeply sloping Rosemary tiled roof, constructed c1932, located on a large corner site with mature landscaping on Malone Hill Park at the junction with Malone Road in South Belfast. The dwelling retains much historic detailing of brickwork, swept tiling to underside of roof, rosemary tiles, tall brick chimneys and crisp detailing of historic window and door openings.

In a sales advert of 1974 the design of the house is described as the ‘Sussex style of mellowed rustic brick’ and the building no doubt draws on the English vernacular styles that were influential for the Arts and Crafts movement, exhibiting a high level of asymmetry, decorative use of brick and tiles and extended roofline and chimneys, with small-paned windows. The original owner had a Dutch connection which may possibly account for the ‘low countries’ character particularly to the end gable of the house with its multiple windows.
The garage, which is incorporated into the main body of the house, features a sliding door system utilising Henderson’s ‘Tangent’ door gear. P C Henderson, a company established in 1921, based in Barking, Essex and still in existence today, was a popular supplier of fittings for sliding garage doors at this period when motor houses and garages were becoming a more common addition to domestic dwellings.

The original plans for the house show that, with the exception of the addition of the swimming pool extension and the opening up of the entrance hallway, the layout has been preserved much as originally conceived. The external form and detailing remains intact with good survival internally, such as original joinery, staircase and fireplace. The Arts and Crafts inspired design has endowed this dwelling house with character, differentiating it from the inter-war development of relatively modest middle-class houses that characterise this part of the Malone ridge. This is a competent and complete exercise in suburban Arts and Crafts style with distinctive detailing of fenestration to gable fronting the Malone Road.