4 COLLEGE GREEN

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Two storey with attic red brick asymmetrical terraced house, built 1870-71 to designs by James Francis MacKinnon, and facing south on College Green, NE of the main quad at Queens University, Belfast. Group value with adjoining No. 2 College Green (HB26 27 032A) and College Green House (HB26 27 080); the three houses were built at the same time and they shared a coach house, harness room and stables to the rear (now converted to a restaurant). No.2 & No.4 form part of a longer Victorian terrace, which overlooks the Theological College of the Presbyterian Church (HB26 27 004) in Queens Conservation Area, Belfast. College Green runs W-E from Botanic Avenue to Rugby Road and No.2 & 4 are located near the west end. Two-storey gabled return survives to rear, complete with yard walling and gate to shared alley, accessed from College Green Mews.

Natural slate duo-pitched roof with black clay ridge tiles including rear return, hipped roofed ground floor bay and gabled dormers to front (S). First survey photographs of the building show a flat roofed dormer with metal ‘Crittall’ style window on the right side. Wide dormer to rear pitch with PVC membrane covering flat roof. Two red brick chimneys, both rectangular on plan and centred on ridge: one shared with No.2, with engineering brick corbelled ‘specials’ and six octagonal yellow clay pots; the other rebuilt in red brick with simple projecting brick coping and abutting the chimney at No.6 College Green along the party wall between the two properties. Modern roof-light to rear return.

MATERIALS -
ROOF: Natural slate, as described above
RWGS: Cast iron ogee profile gutter and circular section RWP (S) shared with No2; and uPVC (N)
WALLS: Red brick in Flemish bond (S); Brownish-red brick in English Garden Wall bond (N)
WINDOWS: Single glazed double hung timber framed sliding sash with 1/1 panes (S), and 2/2 panes (N) unless otherwise described.

South Elevation:
The south elevation is the principal façade. Asymmetrical, with entrance to left and single-storey canted bay to right at ground floor; three segmental arched windows at first floor, one centred above door and the others paired above the canted bay. Heavy overhanging eaves on scrolled corbel brackets (incised carving to side face) and twin gabled dormers to attic, each having a pair of top-hung casement windows with faux horns, decorative projecting bargeboard with spike finial and exposed rafter tails at eaves. Gable to each dormer clad in diagonal timber sheeting (painted) above windows; and side cheeks clad in slate. Bargeboard features round arched lower edge with Norman-style moulding and trefoil carving to spandrel above.
Gabled entrance projection with stone copings and finial; supported by Corinthian style columns on substantial stone plinth. Incised rosettes depicting flower heads are below apex and at eaves to gable. Wide flat arched timber framed four-panelled door with raised and fielded panels and bolection moulding; central vertical bead creates impression of double-doors; brass letterbox and octagonal door handle (likely original); plain glass fanlight with the number ‘4’ applied. Norman-style arched opening above columns; and roll-edged detail to arched door surround.
Canted bay entirely rendered in stucco above cill height, with foliated stone capitals to pilasters between windows and continuous deep cornice of wide leaf mouldings to parapet roof.
Other painted dressings, likely a combination of stone and stucco, include: projecting base plinth the chamfered top; continuous cill at ground floor windows, set flush with walling; plat band and projecting moulded string course at cill height to first floor windows and similar moulding at impost level, which continues as hood above deep surround to segmental arched heads; same moulding repeated again at attic level, lining base to aforementioned corbel brackets. Incised rosette between paired first floor window heads; and below stringcourse, jamb reveals feature stop-chamfered brick.

North Elevation:
The rear elevation faces north and overlooks a small alley shared by No.2 & 4 College Green and College Green House. The alley is accessed from College Green Mews and is overlooked on the opposite side by a former gabled stable block, now ‘Molly’s Yard’ restaurant.
As the back of house, this elevation is less formal that the principal façade, with simpler detailing. Walling is painted up to first floor cill height at return. Two courses projecting brick eaves. Two storey gabled return to right (W) with single window at attic half-landing level to far right side; and one window each on ground and first floor to left – that to first floor is replaced as a single-glazed timber casement, top- hung with precast concrete thin cill. The other two windows are as described under the ‘Materials’ heading and retain thick stone cills. Bricked up opening above left side of return is obviously later with precast concrete lintels (painted). Wide flat roofed attic dormer spans almost full-width of rear elevation and contains three timber framed single-glazed casement windows, painted timber framing between.
Gabled end of return is blank, with roughcast rendered lower half and evidence of a former opening in remaining brick soldier course at ground floor, just above line of render. Clipped eaves to roof.

East Elevation:
No.6 College Green (HB26.27.032C) abuts main building.
East face of two-storey return: informally arranged, with two windows at ground floor and a timber framed glass door; and two windows at first floor. Walling is rendered up to cill height at first floor, has single row of projecting brick headers at eaves. All the windows are replaced in timber framed single-galzed casements. The proportion of openings is also altered, with notable patches of brick in-fill and thin precast concrete cills.

West Elevation:
No.2 College Green (HB26.27.032A) abuts main building.
West face of two-storey return - Where seen, it appears largely blank, detailed similarly to east face of return and painted.

