121 UNIVERSITY STREET BELFAST

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

One of a pair of late Victorian, two-bay, three storey with attic, redbrick terraced houses with Dumfries red sandstone dressings, constructed between 1890 and 1893 by architect William J Fennell, located on University Street at its junction with Sandhurst Road, near Queen’s University in South Belfast.

University Street is one of the main roads linking the Ormeau Road in the E with the University area to the W, characterised by red brick terraces. There is a 20th C hotel building opposite and All Saints Church (HB26/27/054) to the immediate NW, also by WJ Fennell.
No.121 is set back from the pavement behind brick dwarf walling with painted/rendered sandstone coping and piers. Replacement railings.

Redbrick Flemish bond walling; full-height projecting canted bay to N elevation.
Pitched natural slate roof with terracotta ridge tiles; natural slate hipped polygonal roof to canted bay with terracotta ridge tiles and finial.
Tall redbrick chimney with cornices and clay pots on W boundary with No.119.

Original windows have been replaced with timber sliding sash double-glazing throughout and there are 20th Century rooflights at attic level.
Sandstone stringcourse at cill level and sandstone dressings to all openings on N facade.
Rainwater goods are painted metal. PVC soil stacks to rear.

Front elevation (N)
Two-bay façade with three-storey projecting canted bay on right side and front entrance on left; sandstone moulded architrave to front doorway with decorative carved sandstone pediment with a crest depicting a pelican standing on a rose branch with the motto ‘PROBITAS FONS HONORIS’ (Integrity is the fountain of honour) carved on scroll below; smaller carved pediment to first floor window above doorway and to centre bay of first floor bay with carved ‘WG’ motif.

Original six-panel bolection moulded timber front door with segmental overlight; original Victorian tiles to base of steps, modern tiled steps with modern handrails to each side leading to front door, and installed stairlift to left side.
Segmental heads to windows on two lower floors and straight heads to second floor.
Chunky sandstone brackets to projecting sandstone eaves cornice.

Gable elevation (E)
Fully abutted by No.123 University Street.

Gable elevation (W)
Fully abutted by No.119 University Street (HB26/27/056A).

Rear elevation (S)
Rear return to right side with single storey infill at ground floor level.
Rear wall of main block has painted brickwork to ground floor level, and brick above; splayed brick voussoir heads to first floor windows and arched voussoirs to large half landing window opening above. Single window opening at high level on E wall of return.

Setting:
Located on the S side of University Street, in close proximity to Queen's University. University Street is one of the main roads linking the Ormeau Road in the E with the University area to the W, characterised by red brick terraces. There is a 20th C hotel building opposite and All Saints Church (HB26/27/054) to the immediate NW, also by WJ Fennell.
The building is set back slightly from street level behind brick dwarf walling with painted/rendered sandstone coping and piers. Replacement railings.

Materials:
Roof: natural slate
RWG: painted metal
Walling: Red brick in Flemish bond, with Dumfries red sandstone dressings
Windows: Replacement timber sliding sash with double-glazed units

Historical information

121 University Street was constructed as one of a pair (with 119 University Street) between 1890 and 1893 to designs by noted Belfast architect W J Fennell. The building is adorned with sandstone reliefs that identify the owner/builder as William Gabbey, a well-regarded local contractor.

Original plans held by Belfast City Council are signed by the architect W J Fennell and dated 1890. The Northern Whig of 2nd September 1890 confirms that plans had been approved for two houses in University Street and Sandhurst Road for William Gabbey. The pair of dwellings enter valuation records in 1893 (at £45 each), suggesting there was a short delay in the construction of the dwelling houses.

The architect, William John Fennell (d.1923) was a distinguished designer of church buildings, domestic dwellings and schools, his most well-known works in Belfast being the Water Commissioner’s Office (1883), 68-70 Royal Avenue (1885), Cooke Centenary Church (1890-92), Mater Infirmorum Hospital (1894-1900), Cushendall Presbyterian Church (1899-90), Whitla Medical Institute (1902) and Harding Memorial School (1911-13). His domestic work includes a number of suburban villas in Belfast, largely in the Malone area, and several of which are substantial semi-detached pairs. Fennell was a member of the Royal Irish Academy and a Fellow of the RIAI, as well as being a founder member of the RSUA. He was to have a significant architectural impact on this part of University Street, also subsequently designing All Saints Church (1897-8), which lies diagonally opposite the current pair of dwelling houses.

The pair of dwelling houses was built by William Gabbey, well-known Belfast building contractor who also had a timber mill in Hope Street (from at least the late 1870s) where he produced ‘mouldings wrought to any design’ and joinery for building construction using ‘most improved machinery’. His obituary recorded that his houses were ‘noted for the excellence of their finish and their workmanship’ and when number 119 was being advertised for sale in 1921, almost 30 years later and long after his death, William Gabbey’s name was still being used as a selling point. Gabbey worked with Fennell on at least one other occasion, constructing the two-acre Cullingtree factory (now gone) for W W Cleland, packaging manufacturers, completed in 1904.

