8 COLLEGE GARDENS

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Mid terrace three-storey two-bay red brick late Victorian town house, built 1877 to designs by William Batt, architect. Part of a block of four, including No.7, 9 and 10 College Gardens (HB26.28.017A, C & D); the block is symmetrical on plan and elevation with No.8 mirrored by No.9 and wider properties No.7 & 10 at gable ends. Located east end of College Gardens, a tree-lined street of similarly scaled townhouses running from Malone Road to Lisburn Road and within Queens Conservation Area; the buildings face south and overlook the grounds of Methodist College. Three-storey return built at half-landing level to rear (N); adjoined to same at No.9 to form wide gable. Building currently used as student accommodation.

Natural slate roof (Bangor Blue) with black clay ridge tiles. Large red brick chimney centred on ridge with corbelled cap in brick specials and sixteen circular red clay pots (shared with No.7). Projecting stone eaves and corbelled brick specials (roll edged dentils on cogging and stretcher courses). Two modern skylights to rear (N) roof slope.

Materials
ROOF: Natural slate
RWG: Cast iron (S); uPVC (N & return).
WALLS: Red brick walling in Flemish bond with blue brick string and alternating soldier courses.
English Garden Wall bond to rear (N) and return.
WINDOWS: Single glazed double hung single glazed sliding sash with 1/1 panes (main building) and 2/2 panes (return), unless otherwise described.

Front Elevation (S):
Facing south, asymmetrical with entrance to left and two-storey canted bay with lead roof to right. Projecting rubble-stone (type?) base plinth with chamfered blue brick top; dressed sandstone cills and lintels continued as two string courses of blue brick with red course between; stop-chamfered reveals. Round-arched central entrance formed in red and blue soldier courses alternating in threes with dressed sandstone hood mould and label stops (that to left shared with No9); plain fanlight over square headed panelled timber double doors, flanked by grey marble colonnettes with dressed sandstone capitals, collar and base on toothed quoins. Carved foliage detail to label stops, base and capitals. Alternating blue and red brick soldier course repeated as segmental relieving arches to window above door with angled blue brick hood over.

Rear Elevation (N):
North elevation overlooks Elmwood Mews; asymmetrical with three-storey return to left and one window per floor to right (2/2 panes at first floor). Plainly detailed compared to front: shallower stone cills; red brick soldier coursed above windows, and row of projecting brick headers to eaves. Clipped eaves to return and single window offset to right on each floor, diminishing in height; otherwise blank.

East elevation:
No.7 abuts east elevation of main building; east face of return plainly detailed as north elevation. Informal fenestration with single window to N & S ends at all levels and additional openings between: tripartite window (1/1 panes) and flush modern door at ground floor; twin 1/1 sliding sashes offset to left with translucent glass at first floor; and single window with translucent glass at second floor.

West Elevation:
No.9 abuts west elevation, including return.

Set back from tree-lined street by front lawn and mature hedging on south side of College Gardens, building sits mid-terrace to block of similar town houses, rectangular on plan and aligned E-W parallel to road. Gate opens to College Gardens with tarmac surfaced path to house. Rear overlooks Elmwood Mews - shared alley running full length of College Gardens and connected to Elmwood Avenue.

Red brick walling in English Garden Wall bond and rounded terracotta cap (missing in part) divides yard from No.7 & No.9 and along S boundary. Concrete steps to basement below N end of yard, containing bin store and exiting to Elmwood Mews via sheeted timber ledged and braced door.

Historical information

Background - College Gardens (originally ‘College Gardens Avenue’) is located on land which prior to the early 19th century had been one of the series of strip farms running from what is now the Malone and University Roads to the Bog Meadows. Probably laid out in early 1600s, the integrity of these was broken up by the cutting of the Lisburn Road in 1816-19 and the construction of the Ulster Railway in 1837-39. Around the same time, greater security of tenure from the Donegall estate lead to the gentrification of what remained of these farms with the building of small country villas (many of which were simply older houses upgraded) and the laying out of small demesnes within the plots formerly farmed. The land to the immediate north and south of College Gardens belonged to such a villa, ‘Vermont’, a pre-1770 house, possibly rebuilt or enlarged c.1815 and enlarged again c.1840s – on this occasion by John Riddell, a Belfast ironmonger. The building of Queen’s College a short distance to the north-east in 1845 sparked the suburbanisation of the area, and in 1865 Vermont itself was sold for the building of another educational establishment, Methodist College. The latter was completed in 1868 and a new private avenue laid out the lower ground to the immediate north, with building plots on the northern side. Beginning at the eastern end, present nos.1-6 were constructed in 1871, nos.7-18 in 1877, no.33 and 34 in 1879, 19-22 in 1881, 23-26 in 1882 and 27-32 in 1883.

