3 MOUNT CHARLES

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Three-storey with attic end-terrace brick townhouse with pitched roof, constructed to the designs of Alexander MacAlister in 1859. One of a terrace of nine, No 3 is the first house in the terrace, flanked on west side by former No 1 Mount Charles & 38-40 University Road (HB26/27/006) and on the east by No 5 Mount Charles (HB26/27/021B). Rectangular on plan with projecting return to rear, the terrace faces north and lines the south side of 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 rear return and former yard back onto University Street with a tall wall with false windows at high level, giving the appearance of a three storey facade. Originally constructed as a townhouse, it is now university offices and is connected internally with the former No.1 Mount Charles on ground, first and second floor levels.

Materials:
Roof : Natural Welsh slate with black clay ridge tiles
Walls : Red brick (Flemish bond) & painted render. Appears to be lime pointing.
Rainwater goods : Cast Iron & cast aluminium
Windows : Timber sliding sash, single-glazed (likely original).
Modern rooflights to front (N) & conservation-type to rear (S)

Front Elevation (N):
Three storey brick facade built in Flemish bond with a single storey canted rendered bay on right and doorway on left at ground floor level. Two windows above on each of first and second floors, and two rooflights at attic level; one on right side is modern and one on left not seen at time of survey. All windows to the front are single-glazed timber sliding sash with horns (ground and first floor windows) and are likely original. Plastic window vent to top central pane of bay. Windows to the canted bay and first floor level are horizontally split 2/2. Second floor windows are 8/8. First and second floor window heads are straight with splayed brick soldiers. Continuous painted stone cill course to first and second floors. Deep painted rendered plinth to base and similar frieze beneath eaves.
The canted bay is painted render with moulded plaster detailing, the lower section under cill being formed by the deep plinth. Flat roof with roofing felt over projecting cornice.
The doorway has an elliptical arched head with brick voussoirs and moulded plaster reveal, deeply recessed with ionic columns to each side on raised moulded plaster panelled bases. The columns support a moulded plaster entablature with plain fanlight over. The cornice, columns and bases sit on top of a replacement concrete step with dwarf wall either side. The timber four-panelled door itself appears to be original. Ironmongery replaced. Letter box covered over.
Pitched natural Welsh slate roof with black clay ridge tiles. Flat painted stone verge to right side. Brick chimney stack to right side (appears to have been repointed and possibly rebuilt), centred on ridge with corbelled detailing and seven circular clay pots.
Cast metal ogee gutter. Small metal pipe from flat roof of canted bay, no hopper or downpipe from bay.

Side Elevation (E):
Fully abutted by No 5 Mount Charles (HB26/27/021B).

Side Elevation (W):
Abutted by former No 1 Mount Charles & Nos 38-40 University Road (HB26/27/006). Exposed section of gable elevation onto Mount Charles has no openings. Gable elevation is painted render and is only interrupted by the cill courses and quoins which return onto the gable from the front elevation.

Rear Elevation (S):
Three storey facade abutted by an original three storey return on the right side built at half-landing height. Former rear yard to left has been infilled on both ground and first floors with a flat roof and is now internal. The only windows exposed to rear are at second floor level (8/8 with Georgian wired glass) and at half landing level on right side, above the roof of the return (smaller 8/8). Both windows to rear are single-glazed timber sliding sash with horns and are possibly replacements. Painted stone cills.
Pitched natural Welsh slate roof to main block with conservation-type rooflight to left side, hipped natural Welsh slate roof with black clay ridge tiles to return. Flat painted stone verge to left side.
The elevation of the return facing into the yard is only exposed at second floor level and has a single opening, a fixed single pane window which looks onto the flat roof of the former yard. The roof has three twentieth century raised square rooflights. Small brick chimney (likely twentieth century) to right side of rear return with modern clay pots.
The three storey high facade onto University Street is constructed of dark brown brick in Flemish bond with a rendered plinth and eaves band. The replacement yard door on left is painted timber paneling with replacement metal louvred fanlight beneath a semi-circular head with brick voussoirs. To the right is a 6/6 window (possibly original) with replacement Georgian wired glass and wrought iron bars attached to the reveals and painted stone cills. Diminutive square window opening, bricked up to right hand side. First floor has a 6/6 window with obscured Georgian wired glass to left side and 6/6 window on right (top middle pane with window vent). First floor openings have shallow arched heads. Second floor level same as first floor, except heads are straight. Cast iron gutter above painted rendered eaves band at rear return.

The front of each house in the terrace is accessed directly from the tree-lined pavement of Mount Charles while the rear is accessed directly from the pavement of University Street via the yard door.

Historical information

The granting of perpetual leases - and eventually outright sales of land - by the Donegall estate from the mid-1820s onwards, opened up attractive plots along the Malone Ridge to developers. Thus the following decades were to witness a number of relatively large scale building projects on the northern lower slopes of the Ridge, along and branching off from what was then ‘Old Malone Road’, (now University Road), as far south as the newly laid out Botanic Gardens. This movement intensified with the establishment of Queen’s College in 1845 and by the end of the 1850s the area was characterised by large rows of graceful terraces, largely early Victorian in date, but late-Georgian in style.

