38-40 UNIVERSITY ROAD AND 1 MOUNT CHARLES

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Three-storey, painted render and stucco former townhouses with hipped roofs, constructed in 1854. Originally three separate buildings, the whole block is rectangular on plan with Nos 38 and 40 University Road and No 1 Mount Charles now fully integrated internally and operating as one building. The former Nos 38-40 face west onto University Road, with No 1 Mount Charles abutting the rear on the east side, and facing north onto Mount Charles, a tree-lined street which runs between Botanic Avenue on the east side and University Road on the west, within the Queen’s Conservation Area. The north elevation of the former No 40 University Road faces onto Mount Charles, and the south elevation of No 38 faces onto University Street to the south. The buildings are now in use as the School of Creative Arts and include music studios to upper floors.

Materials:
Roof: Natural slate with black clay ridge tiles
Walls: Painted render & stucco
Rainwater goods : Painted cast iron
Windows : Timber sliding sash with horns, single-glazed (replacement).

Front Elevation (W) onto University Road:
Three storey symmetrical façade, four bays wide, and originally a pair of semi-detached townhouses, now operating as a single building. Now entered via former No 38 on right side, with former No 40 entrance unused. Front façade is comprised of two open projecting entrance porches at each corner of ground floor level with four window openings between, and four regularly spaced window openings on both first and second floor levels above. Hipped roof with central flat section with centrally located chimney stack.
Painted channelled render ‘rustication’ to ground floor level with bullnose moulded painted plaster plinth and plain reveals to windows. Painted render cills, advancing slightly from continuous cill course. Projecting porches are formed by two square columns on plain bases supporting a corniced entablature which sits below a dentilled cornice. Flat roof with modern roofing membrane to porches. Modern metal flagstaff located above each porch, leaning out at an angle, fixed to back of porch roof.
The columns are painted moulded plaster with panelled indent and paterae to all four sides at capital level. The column detailing is repeated on the engaged pilasters either side of the door openings. The doorcases consist of moulded plaster surrounds with decorative plaster rope motifs above the door, the doors being replacement painted timber four panelled doors with brass ironmongery and rectangular three-pane timber framed overlights. Painted stone/render dwarf wall to each edge with steps and open porch floor finished in modern tiles to former No 40 on left side, and modern disabled access ramp with modern railings to former No 38. Small section of original wrought iron railings to University Street side of former No 38 porch.
Both first and second floor levels are painted render with toothed painted stucco quoins to each corner. First floor level has a continuous stucco cill course, and decorative moulded stucco surrounds with acanthus leaf corbel brackets and entablature to window openings. Second floor window openings have separate cills and moulded plaster surrounds. Deep moulded plaster eaves with projecting cornice.
All windows to the front are single-glazed timber sliding sash with horns and are likely to be replacements. Windows to ground floor and first floor levels are horizontally split 2/2, and those on second floor are 6/6.
Pitched natural slate roof with black clay ridge tiles. Painted render fibreglass false chimney stack at centre of roof, on ridge of horizontal section with six clay pots. Painted cast iron rainwater goods, ogee profile to guttering.
The block is situated behind original low walling with piers to University Road, and continuous with the gate screen to Mount Charles (HB26/27/035). The walling is heavy coursed rough sandstone with a steeply bevelled dressed sandstone coping. The piers have large chamfered hexagonal coping stones. Railings are replacement painted metal with the exception of the small section onto University Street. Pedestrian gates to each porch are painted cast iron, possibly replacements. The former front gardens are now brick paved.

Side Elevation (S) onto University Street:
Three storey, asymmetrical façade with same treatment of materials and finishes as University Road elevation. Building sits directly on the pavement. Four window openings to ground floor level and a door opening with arched head to extreme right side (blocked up and painted and plastered over, with plain timber fanlight with opaque glass). Five window openings to both first and second floor levels above, all aligned with openings below. Extreme left side is blank. The ground floor painted channelled ‘rusticated’ render continues along this elevation, as does the plain painted render to the upper floors, with toothed stucco quoins to each corner. The rear elevation of the former No 1 Mount Charles forms the last two bays on right side. Hipped roof over deep moulded plaster corniced eaves. Rainwater goods are painted cast iron. Windows are same on each level as University Road elevation.

