15 UNIVERSITY SQUARE

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Three storey with attic, two bay, red brick, mid terraced former townhouse, now used as university offices for the School of History & Anthropology at Queen’s University. The terrace was built in stages between 1848-1853 with No 15 constructed in 1852. While University Square was laid out by Charles Lanyon, the architect of the actual terrace is unconfirmed. Fronting onto University Square in South Belfast, which links University Road on the west and Botanic Avenue on the east, the terrace faces south and overlooks the Old Library (now QUB Student Graduate Centre – HB26/27/002) and the grounds of the northern end of The Lanyon Building (HB26/27/005). No 15 is located approximately mid way along the row of 30 former houses and is flanked by No 14 (HB26/27/021N) on the west and No 16 (HB26/27/021P) on the east.

Materials:
Roof: Natural Welsh slate (replacement)
Walls: Red brick in Flemish bond
Windows: Front (S) - Timber sliding sash, single-glazed (original), horns to FF only / Rooflights (S) – modern
Rear (N), return & mews building - timber sliding sash without horns, single-glazed (replacements) / Dormer
window to rear – timber top-hung
RWGs: Hidden parapet gutter to roof (S) / Painted metal to yard & rear of mews building (N) / plastic soil vent pipe to yard (N)

Front Elevation (S):
Three storey with attic, two bay, mid terraced, red brick flat facade built in Flemish bond with the entrance on left side of ground floor. Two single window openings to right side of door on ground floor level, and two above on both first and second floor levels (FF & SF aligned with each other but not with GF) beneath plain rendered plinth and corbelled painted stone cornice with lead to parapet edges.
Pitched natural Welsh slate roof with red clay ridge tiles, brick chimneys with corbel detailing (rebuilt) to both left and right, shared with neighbours, with seven yellow clay pots each. Two small modern rooflights to S roof slope.
On ground floor level the doorway has an elliptical arched head with brick voussoirs and moulded plaster reveal, deeply recessed with fluted columns with Doric-type capitals to each side. The columns support a plain painted rendered entablature with moulded cornice. Leaded stained glass fanlight with number ‘15’ in centre. Painted, raised and fielded, original four panelled timber door. Original ironmongery has been replaced.
All windows to front are timber sliding sash, single glazed, have painted rendered reveals and splayed brick heads and are original; two single window openings to ground floor, both 1/1, no horns, separate painted stone cills; two 1/1 windows to FF over continuous painted stone cill course; two 6/6 windows to SF with separate painted stone cills.
No rainwater goods to front elevation; hidden parapet gutter to roof, likely to be formed in lead.

Four replacement reconstituted stone steps from street level with modern metal railings either side. Small garden to front now paved with concrete paving stones and flower beds formed with dwarf brick walls with reconstituted stone copings. Flemish bond low brick boundary wall to street (not original) with reconstituted stone coping beneath replacement painted metal railings.

Side elevation (W):
Fully abutted by No 14 (HB26/27/021N) on the west side.

Side elevation (E):
Fully abutted by No 16 (HB26/27/021P) on the east side.

Rear Elevation (N):
Main rear elevation is painted render and three storeys high. It is abutted on right side by a two storey return, which is further abutted by a two storey mews building to north. A yard is enclosed by the main rear elevation, the side wall of the rear return, the south wall of the mews building and the side wall of the rear return to No 16. Rainwater goods are painted metal. Soil pipe is plastic.
All walls to rear are painted render, with painted rendered plinth. All windows to the rear have plain reveals and painted stone cills.
All windows to rear are timber sliding sash without horns (unless otherwise stated). The exposed section of the main elevation on left side has a window opening on each level, all with 6/6 windows. Second floor half landing window above roof of rear return on right side is an arched opening with a timber 10/6 window. Attic half landing window opening is aligned above and has a smaller 3/3 window. Dormer window to left side of rear roof slope; lead to sides & cheeks, timber top-hung window.
Side wall (E) of rear return has a paired 6/6 window to ground floor on left side. First floor has three windows, all 6/6, regularly spaced. Single storey lean-to on south wall of mews building, spanning between the returns of Nos 15 and 16 with natural slate roof and modern flush timber back door.
Twentieth century metal glazed conical roof light to first floor landing of rear return (visible from second floor half landing window) on leaded flat section of return roof.
Roof to return and mews building is hipped natural slate with red clay ridge tiles.
Rear elevation of mews building onto alley way has two windows to ground floor with a door opening in between; a 3/6 on left, flush timber door to centre, and 3/3 on right – both windows have metal grilles added, attached to reveals. Three window openings to first floor; a 6/6 to left and centre and a 3/6 on right side. Further modern buildings to rear of mews building onto University Square Mews.