Gabbey had built up a considerable reputation by the time the present house was constructed as one of the most ‘eminent’ building contractors in Belfast. Gabbey lived in Sandhurst Street and then at ‘Princess Gardens’, in University Street, and built numerous houses (and occasionally shops and commercial premises) in the area known as ‘The Plains’ of Belfast in the period 1870 to 1906, as well as elsewhere in Belfast and further afield (notably Dungannon). He is known to have constructed houses in University Street, Magdala Street, Fitzroy Avenue and Agincourt Street and perhaps most notably a terrace of four houses in Botanic Avenue to designs by Vincent Craig (one of which is now listed HB26/27/047) and the terrace in which he himself lived ‘Princess Gardens’ (his former home, constructed c1880, is now listed HB26/27/046D). The gable end of the current dwelling features a double-height bow with similarities to full-height bows on the Princess Gardens dwellings. Gabbey also built the adjacent terraces to the current dwellings, in Sandhurst Road and 109-117 University Street. His son and heir to the business, William C Gabbey, lived at number 117.

Gabbey began to build a significant business from the 1870s and in the summer of 1879, newspapers reported that his workers had been treated to a day trip to Newcastle the assembled company (including ‘wives and sweethearts’) amounting to 300 people. Gabbey’s success was maintained through the following decades and he was noted to be one of the seven main importers of roofing slates in the city in 1896. He was selected as a government expert in building matters, following an accident at Falls Foundry in 1903, and retained this position until his death in 1906. It was said at the time of his appointment that ‘no gentleman is more frequently selected as arbitrator and expert in building matters’.

The initials ‘WG’ are carved into the stonework (red Scottish sandstone) over the first-floor windows of both houses and a crest and motto used by William Gabbey are carved above the doorways. The crest depicts a pelican standing on a rose branch with the motto ‘Probitas Fons Honoris’ meaning ‘Integrity is the fountain of honour’. Fairbairn’s Book of Crests identifies the pelican and rose branch and the motto as belonging to ‘Moses Gubbay Esq of Poona East India’. It is unclear whether William Gabbey was genuinely descended from Gubbay or had simply chosen to use part of the coat of arms belonging to a man with a similar name.

Although William Gabbey put a clear visual stamp on both buildings, it does not appear that he ever lived in either of them. The houses are both recorded in street directories/valuation records as vacant until 1896, when they were both let to tenants and 121 acquired the name “Ravensdale”. The first tenant recorded as resident in number 121 is Thomas H McComb, grain merchant and flour importer, the McComb family living at the house until the 1930s. The valuation officer’s notebook of 1907 carries the information that McComb was the brother-in-law of William Gabbey (being married to his sister Victoria), and street directories show that McComb’s premises were on the upper floor of the address in Hope Street where Gabbey’s saw mill was located.

The Belfast Revaluation of 1900 notes that the three-storey dwelling had a total of six sitting rooms and bedrooms and one attic room, slightly smaller than its neighbour at 119, and was fitted with gas and a bathroom. The valuer estimates the cost of construction at £732. The 1901 census records Thomas McComb, corn and flour merchant, born in County Louth, resident in the house with his wife, one-year-old daughter and a domestic servant.

William Gabbey senior was tragically killed in a railway accident at Carnalea Station in 1906, and his son, William C Gabbey, took over his business and his property in University Street. Gabbey’s widow, Scottish-born Jessie, moved in with her daughter and son-in-law at number 121 and is recorded in the 1911 census, with her daughter, granddaughter and a general domestic servant from County Cavan, although Thomas McComb was absent at the time of the census. Gabbey’s widow continued to live at the house until her death in 1916.

From 1912, the McComb family were letting out furnished rooms in the house, initially advertising them as suitable for ‘two or three gentlemen dining out’. By 1913, access to a piano was also being offered and by 1914 full board and ‘moderate terms’. The regular adverts, continued intermittently until at least 1922.

After the McComb family left the house in the early 1930s, the house fell vacant for a period and the valuer’s binder of 1935 noted that the house had at that time been vacant for 3½ years ‘partly owing to a dispute as to ownership’. The valuer judged the house to be ‘well built’ and in good condition and the accommodation is listed as two receptions, six bedrooms, an attic room, kitchen, scullery, two pantries, a lavatory and bathroom with hot and cold water. The current plan form of the building differs slightly from the valuer’s plan of 1933, an extension having been added to the rear of the dwelling since that time.