Side Elevation (N) onto Mount Charles:
Mirror image of elevation onto University Street – right side bay is blank, five openings to each level (no door opening like the University Street elevation, but window instead). The front elevation of the former No 1 Mount Charles forms the last two bays on left side. All detailing as per other elevations.

Rear Elevation (E):
Abutted by No 3 Mount Charles (HB26/27/021A) which sits proud of former No 1 onto Mount Charles. Exposed section of wall on University Street side at second floor level has two 6/6 windows. One on extreme left side has Georgian wired glass to top panes and plywood boarding to bottom panes. One on right not seen in detail. Plastic vent fitted to bottom middle pane.

Historical information

Nos.38-40, along with the matching 1 Mount Charles, (which was set at a right angle to the rear of nos.38-40 and fronted onto Mount Charles), were built in 1854. In the valuation of c.1859 all three are noted as being leased from Bernard Hughes (1805-78), the Armagh-born baker who became Belfast’s master baker and the owner of Ireland’s largest milling business. It is likely that he was responsible for their construction, just as he was for the development for the long terrace to the immediate east (nos.3-19 Mount Charles) in 1859-60. The latter row was designed for Hughes by Alexander MacAlister (c.1821-97), a native of Carlow, who spent his entire career in Belfast working on commissions almost exclusively located in counties Antrim and Down, but it is not known if he worked on these particular properties. If indeed they are by MacAlister, they would represent his earliest known commissions.

No.38 The occupant of no.38 is recorded in c.1859 as James McGee, and the property itself rated at £26 for valuation purposes (same as no.40 and no.1 Mount Charles.) The list of subsequent residents - according to the street directories - runs as follows – Dr. Blain (c.1862-68), Rev George Hill, the noted historian, (c.1868-83), Mrs. Macoun (c.1885-91, sharing property with Rev. Alexander Cuthbert, Minister of College Square Nth Presbyterian Church, from c.1889), Mrs. Crothers (c.1891-99), and Andrew Fullerton MD (c.1899-1904). In the 1901 census, Mr. Fullerton, a 33yr-old surgeon, is recorded as occupying the house with his wife, Caroline, their 3yr-old daughter and a domestic servant, with the building itself noted as a ‘1st class’ dwelling with 10 rooms used by the family. By 1907 John Campbell Rankin, another medical doctor had taken up the lease, and at the time of the 1911 census he was living here with his widowed relative, Elizabeth Henderson, and a domestic servant. In the 1918 directory the householder is listed as William John Jefferson, R.J. McConnell, another doctor, in that of 1924 and Francis Kennedy in 1932. For a period during WWII the property was given over to government use, but it subsequently reverted to a private dwelling once again, with Herbert W. Caldwell resident by at least 1951. The Caldwell family appear to have retained the property into the 1960s, but it is listed as vacant in 1967.

No.40 No.40 is recorded in c.1859 valuation as the home of Gustavus Ferrar. The list of residents from the directories thereafter reads as follows – Mrs. Arrott (c.1862-82), Miss Bowring (c.1882-88), Mrs. Magee (c.1888-91), V.H. Rylski ‘drysalter’ (c.1891-96), and James Colville MD (c.1896-1905). In the 1901 census, Mr. Colville, a 35yr-old physician, is recorded as occupying the house with his 73yr-old mother, Sarah and a domestic servant, with the building itself noted as a ‘1st class’ dwelling with 10 rooms used by the family. Sometime before 1907 the lease was taken up by S. Graham, a commercial traveller, followed around 1910 by Neville D. Clarke, who in the 1911 census is recorded as a 24yr-old dental surgeon, sharing the house with his younger brother, Harold, and a domestic servant. By 1918 J.R. Marr, another commercial traveller, had taken up residence, along with F.R. McCambly, with S.R. Armstrong, a doctor, here by 1924, and another doctor, H. Hilton Stewart, by 1932. A Mrs. O’Donnell is noted as the householder in 1943, and throughout the 1950s and 1960s it was the home of Mrs. E.A. Chalmers.

