16 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 Institute of Theology at Queen’s University. The terrace was built in stages between 1848-1853 with No 16 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 16 is located approximately mid way along the row of 30 former houses and is flanked by No 15 (HB26/27/021O) on the west and No 17 (HB26/27/021Q) on the east. No 16 is abutted at the rear by a two storey return built at half landing level, in turn abutted by a two storey mews building.

Materials:
Roof: Natural Welsh slate (replacement)
Walls: Red brick in Flemish bond
Windows: Front (S) - Timber sliding sash, single-glazed, horns to GF & FF (original) (S) / Dormers – lead with timber top-hung windows
(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. Single small modern rooflight to S roof slope on left side and large lead-clad dormer window to right, with timber top hung windows.
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 ‘16’ in centre. Painted, (possibly replacement) panelled timber door with rectangular Georgian-wired top pane.
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 1/2, with horns, leaded stained glass top panes and two tall bottom panes, separate painted stone cills; two 1/2 windows to FF (small top pane & 2 tall bottom panes) 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 with flower beds, paved with concrete paving stones. Disabled ramp formed with dwarf brick walls with reconstituted stone copings and brick paviers. 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 15 (HB26/27/021O) on the west side.

Side elevation (E):
Fully abutted by No 17 (HB26/27/021Q) 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 17. 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) and are replacements. The exposed section of the main elevation on left side has a window opening on each level, all with 6/6 windows, apart from the ground floor window which is 4/4. Second floor half landing window above roof of rear return on right side is an arched opening with a timber 10/6 window. Attic level half landing window is aligned above and is a smaller 3/3 window. Dormer window to left side of rear roof slope; lead to sides & cheeks, timber top-hung window (modern).
Side wall (E) of rear return has a 3/3 window to ground floor on left side. First floor has three windows, all 6/6, regularly spaced.
North wall of year yard (S wall of mews building) has a triple metal casement window to ground floor; wall to first floor is blank. Rear yard of No 16 is accessed from No 17; modern flush timber door is on N end of yard.
Twentieth century metal glazed conical roof light to first floor landing of rear return 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 3/3 windows to ground floor; one on left and one on right side – 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.16 was one of the ‘fourteen new houses building’ noted in the 1852 Belfast street directory. Mrs. Charlotte Savage is noted as the occupant in the 1858-59 street directory and in the c.1861 valuation, with William Linden the immediate lessor and the property valued at £43 for rateable purposes. The next resident was Hugh T.C. Hamilton, an auctioneer, c.1873-c.82, followed by James Gardiner (‘of J. & J. Gardiner, grain merchants, York Lane’), c.1882-c.1900, and William Russell (‘salesman’ and later ‘director of A. & S. Henry & Co. Ltd.’). In the 1901 census Mrs. Russell must have been away from home on business, for his wife, Grace, her sister and a domestic servant are noted as the occupants, whilst the house itself is recorded as a ‘first class’ dwelling with 16 rooms in use. The Russell family retained the property until c.1939, when S.D. Donnan is named as resident, followed by James C. Donnan by 1943. In c.1953 the property was acquired by Queen’s University for its Department of Physics, remaining as such until c.1965 when it transferred to the Department of Greek, with part used as the University’s Palaeoecology Laboratory by 1970, functions it appears to have retained into the early 1990s.

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, 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 16 constructed in 1852. While University Square was laid out by Charles Lanyon, the architect of the actual terrace is unconfirmed. The terrace faces south onto University Square in South Belfast 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 16 is located approximately mid way along the row of 30 former houses and is flanked by No 15 (HB26/27/021O) on the west and No 17 (HB26/27/021Q) on the east. No 16 is now used as offices for the Institute of Theology 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. There is coherence to the terrace despite elevational variations such as bay and bow windows which were added to some of the houses during the late 1800s into the early 1900s. No 16 is distinguished from the rest by its tall sliding sash windows with coloured leaded lights to the top panes of the ground floor windows. 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.