In 1937, the house was to be sold pursuant to a court order, as the result of a legal case, and by 1939 valuation records give Edward Collins as the owner. During the war, from c1941, the house was briefly occupied by the government, similarly to its neighbour at 119, but the use the building was put to is not recorded and by June 1943 it had become an employment agency for domestic staff, run by Mrs Dempsey, who remained in occupation until the early 1950s. The next occupant was Miss Eileen McManus who was resident until the mid 1960s when the house was advertised to let with planning permission for office use.

Businesses that occupied the former dwelling in the 60s, 70s and 80s included Grolier Publishing Company, a US-based publisher of general encyclopedias; Monson, Robinson & Co Ltd who produced self-adhesive labels and Sunshield Ltd, producers of Scotchtint window film. However, the majority of occupants in this period were connected with construction as architects or engineers, in a similar way to the neighbouring house, number 119. Dr I G Doran, was a consulting engineer who worked with architect John McGeagh on the new library building at Queen’s University, and appears to have been at the house temporarily, perhaps while working on the library. Bunyan, Meyer & Partners were a Surrey-based firm of consulting engineers who opened a Belfast office in the late 1970s, carrying out minor construction projects in the area around the city. Cooke and Kettyle are a firm of Quantity Surveyors who have worked on a number of projects including the Rail Transport gallery at the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum.

Delany, McVeigh and Pike (now O’Mahony Pike) were a Dublin-based firm of architects, engineers and planning consultants, responsible for numerous buildings, particularly schools, housing and business premises in the Republic of Ireland in the 70s and 80s. James Pike in particular was known as ‘a pioneer in Irish housing’ and was awarded the RIAI Gandon medal for lifetime achievement in architecture in 2017, being one of the first to introduce system-building in the 1960s. From their northern office the firm appear to have been involved in a small number of projects including the construction of a factory in Newry. The former dwelling was also the office of J Wilson Robinson, architect and former rugby player in the 80s. Wilson Robinson had been an architect for the Housing Executive in the 1970s before moving into consultancy.

In the late 80s and 90s the offices were taken over by Belfast Microfilm Bureau and then by K R Graphics. A series of planning applications were made between 2008 and 2015, with the object of converting the premises from offices into visitor accommodation, which remains its use today (2025).

This substantial Victorian gothic semi-detached villa, with classical details, is the work of a distinguished architect and a prominent builder. The building is enhanced by the use of sandstone in dressings, decoratively carved over the front door and windows, the monogram and crest linking the house to its original owner and builder William Gabbey. The attention to decorative detail is maintained in the interior where high-quality original cornices and joinery have survived, no doubt formed from timbers that were cut by the steam saws in Gabbey’s Hope Street mill. The links to William Gabbey, who lived nearby and built some of the area’s most prominent dwellings, also add to the building’s local interest.

References:
Primary Sources:
1. PRONI OS/6/1/61/1 – First Edition Ordnance Survey Map (1832-3)
2. PRONI OS/6/1/61/2 – Second Edition Ordnance Survey Map (1858)
3. PRONI OS/6/1/61/3 – Third Edition Ordnance Survey Map (1901-2)
4. PRONI OS/6/1/61/4 – Fourth Edition Ordnance Survey Map (1938)
5. PRONI VAL/12/B/43/A/14 Valuation Revision Book 1882-1896
6. PRONI VAL/12/B/43A/27 Valuation Revision Book 1897-1905
7. PRONI VAL/12/B/43A/42 Valuation Revision Book 1906-1915
8. PRONI VAL/12/B/43A/45 Valuation Revision Book 1916-1930
9. PRONI VAL/12/A/7/E/26 Valuer’s Notebook 1907
10. PRONI VAL/7/B/3/14 Belfast Revaluation 1900
11. PRONI VAL/3/C/3/6 First Northern Ireland General Revaluation 1933-1957
12. PRONI VAL/3/D/3/1/C/66 Valuers RV Binder 1933-1957
13. Belfast Street Directories 1890-1995
14. Census of Ireland 1901, 1911
15. Belfast Newsletter, 3rd November 1874
16. Northern Whig, 2nd October 1878
17. Building News, 17th January 1879
18. Belfast Newsletter, 20th June 1879
19. Northern Whig, 31st July 1880
20. Belfast Telegraph, 8th November 1881
21. Northern Whig, 14th April 1882
22. Building News, 11th April 1890
23. Northern Whig, 2nd September 1890
24. Belfast Newsletter, 12th September 1893
25. Northern Whig, 3rd October 1903
26. Belfast Newsletter, 24th April 1906
27. Belfast Newsletter, 4th October 1912
28. Belfast Newsletter, 1st April 1913
29. Belfast Newsletter, 5th September 1914
30. Belfast Weekly Telegraph, 5th February 1916
31. Belfast Newsletter, 12th February 1919
32. Belfast Newsletter, 20th March 1919
33. Belfast Weekly Telegraph, 12th April 1919
34. Belfast Newsletter, 25th November 1919
35. Belfast Newsletter, 10th December 1919
36. Belfast Newsletter, 11th December 1919
37. Belfast Newsletter, 31st May 1921
38. Belfast Newsletter, 6th September 1922
39. Northern Whig, 28th May 1926
40. Belfast Newsletter, 25th July 1930
41. Belfast Newsletter, 10th February 1932
42. Belfast Newsletter, 9th December 1932
43. Northern Whig, 8th September 1934
44. Northern Whig, 25th March 1935
45. Belfast Newsletter,12th October 1935
46. Belfast Newsletter, 10th August 1936
47. Belfast Newsletter, 1st December 1937
48. Belfast Telegraph, 2nd June 1938
49. Belfast Telegraph, 16th October 1941
50. Belfast Newsletter, 9th June 1943
51. Belfast Newsletter, 8th September 1948
52. Belfast Telegraph, 13th January 1966
53. Belfast Newsletter, 22nd September 1967
54. Belfast Newsletter, 25th January 1968
55. Belfast Telegraph, 7th January 1970
56. Belfast Telegraph, 6th March 1970
57. Belfast Telegraph, 25th July 1974
58. Belfast Telegraph, 31st January 1978
59. Large scale Ordnance Survey maps 1858, 1884, 1902, 1920, 1931, 1937, 1958, 1970, 1986 (www.centremapslive.co.uk)
60. ‘Roofing Slate in Ireland’ Stone Volume XIV, Number 1, December 1896, p.476-484
61. The Rotarian, Vol VI, No 2, February 1915, p.80
62. Architecture Ireland Nov/Dec 2017, p.13

