8 Fitzwilliam Street

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Three storey late Georgian style terrace house of c.1849, set at the W end of a short terraced block of four matching properties. The block is situated at the E end of the S side of Fitzwilliam Street, with QUB Student’s Union to the S, and the University Road (with Lanyon’s original university building) to the W.

The front façade faces N. To the left on the ground floor is a four panel timber door with rectangular fanlight with margin panes. The doorway has a thin pilaster jamb to the right and a much thicker pilaster to the left (which acts as a pier between this and the doorway of No.6). Above the doorway is a hood on simple (and somewhat functional looking) metal brackets. The hood merges with that of the doorway of No.6 and has timber ‘cladding’ to its edge with a simple cornice. Two steps to doorway.

To the right of the doorway are two windows with plain sash frames with Georgian panes (six over six) and moulded surrounds. To the first floor are two similar windows but without surrounds. These windows are more widely spaced (and not in line) with the ground floor windows. (The first floor front façade windows of the whole terrace rest on a cill band). To the second floor are two windows similar to, and in line with, those to the first floor- only slightly shorter.

The ground floor level is finished in rusticated render with a chamfered base and cill band (to first floor windows). The render is painted. The rest of the front façade is in brick and is topped with a dentilled cornice.

The W gable is blank and finished in plain, painted, render.

The rear façade of the entire terrace is finished in plain, unpainted, cement render. No.2 and 4 both ‘share’ a low, two storey ‘gabled’ return, as do Nos.6 and 8. The W face of the return of No.8 has a plain sheeted doorway to the left on the ground floor with two windows to the right. These windows have modern timber frames and security bars over. To the far left on the first floor is a small, plain, sash window, also with security bars over.

The (S facing) gable end the return has a single canted first floor oriel window to the right and a single sash window to the left. The oriel belongs to No.6 and the sash window to No.8. This window has Georgian panes, as front façade.

The main rear façade of No.8 has a sash window to the left at each floor (all in line), with that to the second floor slightly shorter that the rest. The ground floor and first floor windows have security bars. To the right of these windows (and above the return) are two stairwell landing windows. The upper window is much shorter and sited close to the eaves. All the rear windows have sash frames with Georgian panes, (mainly six over six apart from the small upper stairwell window which has three panes over three), with the upper sash of the first floor window plain.

The roof of the terrace is gabled and finished in Bangor blue slate with rendered parapets to each gable. Each property has a small Velux window to the rear. There are chimney stacks to the entire terrace, with that to the E (belonging to No.2) rendered, the broader central stack (Nos.4-6) partly rendered and that to the W (No.8) in brick. That to the E has tall and uniform cream coloured clay pots, with a variety of pots to that to the centre. That to the W is pot-less.

The roof of the return is actually made up of two gabled roofs with a ‘valley’ in between (but these are hidden behind an all-encompassing end gable). Both are covered in Bangor blue slate and have a brick-built stack to the end gable with one original looking octagonal pot. The roof of the return of No.8 has a Velux window to its ‘inner’ side.

Cast iron rw goods to main building, mainly PVC rw goods to return. High rendered wall enclosing yard to rear.

Historical information

Fitzwilliam Street was laid out in the 1840s, one of a number of new thoroughfares linking what was then the Malone Road (now University Road) to the ‘New’ Lisburn Road (now Lisburn Road), the latter cut in 1817 and intended to replace the Malone Road as the main route southwards from Belfast. The land on which the new street stood had been leased by from the Donegall estate since 1711 to the ancestors of one John Alexander, who had obtained a renewal of his title in 1823. In 1849 Alexander in turn leased part of this land to William Magill Collins, a solicitor with offices in Arthur Street, and in 1866 Collins obtained full title to the property.

