3 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 close to the west end of the terrace and is one of a pair of the more ornate buildings of the grouping, having large two storey Corinthian columns to front.

The front elevation is asymmetrical and faces roughly S. To the left on the ground floor is the entrance, which consists of a recessed timber panelled door with panelled pilaster jambs and rectangular two pane fanlight. Three stone steps to door. To the right of the doorway are two tall sash windows with Georgian panes (6/6). 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 pairs of narrow, semicircular headed sash windows (horizontal glazing bars- 1/2) . These windows rest on a more pronounced (cornice-like) cill course projection with dentillations.

The ground floor level is finished in rusticated render, the first floor in a less pronounced rustication the uppermost floor in plain render. Four large, evenly spaced Corinthian ¾ columns span the ground and first floor heights and support a projecting frieze below second floor cill course level. The column to far right is square. Corresponding with these pilasters to the second floor are four panelled pilasters which rise to form parapet piers with a pierced, balustrade-like, parapet between them.

The rear elevation is completely rendered. To the right hand (W) side is a three storey gabled return. There is a window with what appears to be a plain sash frame to left on the first floor of the gable of the return, with a sash window with Georgian panes (6/6), to the left on second floor. To the left the return merges with a two storey projection with a monopitched roof. To the rear (N) face of this there is a sash window with Georgian panes to the upper sash (6/1), whilst to the ground floor is a flat arched vehicle entrance with modern roller shutter.

To the inner (S) face of the projection there is a large flat arch opening to the ground floor. To the inner (E) face of the return there is a doorway to far left (actually within the open arch area within the projection). To left of this is window with modern frame. To the first floor are three windows of differing size, two with modern frames, the other (to far right) with a plain sash frame. To the second floor are two Georgian-paned sash windows of differing size, that to left 3/6, that to right 6/6.

To the rear façade of the main house there is a sash window to left on the ground floor with Georgian panes, (6/6). There is a similar window to left on the first floor, but with horizontal glazing bars (2/2). To the left on the second floor is a smaller plain sash window.

The gabled roof is slated. There is a tall rendered chimneystack, with projecting coping and uniform pots, to E. 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 close 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.3 Lower Crescent
This property is one of the eleven houses which made up the original 1852 section of Lower Crescent. In 1858 it is listed as vacant, but was occupied by a Henry Smith in 1860, a Rev. John H. Moore in 1861, with a William Moffat in residence in 1877. In the 1890s and early 1900s it was occupied by Mrs Margaret Byers, the founder of near by Victoria College. It was still in possession of Victoria College for some years after Mrs Byers’ death in 1912, but was either sold or leased out by the school by 1930 for by this date it had become a private dwelling once again.

The property remained a dwelling house until the 1970s. After this it became a health centre (which appears to have been integrated with its neighbour, no.2), then a stationery shop (also integrated with no.2) and later, offices.

The property (like most of its neighbours) originally had a two storey return, but this was heightened a storey at some point.

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
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 is set close to the west end of the terrace and is one of a pair of the more ornate buildings of the grouping, having large two storey Corinthian columns to front.