Historical information

As its name suggests, University Square was one of a number of streets created as a direct consequence of the construction of Queen’s College in 1845-49. Set immediately north of the College’s grounds, the street (originally intended to be named ‘Victoria Square’) was laid out in c.1847 under the direction of the designer of the college itself, Charles Lanyon, on land set aside for development by then owner, Jane Gregg. The rear (northern) ends of the house plots followed an already established boundary of a garden belonging to a pre-1832 residence whose integrity had begun to be broken up by the building of present nos.2-6 Mount Charles in 1842, nos.42-48 University Road in 1846-48, and, around the same time, the creation of what was to become University
Street.

The new thoroughfare was mainly populated by large, generally similar but not entirely uniform, three-storey late-Georgian style brick-built terraced dwellings, nos.18-25 dating from 1848-49, 26-27 built in 1849-51, 4-17 in 1852, 28-30 in 1852-53, with the High Victorian nos.1-3 (on the site of three pre-1837 dwellings) following in 1871. Although Lanyon determined the layout, there is no indication that he was actually involved in the design of the houses themselves. Building agreements dating from 1847 state that the frontages were to be based Glenfield Place, a terrace then being built on Ormeau Road (present nos.121-35 - HB26/27/007A-H). The architect behind the latter is not known, but Paul Larmour has suggested that the University Square properties derived from it were the work of the prolific Belfast-based architect Thomas Jackson. So far no documentary evidence has surfaced to confirm this, but both the style of the buildings, and the fact that Jackson was later to be responsible for nos.1-3, suggests he may well have been involved with whole terrace. That said, many of the interiors have odd layout quirks (for example most of the entrances are awkwardly off-centre when viewed from their respective hallways), which seems uncharacteristic of Jackson.

The broad unity of nos.4-30 was broken in 1865 when the single-storey canted bay was added to no.19, with a two-storey version built on no.23 before 1873, similar projections appearing on nos.20 and 22 by 1883, and several others following suit in the early 1900s - some canted (nos.7 and 11) and some rounded (nos.12, 14 and 30); most of the dormers appear to be of the early 1900s also, as does the pebbledash to no.20. The mid to later 20th century witnessed changes to the rears of many of the properties, with extensions of various sizes added to many, in particular Queen’s Film Theatre at the rear of no.20, which started out in 1968 in a lecture hall addition but which, following several rebuilds (the most recent and most extensive in c.2004), has spread into what were the formerly the back gardens of a significant number of its neighbours to either side. The whole terrace underwent a major renovation in c.1990-94, with the small front gardens landscaped and adapted for disabled access c.2004.

The street was populated in its early years by a mixture of Queen’s academics, and those well-off Belfast merchants and professionals wishing to escape the confines of the rapidly commercialising town centre for more sedate surrounds. By c.1920 the terrace was largely occupied by medical men and their families, but with the opening up of ‘education for all’ in the late 1940s, the properties were gradually acquired by Queen’s for use by their growing range of departments. By 1960 the University had taken possession of around two-thirds of the buildings, was occupying all bar one by 1974, with all coming into QUB use by the mid-1980s.

To the rear of the terrace two mews houses are noted from c.1880 onwards, one of which remained occupied as a private dwelling up until the 1960s. Both have since demolished to make way for QUB extensions.

