10 COLLEGE GREEN

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Two storey with attic red brick asymmetrical terraced house, built 1876 and facing south on College Green, NE of the main quad at Queens University, Belfast. Group value with adjoining No.12 and No.14 College Green (HB26 27 032F & G respectively); the three houses form part of a longer Victorian terrace incorporating No.2 – 26 inclusive, which overlooks the Theological College of the Presbyterian Church (HB26 27 004) within Queens Conservation Area, Belfast. Now used as offices, No.10 has a two-storey gabled return built at half-landing level to the rear, extended c.1989.

Natural slate duo-pitched roof with black clay ridge tiles and two red brick chimneys, both rectangular on plan, centred on ridge with corbelled brick copings and several octagonal yellow clay pots; one shared with No.12 and the other abutting a similar chimney at No.8 College Green. Wall-head dormer with hipped roof to front (S) pitch and gabled wall-head dormer to rear pitch.

MATERIALS
ROOF: Natural slate, including dormers and rear return. Leaded roof to 1-storey canted bay.
RWG (S): Parapet gutter (S), not seen but probably lead-lined; cast iron RWP (S)
RWG (N): Cast metal half-round gutter and circular section RWP (N); ditto return. uPVC soil pipes.
WALLS: Red clay brick in Flemish bond (S); English Garden Wall bond (N) with rendered return
WINDOWS: Single glazed timber framed double hung 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 (E) and single-storey canted bay to right at ground floor; two equal–sized square-headed windows at first floor with moulded string course forming cill; and wall head dormer to attic - latter interrupts heavy eaves supported on scrolled brackets above deep plain frieze and moulded string course, all painted. Ground floor canted bay and entrance door both have painted surrounds – as other painted dressings, these are probably combined stucco and dressed stone below paint. Deep, continuous base plinth with sub-floor vents and moulded top. Bay windows have stop-chamfered detail to head and jambs; jambs extend to plinth with deep bull-nosed stone cills recessed between. Decorative round and diamond shaped incisions featuring abstract thistle and clover motifs above bay windows. Square headed timber framed four-panelled replacement entrance door with plain glass fanlight in round-arched opening with roll-edge detail; all set within projecting surround with moulded cornice hood and incised roundels, similar to bay. First floor windows have moulded surrounds with cornice hood and diamond-head moulding projecting over row of dentils. Paired windows within attic dormer have canted heads with stop-chamfered lintels to match, shared projecting cill and 2/2 panes.

West and east elevations abutted by No. 8 and No.12 College Green (HB26 27 032D & F respectively). Two-storey return is fenestrated to E, with informally arranged openings - all windows are modern timber framed top hung casement. Single door to ground floor at far left side, also modern: timber framed and fully glazed. Clipped eaves to gable end, with painted timber eaves board along E & W sides. Modern roof-lights set along west slope of roof. Along blank W Elevation, lower half of wall painted white and near to main house, concealed by single storey L-shaped lean-to at No8 College Green.

North Elevation
The rear elevation faces north and overlooks a shared alley, College Green Mews. Walling is red brick in English Garden Wall bond with brick soldier coursed headers, thick projecting stone cills and rendered reveals to openings (both painted). Two-storey gabled return to right (E) with single opening above return that contains timber framed sliding sash window with 2/2 panes, likely to be original. Left of return, main building has one opening each at ground, first and second floor These windows are timber framed single-glazed sliding sashes and likely original: round-arched timber at second floor with 1/1 pane; and flat arched at ground and first floors with 2/2 panes. At first floor, evidence of a further opening, probably later, with precast concrete lintel, in-filled with salvaged brick.

Set midway along College Green, which runs between Botanic Avenue (E) and Rugby Road to (W). Concrete dwarf wall and modern metal railings line boundary to S and enclose small front garden paved in brushed concrete. Entrance path graded to meet threshold at front door; paved in brick-coloured precast concrete pavers. Gabled return extends full length of rear yard to N boundary with College Green Mews; remainder of yard bound by rendered walling with vertically sheeted timber gate.

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.10 Nos.10-12 were built in 1876 by the estate of the late Robert Corry, the Belfast timber merchant who had developed part of College Green in the mid-1860s, and previous to this in the 1840s and 1850s, Upper and Lower Crescent. The identity of the architect is uncertain. The lease of both was obtained by James Watkins (referred to in contemporary directories simply as a ‘merchant’), who initially lived at no.12, subletting no.10 to William Rutherford, a commercial traveller’. Mr. Rutherford remained there until c.1893 when he appears to have exchanged the lease of no.10 for no.6 a few doors to the west, with the occupant of the latter, a Mrs. Blackwood, becoming the new tenant at no.10. Mrs Blackwood stayed on until c.1898-99, when she was followed by George Dunlop, another commercial traveller (in the ‘tea trade’), who in the 1901 census is recorded as occupying the house with his wife, Mary, their two infant children and two domestic servants, with the building itself noted as a ‘first class’ dwelling with 10 rooms in use. By 1907 Hector Gullan, (‘superintendent of works, Belfast Corporation’) is listed as the householder. He moved out c.1909 and was followed in 1911 by Allan Forrester Parker, a Lancashire-born ‘Superintendent - Post Office’, who in that year’s census was living there with his wife, Grace Smith Parker, their two infant children, his father, Edward Parker, and a domestic servant. Mr Parker is named as the householder up until at least 1943, but by 1951 the property had been split into three flats. It remained as such until 1987 when the property was sold to the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy, who converted it to training centre in 1989, extending the return in the process.

References – Primary sources
1 PRONI VAL12B/43/A/4, 14, 27, 42, 45 (1864-1930)
4 Belfast Street Directories (various dates, 1870-1996)
5 OS town plans of Belfast, 1871-73, 1884
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
J. Setting
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

R. Age
S. Authenticity
X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Two storey with attic red brick asymmetrical Victorian terraced house, built 1876 and facing south on College Green, NE of the main quad at Queens University, Belfast. Group value with adjoining No.12 and No.14 College Green (HB26 27 032F & G respectively), the three houses form part of a longer Victorian terrace, incorporating No.2 – 26. Now used as offices, unlike the other buildings in the group, No10 retains its two-storey rear return, extended c1989 with replacement windows likely added at the same time. Inside, the original domestic scale has survived together with some historic detailing and the plan form remains legible to a certain degree. The significance of this building lies primarily in its group value and in the integrity of the overall composition of College Green, which is amongst the most striking terraces in Queens Conservation Area.