Shortly after obtaining his initial lease, Collins proceeded to build the present terrace of Nos.2-8. Like many other terraces springing up in around the newly built Queen’s College, this block was designed to attract Belfast’s middling professional and merchant classes, though the houses themselves were a cut well below the grand dwellings of University Square. Among the earliest (1854) of Collins’ tenants were Henry Hugh Boyd- and ‘agent and accountant’, Robert Leadbetter- ‘linen manufacturer’, James Benn- a wine merchant and a Mrs. Wardle; subsequent directories reveal later tenants in similar moulds well into the 20th century, wine merchants accountants, dentists, clergymen, company directors, as well as some academics undoubtedly attached to Queen’s.

William Magill Collins himself died in 1880 and the properties passed to his daughters and their descendants. In 1932 the terrace was conveyed to Queen’s University who appear to have rented them to individuals who were probably university staff. By the late 1960s, however, with the expansion in the academic scope of Queen’s, the properties were given over to various departments, including Italian, Geography, Extra Mural Studies as well as the QUB Photographic Society. By 1986 the terrace was largely occupied by The Institute of Irish Studies with the Faculty of Theology in No.2. In the same year much internal renovation of the whole block was carried out, with doors inserted at first and second floor level in order to link each former dwelling, and certain rooms amalgamated. The whole group is presently used by The Institute of Irish Studies.

No.8
No.8 appears to have been originally rented to by James Benn, a wine merchant. In 1858 it was occupied by a Major Child, who is listed in directories as ‘a staff officer of pensioners’, and from 1861 to 1877 by a William McIlwrath, who may to have been a lawyer. The building was then home to a number of relatively short term residents, a Mrs. William H. Ferguson (1877-80), Miss Carse (1880-84), Robert Moorehead (1884/5-90) and a Mrs. Olley (1890-97). Between 1899 and c.1920 it was rented by a Mr. George Moore, who was followed by a Thomas McMaster and a Thomas Montgomery.

After its adoption by the University in 1932, the house appears to have been used as a residence for members of staff, firstly a J.A. Price, then a Mrs. M. Kidney, and then, from the late 1940s, a Mrs. Emily McIlroy. The property ceased to serve as a dwelling at some point in the early 1960s and by 1965 was occupied by the QUB Photographic Society and the Dept. of Psychology and in the mid 1970s by the Dept. of Extra Mural Studies. By 1986 it, along with Nos.4 and 6, was given over to the Institute of Irish Studies. In the same year internal alterations linked the property to the former dwellings in the rest of the terrace.

References- Primary sources
1 PRONI OS/1/1/61 OS Map, 1st ed. 1832, Co. Antrim, sheet 61.
2 QUB Estates Office- Title deeds etc. concerning 2-8 Fitzwilliam Street, 1846-1932.
3 PRONI ‘Belfast and Province of Ulster Directory’ Vols.1-21, 1852-1900, (Belfast, Henderson [1852-65], Belfast News-Letter [1865- ]).
4 PRONI OS/8/30/1/49 OS Town Plans- Belfast 1858, sheet 49.
5 PRONI Second (Griffith’s) Valuation, Parish of Shankill, 1861. [Printed volumes in PRONI search room and Linen Hall Library.]
6 PRONI OS/8/30/2/49 OS Town Plans- Belfast 1871-73, sheet 49.

Secondary sources
1 S.T. Carleton ‘The growth of South Belfast’ (QUB MA dissertation 1967).
2 David Evans ‘Historic buildings, groups of buildings, areas of architectural importance in the vicinity of Queen’s University of Belfast’ revised edition (Belfast, UAHS, 1980), p.26 etc.
3 J.C. Beckett ‘Queen’s- A short history of Queen’s College Belfast and Queen’s University of Belfast (QUB 1984).
4 David Evans and Paul Larmour ‘Queens- An architectural legacy’ (QUB Inst. of Irish Studies 1995).
5 Brian Walker and Alf McCreary ‘Degrees of excellence- The story of Queen’s, Belfast 1845-1995 (QUB Inst. of Irish Studies 1995).

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
H-. Alterations detracting from building
J. Setting
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

Three storey late Georgian style terrace house of c.1849-50, set in the middle of a short block of four matching properties. Apart from a few Velux windows, the façade of this property is still largely original. There is a low two storey gabled return to the rear.