No.8 This property forms part of a symmetrical terrace of four large townhouses (now largely student accommodation), built in 1877 to designs by William Batt for merchant John H. Atkinson, on one of the ‘building sites’ in this ‘healthy and fashionable locality’ advertised early in that year as suitable for ‘high-class’ residences. Mrs. Margaret Henderson is recorded in the street directories as the occupant from at least 1884 to c.1889, followed by H. Martin Jnr. (of the building firm of H. & J. Martin, c.1889-98) and John Sinclair, ‘manufacturer’, (1898-c.1914). In the 1901 census, Mr. Sinclair (‘flax merchant’) is noted as living there with his wife, Alice, their two children and two domestic servants (a nurse and cook), the building itself a 1st class dwellings with 13 rooms occupied by the family. William Muir McMullan appears to have taken up the lease in c.1914, then H.L.H. Greer, a surgeon, in c.1920. Dr. Greer remain there until c.1965 after which the building appears to have been acquired by Queen’s University for use as the University estate office, later (c.1975) becoming the ‘Students Centre’. It appears to have been around this time that the property became integrated internally with its neighbour to the west (no.9). It continues to serve as student accommodation.

No.8 College Gardens was listed in Sept 1979. Grant aid was awarded for repair works to front windows, stone, brickwork, and RWGs in 2011.

References – Primary sources
1 PRONI VAL12B/43D/7 annual valuation revision book, 1862-82
2 ‘Belfast News-Letter’, 3, January 1877, 23 March 1878
3 ‘Irish Builder’, [?] June 1878 [Illustration of nos.7-10 College Gardens]
4 ‘Belfast and Province of Ulster Street Directory’, (Belfast News-Letter, Belfast), various dates from 1880 to 1996
5 PRONI VAL12B/43D/14 annual valuation revision book, 1882-96
6 PRONI OS8/30/3/49 OS town plan of Belfast, 1883-84
7 PRONI OS8/30/4/49 OS town plan of Belfast, 1896
8 PRONI VAL12B/43A/36 annual valuation revision book, 1897-1905
9 PRONI VAL7B/14/15 valuation of Belfast, c.1900-01
10 Census of Ireland, 1901, 1911 [online - http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/]
11 PRONI OS8/30/5/49 OS town plan of Belfast, 1903
12 PRONI VAL12B/43P/3 valuation book, 1906-15
13 PRONI VAL12B/43P/7 valuation book, 1916-30
14 OS maps, 1958, 1970 (online - http://www.centremapslive.co.uk/)

Secondary sources
1 Carleton, S.T., ‘The growth of South Belfast’, (unpublished QUB MA thesis), 1967
2 Rowan, A.J. And Brett, C.E.B., Historic Buildings…Queens University of Belfast, (Belfast, UAHS, revised ed. 1980)

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

Mid-terrace three-storey red brick late Victorian town house with gabled return shared with No.9, built 1877 to designs by William Batt, architect. Set on a tree-lined street of similarly scaled townhouses running from Malone Road to Lisburn Road; the buildings face south and overlook the grounds of Methodist College. Part of the earliest block of four, No.8 has group value No.7, 9 and 10 College Gardens (HB26.28.017A, C & D). Well proportioned with polychromatic brick detailing and sandstone embellishment to the front façade, it is a good example of late Victorian domestic architecture. Now subdivided for student accommodation and connected to No.9, the plan form is altered slightly but some original interior historic detail remains intact. Stone entrance steps, dwarf walling and lawned garden to the front and yard walls to the rear add significant character to its setting within the Queens Conservation Area.