14 Lower Crescent and 2-5 Crescent Gardens

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Typical red brick late Victorian two and a half storey terrace of 1898 with single storey canted bays and gabled half-dormers, consisting of four double fronted houses and another to the northern end with its entrance on the gable. Originally the terrace consisted of six properties, but that to the south end was demolished c.1983 and a large modern style brick office, (with stylised bays and dormers echoing its neighbours), built in its place. The terrace is set on a slightly N to S rise to the S of Lower Crescent and N of Upper Crescent, with each property now converted to an office / offices.

The four double-fronted houses are virtually identical, differing only in choice of window frames. To the centre of the ground floor of each is the main entrance with panelled timber door and rectangular fanlight. There is a narrow decorative moulded stringcourse above the entrance, which follows the line of the doorway lintel. The lintels are in sandstone but most are now painted. To left and right of this is a single storey canted bay with shallow hipped roof (with a variety of coverings). There is a window to each face of each bay with either a plain sash or recent PVC frame (made to resemble sash). The bays also have projecting brick eaves courses and bevelled brick or rendered bases, with lintels as before.

To the first floor are five windows arranged in two pairs with a single window to the centre. These possess lintels as before, with a string course above, as entrance. To the uppermost level are two gabled half-dormers with overhanging eaves with shaped barges and finials. Each of these has a window, as before only shorter. Just below half dormer level is a gutter course.

The rear each of these properties appears to have originally had a two storey lean-to projection, but most of these appears to have been greatly extended, with that to no.4 replaced completely with a large two storey flat-roofed addition which covers the whole of the formerly open yard.

The corner property to the N end differs from the rest in that it is somewhat larger, entered via the gable, and possesses a large (mainly) two storey gabled return. The entrance itself (to the left of centre of the ground floor of the N facing gable) has a pitched roof hood over supported on curved timber brackets. To immediate left of the entrance is a bay as rest of terrace, whilst to the immediate left of this is the N face of the two storey return, (which is flush with the gable), where there are two tall sash windows, with a further two smaller sash windows to its first floor. To the gable itself there are three unevenly spaced windows to the first floor, with that to far right considerably taller than the others. To the uppermost floor is a small (ish) window. All of these gable windows are sash, apart from that aforementioned to far right on first floor.

The N elevation is the same as that to the double-fronted properties, but without the entrance and with four windows to the first floor as opposed to five.

The gabled roofs of the houses are slated and there is a row of large shared red brick chimneypots. Some properties have Velux windows and flat-roofed dormers to the rear.

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 end 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.14 Lower Crescent and 2-5 Crescent Gardens
This terrace was built in 1898 on what were formerly garden plots belonging to the householders of Upper and Lower Crescent. Originally all the properties were private dwellings, with the larger property to the N end (no.14, then called ‘Irene’) housing two apartments (occupied by a Rev C. Seaver and a John T. McConnell in 1899).

By 1920 no.14 had become a nursing home, and remained as such until the 1960s, when it become a Health & Social Services Board office. The rest of the properties in the terrace remained dwelling houses well into the 1970s, but by the later 1980s had all been converted to offices. No.6 (to the S end) was demolished in c.1983 and replaced with the present larger office block.

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

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

Located on the northern edge of the university area a typical and relatively plain red brick late Victorian two and a half storey terrace of 1898 with single storey canted bays and gabled half-dormers. It consists of four double fronted houses and another slightly larger one to the northern end with its entrance on the gable. Originally the terrace consisted of six properties, but that to the south end was demolished c.1983 and a large modern style brick office, (with stylised bays and dormers echoing its neighbours), built in its place. All of the properties are now converted to offices.