1 Lower Crescent

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Relatively large three storey rendered town house, one of regency style terrace of eleven similar, (but not identical) properties built in 1852 and now converted to offices, flats and a public house. The terrace, ‘Lower Crescent’, is set to the E of University Road and faces, over a small public park, Upper Crescent- a similar styled development of 1846 which unlike its counterpart is actually arranged in true crescent form. The property is set to the west end of the terrace.

The front elevation is asymmetrical and faces roughly S. To the left on the ground floor is the entrance, which consists of a timber sheeted door with panelled pilaster jambs and rectangular fanlight. To the right of the doorway are two tall sash windows with Georgian panes (6 over 6 to that to right 6 over one to left). To the first floor are three larger windows set on a cill course. These have moulded surrounds and sash frames with regency style panes (2/4). To the second floor are three squarish windows with mid 20th century metal frames (these window openings have been enlarged). These windows rest on a more pronounced (cornice-like) cill course with dentillations.

The ground floor level is finished in rusticated render (with moulded ‘voussoirs’ to the left window), the upper floors in plain render. There is a broad plain course above first floor window height (and below the second floor cill course). Above second floor window height there is a plain course above which is a parapet with plain [?stone] coping.

The rear elevation is almost wholly in brick. To the right hand side is a two storey gabled return. The gable of the return does not have any openings; the upper portion of the gable has been rebuilt in concrete brick. To the right the return merges with a two storey projection with a monopitched roof. To the rear (N) face of this there is a large window similar to second floor front, to the ground floor is a plain timber sheeted door.

To the inner (S) face of the projection there is a small roundel opening (now boarded up) to the first floor, with two large flat arch openings to the ground floor. To the inner (E) face of the return there is a doorway to left with a square metal framed window to right. To the first floor of the return there are two sash windows with Georgian panes (6/6).

To the rear façade of the main house there is a sash window to left on the ground floor (vertical glazing bars, 2/2). There is a sash window to left on the first floor (Georgian panes- 6/6), with two windows on second floor, as second floor front. The second floor window is smaller than the others. To right between first and second floor is a half landing window, as that to first floor but board boarded cover from the inside.

The gabled roof is slated. There is a tall rendered chimneystack with projecting coping and uniform pots. Cast iron and PVC rw goods.

Historical information

Upper and Lower Crescent
The selling off of much of Lord Donegall’s Belfast estate in the early to mid 19th century opened up large areas of land around the town for development. The lands to the south, along the Malone Ridge, were particularly attractive to developers and lead to the building of many the many fine late Georgian style terraces from the mid 1830s onwards, a trend accelerated by the establishment of the prestigious Queen’s College in the area in the later 1840s. These new grand terraces were occupied by Belfast’s professional and business classes, leaving their older residences in the centre of the town, which in turn were gradually turned into shops and offices.

Upper Crescent was perhaps the grandest terrace development undertaken to the south of the town, an elegantly curving row of three storey dwellings in a late regency style built in 1846 by timber and shipping merchant Robert Corry. The authorship is uncertain, but Dr Paul Larmour has suggested that the hand of Charles Lanyon may have been involved. Corry himself undertook the building work and took up residence in the house to the east end, and, for the first few years of its existence, the row was known as ‘Corry’s Crescent’.

To the immediate south of the Crescent, where the church and small park now are, there was a large lawn which Corry held as a garden. Shortly after this garden was laid out, however, Corry had it ploughed up and used for the cultivation of vegetables for relief of local workers suffering as a result of the Great Famine. To the north of this ran an old water course (which flowed northwards into the ‘Basin’- a reservoir east of the Dublin Road), to the east some smaller gardens (belonging to other occupants of the Crescent) and further to the east and to the north-east, ran Albion Lane, a narrow semi-rural laneway stretching from the north end of Bradbury Place to the east end of the present University Terrace.