No.1 Mount Charles The occupant of no.1 is recorded in c.1859 as Edward Walsh, an employee of the GPO. He was succeeded in c.1862 by Rev. Daniel Macafee ‘Wesleylan minister’, who was followed by William Weir, a linen merchant, in c.1864; a Mrs. Malcomson followed in c.1868, and then Mrs. Jamison (c.1888-91), Mrs. Harris (c.1891-94), Mrs. Bell (c.1894-1900), and John Joseph Murphy (c.1903-10). In the 1911 census no.1 was home to Marian Calcutt, a 34yr-old secretary, who was sharing the property with Mabel and Hilda Calcutt, (presumably her sisters), both of who were secretaries, whilst the house itself is noted as a ‘1st class’ dwelling with 13 rooms occupied. Mrs. C.J. Slade is listed as the occupant in the 1918 street directory, Mrs. Mary Mulholland in 1924, and J.W. Allen ‘commercial traveller’ in 1932. Like neighbouring no.38 University Road, the property was commandeered by the government during WWII, but returned to residential use post-war with R. Barr living there in 1951. By 1960 the house was divided into two flats with the aforementioned R. Barr and a Mrs. Morton the residents, the latter succeeded by T.P. Flanagan by 1964, and William Withy by 1970.

All three properties were purchased by Queen’s University c.1972, who subsequently offered to lease the group to the Open University for conversion to offices. Following damage incurred by a nearby bomb blast in 1974 this scheme seems to have been put on hold. The buildings were listed in April 1976, but by the end of that year QUB / OU had put forward plans to demolish the existing structures (which were deemed beyond repair) and build a near replica in their place to designs by architect Robert McKinstry. This scheme was not undertaken; an examination of some of the walling to the SE corner suggests that the original fabric was kept to this side, supported by a steel frame. Building work on the new offices was completed c.1978. Reinstatement of a dummy chimneystack (which had been part of the original planning approval) was carried out in March 1983. The following year saw OU signage and flagstaffs added to the front elevation, and in 2004 the balustrade was erected on the entrance ramp.

The OU vacated the building c.2010 and it was subsequently utilised by QUB, latterly as storage space. It is currently [July 2019] being refitted for use as offices for university staff.

Primary Sources
1 OS maps and town plans, 1858, 1871-73, 1883-84, 1896
2 PRONI VAL/2B/1/21a Second valuation, Shankill parish, c.1859.
3 ‘Belfast and Province of Ulster Street Directory’, (Belfast News-Letter, Belfast), various dates from 1861 to 1996
4 PRONI VAL/12/B/43/A/4 General Valuation of Ireland - Annual Revisions (1865-1881)
5 PRONI VAL/12/B/43/A/36 General Valuation of Ireland - Annual Revisions (1897-1905)
6 Census of Ireland, 1901, 1911 [available online]
7 PRONI VAL/12/B/43/P/3 General Valuation of Ireland - Annual Revisions (1906-1915)
8 PRONI VAL/12/B/43/P/6 General Valuation of Ireland - Annual Revisions (1916-1930)
9 Historic Environment Division file HB26/27/0006A (1974- )

Secondary Sources
1 Carleton, S.T., ‘The growth of South Belfast’ MA Thesis (QUB, 1967)
2 Larmour, Paul 'Belfast, an Illustrated Architectural Guide', Friar's Bush Press, 1987
3 Magee, Jack, ‘Barney, Bernard Hughes of Belfast 1808-78’ (2001)
4 Royle, Stephen A., ‘Irish Historic Towns Atlas No.17 – Belfast, Part II, 1840 to 1900’ (Irish Royal Academy, 2007)

Online sources
1 Dictionary of Irish Architects - http://www.dia.ie/architects/view/3712/MACALISTER%2C+ALEXANDER#tab_works [accessed 2017.08.23]

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
H-. Alterations detracting from building
H+. Alterations enhancing the building
J. Setting
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

R. Age
X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Three-storey, painted render and stucco former townhouses with hipped roofs, constructed in 1854 and located in the Queen’s University area of South Belfast. Originally three separate buildings, Nos 38 & 40 University Road and No 1 Mount Charles are now fully integrated internally and operate as one building. The original plan form has been extensively altered throughout following refurbishment in the late 1970s after a bomb detnated nearby in 1974. All original staircases and chimneypieces have been lost with no remaining internal historic detailing apparent; a modern steel frame now suports the original building. Despite initial plans to re-build a replica, the exterior retains its original historic fabric, character, proportions and detailing with its open porches and moulded window surrounds. As the block is linked internally with No 3 Mount Charles (HB26/27/021A), there is value as a group and the triple aspect onto University Road to the west, University Street to the South and Mount Charles to the North adds significant character to its setting within the Queen’s Conservation Area.