22 COLLEGE GREEN

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Three storey red brick asymmetrical terraced house, built 1866-1878 (CHECK HISTORY???) and facing south on College Green, NE of the main quad at Queens University, Belfast. Group value with adjoining No. 18 & 20 College Green (HB26 27 032H & I 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) in Queens Conservation Area, Belfast. Now used as Queen’s University’s School of Social Science, Education and Social Work, encompassing No.12 -24 (No.16 is missing), the former houses are connected internally with two-storey gabled extensions added c.2004, in place of original returns.

Natural slate duo-pitched roof with black clay ridge tiles and one red brick chimney, rectangular on plan, centred on ridge with corbelled brick copings and several octagonal yellow clay pots; shared with No.20.

MATERIALS
ROOF: Natural slate. Leaded roof to 1-storey canted bay.
RWGS: Cast metal (replacement): ogee gutter (S), half round gutter (N) & circular RWPs.
WALLS: Red brick in Flemish bond (S) with painted masonry dressings
English Garden Wall bond (N), largely rebuilt in salvaged red brick
WINDOWS: Single glazed timber framed sliding sash with 1/1 panes (S) and 2/2 panes (N); latter are replaced

South Elevation
The south elevation is the principal façade. Asymmetrical, with entrance to right (E) and single-storey canted bay to left at ground floor; two segmental arched windows at both first and second floors, diminishing in height. Entire ground floor is rendered (smooth) and painted, terminating in square-edged string course that runs between first floor cills. Deep plinth to ground floor with moulded top, painted in contrasting colour.
Timber framed four-panelled (replacement) entrance door with rounded central bead to resemble double doors and stained and leaded glass over-light, all set within projecting door case. Stop-chamfered head and jamb reveals to all ground floor openings and to outer edge of door case. Cornice hood above door, embellished with waterleaf and dart moulding; this detail is partially lost due to several layers of paint.
Moulded surrounds to first floor windows topped by ornamental decoration. Second floor windows have same surround, with corbel brackets below projecting cill. Heavy overhanging eaves supported on corbelled yellow brick ‘specials’ alternating with three courses angled yellow brick.

West and east elevations abutted by No. 20 and No.24 College Green (HB26 27 032I & K respectively). Original return removed.

North Elevation
The rear elevation faces north and is entirely rebuilt following removal of original return c. 2004. Modern glazed door to left and window to right side at ground floor; and two windows each to first and second floors, diminishing in height and aligned with ground floor openings. Soldier-coursed headers to openings (on galvanised steel lintels) and single-course corbelled brick eaves in header bond. Stone cills, painted.

Set midway along College Green, which runs between Botanic Avenue (W) and Rugby Road (E). Concrete dwarf wall and modern metal railings line boundary to S, matching adjacent properties. Small front garden surfaced in reconstituted stone pavers, ramped alongside bay window to connect to No.20; two steps to front entrance at No.22. Rear yard bound by replacement red brick wall with brick-on-edge coping to match gabled extensions at adjoining properties; wall contains flush timber double doors, which exit on to College Green Mews. A courtyard behind this wall, to rear of No.22 provides shared amenity space for No.20-24 and comprises ramped paths to ground floor entrance with red brick retaining walls topped by modern metal handrail and uprights, painted.

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.22 No.22 dates from 1876 and appears to have been built 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.

David Keay (or Keary), the ‘Manager of Marcus Ward & Co.’s printing department’, is named as the occupant in the 1880 street directory, leasing the property directly from the Corry estate. Keay appears to have died in the late 1890s and the property passed to his widow, who in the 1901 census was occupying the house with her two sons and two nurses, with the building itself noted as a ‘first class’ dwelling with ten rooms in use. The Keay family held the property up until at least 1935. By 1943 it is recorded in the street directory as a nurses’ home, managed by a Miss Freckleton with Samuel Freckleton is named as the occupant in 1964. In the later 1960s the property was acquired by Queen’s University and became offices for its Data Processing Department. In the late 1970s it was combined with nos.22-24 and became the offices of the Department of Social Studies.

The building was listed in 1979. Along with neighbouring nos.12-18 and 22-24 it was the subject of a major renovation by Queen’s in c.2004, with a large extension added to the rear and the interior integrated with that its neighbours, nos.12-14 and 20 and 24. It is now used as Queen’s University’s School of Social Science, Education and Social Work (formerly School of Life Long Learning).

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
H-. Alterations detracting from building
J. Setting
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

R. Age
X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Three-storey red-brick asymmetrical terraced house, built 1876 and facing south on College Green, NE of the main quad at Queens University, Belfast. A plainer example of a Victorian house, it has retained it's modest decorative façade, including plaster door and windows surrounds. Group value with adjoining No.18 and No.20 College Green (HB26 27 032H & I respectively), the three houses form part of a longer Victorian terrace, incorporating No.2 – 26 inclusive. Now used as Queen’s University’s School of Social Science, Education and Social Work, encompassing No.12 -24 (No.16 is missing), the former houses are connected internally with loss of original returns. This loss, coupled with internal reconfiguration diminishes the historic character to some extent. Nonetheless, 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.