No.15 was one of the ‘fourteen new houses building’ noted in the 1852 Belfast street directory. Rev. Edward J. Hartrick, of Magdalene (CoI) Church in Donegall Pass is noted as the occupant in the 1858-59 street directory, with Finlay McCance, a linen merchant with an office in Calender Street, named as the householder in the c.1861 valuation, with William Linden the immediate lessor and the property valued at £43 for rateable purposes. The next resident was Henry H. Bottomley (‘sub-sheriff’), c.1868-c.74, followed by John Greenhill (‘grain and coal merchant’), c.1874-c.82, Thomas Matthews (‘Miller, Boyd & Reid’s’), c.1882-c.85, Rev. J.D. Crawford (Minister of Berry Street Presbyterian Church), c.1885-c.91, S.G. Ruby (‘United States Consul’), c.1891-c.94, J. Black (‘linen merchant’), c.1895-c.1900, and John Lowenthal c.1901-c.06. In the 1901 census Mr Lowenthal (37yrs) was living there with his sister, Annie, and a domestic servant, with the house itself a ‘first class’ dwelling with 16 rooms in use. William D. O’Brien (of ‘George O’Brien & Co.’) had a short stay at no.15 in c.1906-07, with Alexander Gardener Robb, a doctor, moving in c.1909, and who in the 1911 census was occupying no.15 with his sister, Haidee Robb, and a domestic servant. The Robbs remained there until c.1941, with the property acquired for government use during the remainder of the war years. W.Vernon Smyth became householder in c.1946 but by 1955 the property had been acquired by Queen’s and became offices for the University’s Department of Chemistry, transferring to the Department of French in c.1965 and the Department of Semetic Studies c.1968, a role it seems to have retained in the 1990s. It is now part of the offices for the Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences.

The building was listed in 1979. The early to mid 1990s refurbishment of the whole terrace witnessed the renewal of no.15’s roof coverings, chimney and rainwater goods, render to the rear / return and replacement of some return window frames, with the internal walls re-plastered and some woodwork replaced. In c.2003-04 a rear extension was demolished to make way for the new Queen’s Film Theatre, with the front garden adapted for disabled access around the same date.

References – Primary sources
1 ‘Northern Whig’, 17 March 1849
2 ‘Belfast and Province of Ulster Street Directory’, (Belfast News-Letter, Belfast), various dates from 1852 to 1996
3 PRONI VAL12B/43A/4 annual valuation revision book, c.1861-81
4 PRONI VAL12B/43A/14 annual valuation revision book, 1882-97
5 PRONI OS8/30/3/49 OS town plan of Belfast, 1883-84
6 PRONI OS8/30/4/49 OS town plan of Belfast, 1896
8 PRONI VAL12B/43A/36 annual valuation revision book, 1897-1905
7 Census of Ireland, 1901, 1911 [online - http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/]
8 PRONI OS8/30/5/49 OS town plan of Belfast, 1903
9 PRONI VAL12B/43P/3 valuation book, 1906-15
13 PRONI VAL12B/43P/6 valuation book, 1916-30
14 OS maps, 1958, 1970 (online - http://www.centremapslive.co.uk/)

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, (Belfast, UAHS, revised ed. 1980)
3 David Evans and Paul Larmour, ‘Queen’s an Architectural legacy’, (Belfast, 1995), pp.51-53

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

R. Age
Y. Social, Cultural or Economic Importance
X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Three storey with attic, red brick, mid terraced, early Victorian former townhouse, facing south onto University Square in South Belfast, which links University Road on the west and Botanic Avenue on the east. While University Square was laid out by Charles Lanyon, the architect of the actual terrace is unconfirmed. The terrace was built in stages between 1848-1853 with No 15 constructed in 1852. It is located approximately mid way along the row of 30 and is flanked by No 14 (HB26/27/015N) on the west and No 16 (HB26/27/015P) on the east. No 15 is now used as offices for the School of History & Anthropology at Queen’s University with most of the rooms now serving as offices and meeting rooms. Internally there have been changes to the original floor plan, however some original features survive. The exterior retains much original character, proportions and detailing to the front with its distinctive doorcase with an elliptical arched head beneath brick voussoirs and fluted columns with Doric-type capitals, a detail which is repeated throughout the terraced row. No 15 is distinguished from the rest by its restrained, flat façade. There is coherence to the terrace despite variations to the facades such as bay and bow windows which were added to some of the houses during the late 1800s into the early 1900s. The terrace has strong value as a group (Nos 4-30 University Square - HB26/27/015D-DD) and adds significant character to its setting within the Queen’s Conservation Area.