In 1852 Corry built another terrace to the north of his garden and just south of the old water course. This new development (the erroneously named Lower ‘Crescent’) was much in the same style as that to the south and was occupied by the same mix of professionals and businessmen, though by as early as 1860 the ground floors of some of the properties were used as offices. In the later 1860s a railway line was cut to the immediate north of Lower Crescent (along the line of the old water course), in 1873 the large sandstone building, (originally Ladies Collegiate later Victoria College), was added to the west end of the terrace, with two houses added to the east end by the end of the decade, the most easterly of which, ‘Rivoli House’, (designed by William Hastings), originally contained a dance academy run by a Frederick Brouneau. The new railway line cut across Albion Lane and presaged the laying out of a new broader thoroughfare, ‘Botanic Avenue’.

Upper Crescent also witnessed further building in the 1860s and 70s, with two large William Hastings designed properties erected to the west end in 1869, one of which, Crescent House’ (the present Bank of Ireland) also fronted on to University Road. In 1878-79 two further houses were added to this end, on the ground between those of 1869. In 1885-7 the large Presbyterian church (the present Crescent Church) was erected to plans by Glasgow architect John Bennie Wilson, on the west side of Robert Corry’s former garden, with a two storey terrace, the present ‘Crescent Gardens’, built on the site of smaller garden plots to the to east end in 1898.

During the first half of the 20th century most of the properties of Upper and Lower Crescent, as well as Crescent Gardens, remained private dwellings, but by 1960 many were given over to business use others divided into flats, with the former Rivoli House, (later named ‘Dreenagh House’), becoming the ‘Regency Hotel’. This trend continued and by the beginning of the 21st century none were occupied as private dwellings. In the mid 1990s three of the 1860s to 70s houses at the west end of Upper Crescent were demolished and a modern office block built in their place, whilst in 2000 the railway cutting to the south of Lower Crescent was built over, in preparation for a new development.

No.1 Lower Crescent
This property is one of the eleven houses which made up the original section of Lower Crescent. In 1858 it was occupied by one Frederick Gee a ‘commission merchant’. Gee appears to have remained there until at least 1882, though a Charles McDouall (McDowell) is listed in the ‘Belfast and Province of Ulster Directory’ for 1877. By 1899 it was in the hands of neighbouring Victoria College. When the Victoria College building changed hands to become the Crescent Arts Centre in the 1978, this property remained associated with it, becoming ‘The Octagon Gallery’. It is largely used as a store by the Arts Centre.

References- Primary sources
1 ‘Henderson’s Belfast Directory’ [later ‘Belfast & Province of Ulster Directory’], 1849-
2 PRONI VAL/2B/7/1d Second valuation, Belfast, 1860
3 PRONI VAL/2D/7/43a Second valuation town plan of Belfast sh 43a, 1860
4 PRONI VAL/2D/7/43b Annual valuation revision town plan of Belfast, sh 43b, 1860-95
5 PRONI VAL/12B/43a/1-10 Annual valuation revision notebooks, Cromac Ward, Belfast, 1863-82
6 PRONI OS/8/30/2/43 OS town plan of Belfast, sh 43, 1871-73
7 PRONI OS/8/30/2/49 OS town plan of Belfast, sh 49, 1871-73
8 PRONI OS/8/30/3/43 OS town plan of Belfast, sh 43, 1883-84
9 PRONI OS/8/30/3/49 OS town plan of Belfast, sh 49, 1883-84
10 PRONI OS/8/30/3/49 OS town plan of Belfast, sh 49, 1894-95

Secondary sources
1 S.T. Carleton, ‘The growth of south Belfast’ (QUB MA thesis, 1967)
2 John Caughey, ‘Seize then the hour- A history of James P. Corry & Co. Ltd…’ (Belfast, 1974), pp.28-29
3 David Evans, ‘Historic buildings…Queen’s University’ (revised ed., 1980), p.11
4 Alison Jordan, ‘Margaret Byers, pioneer of women’s education…’ (QUB Inst. of Irish Studies, ?1988)

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
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Relatively large and fine three storey rendered town house, one of regency style terrace of eleven similar, (but not identical) properties built in 1852 and now converted to offices, flats and a public house. This particular property was most recently used as a store and artist’s studio.