9 MOUNT CHARLES

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Three-storey with attic mid-terraced brick townhouse with pitched roof, constructed to the designs of Alexander MacAlister in 1859. One of a terrace of nine, No 9 is the fourth house from right fronting onto Mount Charles. 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 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 was converted to the university senior staff common room in the late 1970s.

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
Windows: Timber sliding sash with horns to GF & FF, no horns to SF, single-glazed (possibly original)(N) / same without horns to rear (S) where seen (appear original). Rooflights (type not seen from street & boarded over internally)

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 a single rooflight at attic level (type not visible from street). All windows to front are single-glazed timber sliding sash and appear original; ground and first floor windows have horns, no horns to second floor windows. Windows to the canted bay and first floor level are horizontally split 2/2. Second floor windows are 8/8 and window to right side has a modern plastic vent installed within top panes. 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 to the right 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 two shallow replacement concrete steps with original stone dwarf wall each side. Remnants of iron boot scraper visible to right side. The timber four-panelled door itself appears to be original; original brass handle and keyhole remains but rest of ironmongery is replaced, letterbox covered over.
Pitched natural Welsh slate roof with black clay ridge tiles. Brick chimney stacks to right and left (possibly original), shared with Nos 7 & 11, centred on ridge with corbelled detailing and circular clay pots (number unknown). Cast iron downpipe from cast iron ogee guttering to right side of canted bay. Metal pipe from parapet of bay discharging to separate narrow cast iron downpipe to right side of bay.

Side Elevation (E):
Fully abutted by No 11 (HB26/27/021E).

Side Elevation (W):
Fully abutted by No 7 (HB26/27/021C).

Rear Elevation (S):
Three storey facade abutted by an original three storey return on the right side built at half-landing height. The rear yard is enclosed by the rear wall of the house, return on right side, return of No 7 on left side and three storey yard wall to University Street. Pitched natural Welsh slate roof to main block with one rooflight to left side, hipped natural Welsh slate roof with black clay ridge tiles to return. Small twentieth century brick chimney to right side of rear return with modern clay pots.

Rear yard partially seen through false window at second floor level from University Street:
Original second floor window to left side of main rear elevation is altered to form a door opening, now boarded over and metal fire escape landing visible. Wall vent installed over replacement concrete lintel. Rest of yard not seen.

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 boarded over with a painted timber panel. To the right is a 6/6 window (possibly original) with wrought iron bars attached to the reveals and painted stone cills. Only the horizontal sash bar remains, all other glazing bars and glass is no longer extant. Opening boarded over from inside. Diminutive square window opening to right side now infilled with metal vent. First floor has false multi-pane window frame (no glass) to left side (wrought iron bars attached to the reveals) and 6/6 window on right with clear single glazed panes, boarded over with timber paneling on inside face. First floor openings have shallow arched heads. Second floor level has false multi-pane window frame to left side (all glazing bars gone with exception of top three, no glass) and 6/6 window on right with obscure glazing; bottom right pane smashed, boarded over to inside, heads are straight. Cast iron gutter above painted rendered eaves band.

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.9 The original tenant appears to have been Thomas Kennedy, followed – after a period of vacancy - by James Wallace (‘brick manufacturer’) in c.1869, who in turn was succeeded (after another period of vacancy), by a Mrs. Allen c.1882, Hugh McCaul (‘manager’) c.1889, and O’Connell Shaw (‘computer of rates, Harbour Office’) in c.1894.
In the 1901 census, Mr. Shaw is noted as occupying no.9 with his two grown-up daughters, two sisters and a niece with the house itself noted as a ‘first class’ dwelling with 11 rooms in use. Francis Atkinson was resident by 1906 and remained there until c.1910, with the property recorded as vacant at the time of the 1911 census. The occupant in 1918 is noted as A. De Muelemeester (‘Professor of Music’), and he remained there until at least 1943, followed by Harry Gregory (‘electrician’) by 1951, Austin Roddy (‘manufacturers’ agent’) by 1960.

From c.1970 the occupant is not recorded (the directories merely stating that the building was ‘occupied’). In the later 1970s (post-1974) the property and its neighbour to the west (no.7) had been acquired by Queen’s University and became University’s ‘Senior Employees’ Club’, the interior witnessing major remodelling in the process. Despite an application to convert both to student accommodation in 1996, they appear to have carried on as a social club until c.2004, and since then both have remained vacant.

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)

Online sources
1 Dictionary of Irish Architects - http://www.dia.ie/architects/view/3712/MACALISTER%2C+ALEXANDER#tab_works [accessed 2017.08.23]

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
Z. Rarity
X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Three-storey with attic mid-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 (Nos 3-19 HB26/27/021A-I), No 9 is the fourth house from right fronting onto Mount Charles. 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 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, by the mid 1970s it was acquired by Queen's University and used as the staff senior common room along with No 7 adjacent. Despite interior alterations, some original historic detailing survives. The exterior retains much original character, proportions and detailing with its single storey canted bay and deeply recessed doorway with ionic columns accessed directly from the street, 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.