House is set back from College Green behind low red brick walling with chamfered stone coping (stone tooling marks visible through paint finish). Substantial red brick pillars, square on plan with projecting base plinth and stop-chamfered corner edges; and flush stone cap with square-based pyramidal top. These may have been rebuilt as the brick is textured in contrast to the pillars at No.2. Same pillar at far end of dwarf wall, at boundary with front of No.6 College Green. Replacement galvanised steel railings and gate, painted. Gate opens on to path and small front garden of precast concrete paving flags with two bull-nosed stone steps to entrance door. Galvanised steel grille above a small square light-well; basement walls below are a mix of unfinished concrete block and red brick.

Rear boundary retains brownish-red variegated brick walling with cambered terracotta coping (N side only). Ledged and braced sheeted timber gate (replacement) leads to shared alley. Yard surfaced in brushed concrete with two concrete steps to back door. Former stable block to opposite side of alley, aligned parallel to No.2 & 4 and contemporary with both these buildings and College Green House (HB26 27 080) - originally shared between the three.

Historical information

College Green was laid out in 1866 on what was then the semi-rural ‘Plains’ of Malone, the land east of the recently-established Queen’s College (completed 1849) and around and beyond the Union Theological College (completed 1853). The foundation of Queen’s prompted several decades of development in the vicinity, with regularly-planned streets filled with mainly High Victorian terraced housing for the professional and merchant classes moving southwards beyond the confines of a rapidly commercialising and industrialising centre of Belfast. The present nos.6-8 were the first to be built along the new thoroughfare in 1866, with nos.2-4, College Green House, (originally ‘Culfeightrin House’, rebuilt c.1882), and nos.24-26 next in 1870-71, 10-12 and 20-22 in 1876 and 14-18 in 1878. The street was originally conceived as part of Fitzroy Avenue (which stretches off eastwards beyond the intersection of what is now Rugby Road) and was considered as such for the first few decades of its existence, with the name ‘College Green’ applied only to Culfeightrin House and nos.2-8 on the 1871-73 OS map.

No.4 – Nos.2-4 College Green and Culfeightrin House were designed by Belfast architect James Francis MacKinnon for Archibald McCollum, a ‘general broker and commission agent’ of Skipper Street, both client and architect possibly sharing north Antrim connections. A tender notice was issued in mid-July 1870 and all three dwellings were completed the following year, with the finished properties sharing a coach house and stables to the rear. Culfeightrin House, which was originally occupied by McCollum himself, was (according to newspaper reports at the time) destroyed by fire in January 1882 and, left ‘a blackened ruin’. It was subsequently rebuilt, using - it would appear - at least part of the shell of the original structure, but possibly altering the internal layout.

The original occupant of no.4 was David Kemp. Before 1877 J.M. Shaw, a ‘provision merchant’ was in residence, followed before 1880 by W. Jenkins, a linen merchant, who in turn was succeeded by Robert H. Allen (‘of D. & J. Allen, printers, Corporation Street), and by a Miss Maria R. Fleming in 1896-97, who in the 1901 and 1911 censuses was living there with her sister (Harriett) and a domestic servant, with no.4 itself described as a ‘first class’ dwelling with nine rooms in use in the former year and 14 in the latter.* By at least 1918 M. Bullick, a painting contractor, had acquired the property, and his family remained there up until the late 1980s….[see HB file for subsequent history.]

The western dormer is not original, having been added at some point post c.1900, with the eastern dormer (which was originally smaller) presumably replaced at the same time, their styling suggesting this took place shortly after 1900. [check HB file for subsequent alterations to building.]

References – Primary sources
1 PRONI VAL12B/43/A/4, 14, 27, 42, 45 (1864-1930)
2 Belfast City Council Plans and drawings of Culfeigtrin House and nos.2-4 College Green, 1870
3 ‘Northern Whig’, 15 July 1870, 10 October 1876
4 Belfast Street Directories (various dates, 1870-1996)
5 OS town plans of Belfast, 1871-73, 1884
6 ‘Derry Journal’, 9 January 1882
7 Photo of College Green c.1900 [courtesy of Hearth Housing Association]
8 Census of Ireland, 1901, 1911 [online - http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/]

Secondary sources
1 Carleton, S.T., ‘The growth of South Belfast’ MA Thesis (QUB, 1967)

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

Evaluation

Two storey with attic red brick terraced house, built 1871 and facing south on College Green, NE of the main quad at Queens University, Belfast. Group value with adjoining No. 2 College Green (HB26 27 032A) and College Green House (HB26 27 080); the three houses were designed at the same time by James Francis Mackinnon and they shared a coach house, harness room and stables to the rear (now a restaurant). The principal facade is asymmetrical with projecting doorcase and canted bay to ground floor embellished with decorative stuccowork; together with heavy overhanging eaves and gabled dormers, this high quality detailing sets it apart as a good example of domestic architecture from the Victorian era. A two-storey gabled return survives to the back, complete with yard walling and gate to shared alley, accessed from College Green Mews. Despite a wide flat roofed dormer and some timber casement windows to the rear, this building retains much historic character, with most of the plan form and some interior detailing intact. Sandstone entrance steps, substantial red brick gate pillars and dwarf boundary walling to the front, in addition to rear yard walling, significantly augment its character within the Queen’s Conservation Area.