Mount Charles was part of this whole expansion. It is located within a trapezoidal plot set between what was formerly ‘Old Malone Road’ (the present University Road) and Albion Lane (the forerunner of Botanic Avenue), that belonged to a pre-1832 house –probably dating from c.1770 - recorded in the 1837 valuation as a two-storey residence. In its original form the street consisted of the present nos.2-6, built in 1842, with all three accessed by a short private lane opening off the main road. The old pre-1830s house was demolished c.1850 and in 1854 the new lane was adapted to serve no.1 to the south, (which was built as part of the development of nos.38-40 University Road), and extended further eastwards agin in 1859 with the building of nos.3-19 and 8-16, with nos.18-24 following in 1869. Despite all of these new arrivals, the street - unlike its near neighbours University Street, University Square and Upper and Lower Crescent, - did not become a public thoroughfare, maintaining its private (gated) character, even after the building of nos.26-50 in 1892-94 linked it directly through to Botanic Avenue.

Nos.3-19 This three-storey terrace, very much in the late Georgian style which characterised much of the early / mid Victorian development in the University area, was built in 1859-60 by Bernard (‘Barney’) Hughes (1805-78), the Armagh-born baker who eventually became Belfast’s master baker and the owner of Ireland’s largest milling business. The designer was 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. The properties were previewed in The Dublin Builder of 1 May 1859, with the writer describing them as ‘not large’, their plots ‘too confined for our notion of how towns should be built, but the proprietor appears to be sparing no expense to render then durable and elegant dwellings for those whose aspirations do not go beyond paying £45 or £50 per annum rent… . There is a fashion in everything. Bay windows seem as much the rage now as hoops or crinoline! All Mr. Hughes’ houses have their parlours enlarged and their exteriors decorated with this appendage and fitted up with arrangements for hot and cold baths, sunk and covered ashpits in the yards, and everything necessary for comfort and convenience. The workmanship alone is contracted for, the proprietor supplying all the materials and the whole superintended by Mr. McAlister. The nine houses on the south side have the peculiarity of a double frontage, the returns extending to University Street, with the yard wall in the same street built up to an equal height with the windows and cornice above. This has the advantage of making the return bedroom one of the most cheerful and desirable in the house, which is far from usual.’

No.3 The original tenant was John McAdam, with Mrs McAdam listed as the householder from 1863. She was followed by Thomas Wallace (‘broker’) in c.1867, a Mrs. Hannah in c.1874, A.J. McMullan (‘Ulster Bank’) in c.1879, Nelson Cheyne (of ‘Cheyne Brothers handkerchief manufacturers, Franklin Street’) c.1886, B.P. Davidson (‘commission, insurance, and general agent’) c.1894 and Capt. Edward Kerby RN in c.1898. In the 1901 census the now retired, Warwickshire-born, Capt. Kerby in noted as living there with his Greek-born wife, Jane, and two grown-up children (all, incidently, also noted as sailors), a house guest and a domestic servant, with the building itself noted as a ‘first class’ dwelling with 11 rooms in use. The Capt. Died c.1906 and in the 1911 census Mrs. Kerby (who actually writes her surname as 'Kerly') is recorded as occupying the house with her daughter, Elizabeth. Miss E.J. Orson is listed as the occupant in the 1918, remaining there until at least the mid-1932 after which the property was divided into flats with eight occupants recorded as living there in the 1943 and seven in 1951. At some point in the late 1970s the building was converted to office use by the Open University and integrated with no.1 Mount Charles and nos.38-40 University Road and remaining as such into the 1990s, after which the whole group was acquired by Queen’s University.

Primary Sources
1 OS maps and town plans, 1832, 1843, 1858, 1871-73, 1883-84, 1896
2 ‘Belfast and Province of Ulster Street Directory’, (Belfast News-Letter, Belfast), various dates from 1861 to 1996
3 PRONI VAL/12/B/43/A/4 General Valuation of Ireland - Annual Revisions (1865-1881)
4 PRONI VAL/12/B/43/A/36 General Valuation of Ireland - Annual Revisions (1897 - 1905)
5 Census of Ireland, 1901, 1911 [available online]
6 PRONI VAL/12/B/43/P/3 General Valuation of Ireland - Annual Revisions (1906-1915)
7 PRONI VAL/12/B/43/P/6 General Valuation of Ireland - Annual Revisions (1916-1930)

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)

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
S. Authenticity
V. Authorship
X. Local Interest
Z. Rarity

Evaluation

Three-storey with attic end-terraced brick townhouse with pitched roof, constructed to the designs of Alexander MacAlister in 1859. The land was developed by Bernard (‘Barney’) Hughes (1805-78), a noted philanthropist and Armagh-born baker who eventually became Belfast’s master baker and the owner of Ireland’s largest milling concern. One of a terrace of nine, No 3 is the first house in the terrace, flanked on west side by former No 1 Mount Charles & 38-40 University Road (HB26/27/006) and on the east by No 5 Mount Charles (HB26/27/021B). The terrace faces north and lines the south side of Mount Charles, a tree-lined street which runs between Botanic Avenue on the east side and University Road on the west. The rear return and former yard (now internal) back onto University Street with a tall wall with false windows at high level, giving the appearance of a three storey facade. Now in use as university offices, there has been some alteration to the layout but the staircase survives in its original position. The exterior retains much original character, proportions and detailing with its single storey canted bay and deeply recessed doorway with ionic columns, details which are repeated throughout the terraced row. The terrace has strong value as a group (Nos 3-19 Mount Charles – HB26/27/021A-I) and the dual aspect onto both Mount Charles and University Street, a strong design feature carried out with much success, adds significant character to its setting within the Queen’s Conservation Area.