Secondary Sources:

63. Carleton, Samuel Trevor (1967) The Growth of South Belfast. Unpublished MPhil thesis, Queen’s University Belfast
64. Dictionary of Irish Architects (www.dia.ie)
65. Fairbairn’s Book of Crests of the families of Great Britain and Ireland in two volumes.(1905) Volume 1. London & Edinburgh: TC &EC Jack
66. A history of congregations in the Presbyterian church in Ireland 1610-1982. (1982) Belfast: Presbyterian Historical Society of Ireland.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
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

121 University Street is one of a pair of substantial late Victorian, two-bay, three storey with attic, redbrick terraced houses with Dumfries red sandstone dressings externally and original exceptional and highly-decorative plasterwork internally, constructed between 1890 and 1893 to designs by noted Belfast architect William J Fennell, located on University Street, near Queen’s University in South Belfast.

The architect, William John Fennell (d.1923) was a distinguished designer of church buildings, domestic dwellings and schools, some of his most well-known works in Belfast being the Water Commissioner’s Office (1883), 68-70 Royal Avenue (1885), Cooke Centenary Church (1890-92) and the Mater Infirmorum Hospital (1894-1900). His domestic work includes a number of suburban villas in Belfast, largely in the Malone area, and several of which are substantial semi-detached pairs. Fennell had a significant architectural impact on this part of University Street, also subsequently designing All Saints Church (1897-8) (HB26/27/054), located to the immediate NW.

Nos 119 and 121 were constructed by William Gabbey, a well-known Belfast building contractor who had built up a considerable reputation by the time the present house was constructed as one of the most ‘eminent’ building contractors in Belfast. His obituary recorded that his houses were ‘noted for the excellence of their finish and their workmanship’ and when the current house was being advertised for sale in 1921, William Gabbey’s name was still being used as a selling point. He is known to have constructed houses in University Street, Magdala Street, Fitzroy Avenue and Agincourt Street and perhaps most notably a terrace of four houses in Botanic Avenue to designs by the architect Vincent Craig.

The authenticity of the building is largely conveyed through its interior, in the survival of the original ornate, high-quality, decorative plasterwork cornicing which is of an exceptional, exuberant standard. It is possibly some of the highest quality seen in Belfast, raising the special interest of the building beyond what is obvious on the exterior.

No.121 has had various residents and uses during its history; from c1941, the house was briefly occupied by the government, similar to its neighbour at 119. By June 1943 it had become an employment agency for domestic staff, then had various office uses, the majority of which were connected with construction as architects or engineers. Between 2008 and 2015 the offices were converted into visitor accommodation, which remains its use today (2025).

This substantial Victorian semi-detached villa, with classical details, is the work of a distinguished architect and a prominent builder. The building is enhanced by the use of sandstone in dressings, decoratively carved over the front door and windows, the monogram and crest linking the house to its original owner and builder William Gabbey. The attention to decorative detail is maintained in the interior where high-quality original cornices and joinery have survived. The links to William Gabbey, who lived nearby and built some of the area’s most prominent dwellings, also add to the building’s local interest.