10 COLLEGE GARDENS

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

End of terrace three-storey double fronted red brick late Victorian town house, built 1877 to designs by William Batt, architect. Part of a block of four, including No.7, 8 and 9 College Gardens (HB26.28.017A,B & C), symmetrical on plan and elevation with No.7 mirrored by No.10, both at gable ends with narrower properties No.8 & 9 between. Located at 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. Two-storey gabled return built at half-landing level to rear (N); abutted by flat roofed single-storey extension to E; and adjoined by two-storey duo-pitched red brick building (c.1998) facing on to Elmwood Mews (of little historic interest). External spiral stair connects to fire exits at rear near gable end. Building currently used as a Young People’s Centre.

Natural slate roof (Bangor Blue) with black clay ridge tiles. Large red brick chimney centred on gable of main roof with corbelled cap in brick specials and eight circular red clay pots; similar chimney at opposite side with sixteen pots (shared with No.9); smaller red brick chimney centred on gable of return with two octagonal yellow clay pots. Projecting stone eaves and corbelled brick specials (roll edged dentils on cogging and stretcher courses); returned at gable end joining similar corbelled brick verge detail; latter carried across base of chimney.

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

Front Elevation (S):
Facing south, with central entrance flanked by projecting bays: that to right (E) squared and full-height with two windows per floor, shouldered at second floor and terminating in hipped roof with decorative cast iron rail and finials to platform ridge; and that to left (W) canted and two-storey with lead roof. Projecting rubble-stone base plinth with chamfered blue brick top; masonry cills (probably sandstone with concrete repairs) and lintels (mainly sandstone, with some concrete replacements) 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; 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 windows above door and at ground and first floor to squared bay; hoods formed in angled blue bricks. Second floor windows are replacement timber framed 1/1 sliding sashes with double glazed units.

Rear Elevation (N):
North elevation overlooks Elmwood Mews; originally symmetrical with two-storey gabled return, centrally placed; flat roofed extension fills part of yard at left (E) side; and glazed link connects two-storey extension set at 90 degrees to return at right (W) side; latter added c.1998 and encloses rear boundary to form small courtyard. Plainly detailed compared to front: shallower masonry cills; red brick soldier coursed above windows, and projecting headers at eaves. Left of return, one window to each first and second floors to main building; corresponding openings at right side now contain modern fire doors exiting on to external mesh-clad spiral stair. Two modern side-hung casement windows with concrete cills and lintels above return at second floor and a further leaded glass window (double glazed) placed centrally at half-landing level.
Brick chimney to gable end of return; clipped eaves and one sliding sash window with 2/2 panes offset to right at first floor; otherwise blank. Flat roofed extension has asphalt roof membrane, painted timber eaves board and one timber framed casement window and door. Two-storey addition has artificial slate roof, smooth red brick walls and timber casement windows; rendered ground floor walling to elevation facing Elmwood Mews.

West elevation:
Comprised of two parts: gable end to main building and side elevation to return.
Gable: less formal than front elevation, but largely symmetrical and detailed similarly, including blue brick string courses and hood moulds and sandstone cills and lintels (replacements noted below). Two windows centred on chimney to each floor, flanked by a further window at far ends to ground and first floors. Only four of the ten openings retain original sandstone lintels: ground floor at far left and right; first floor at far right only; and second floor left (opening bricked up) – concrete lintels to remaining six windows. Top hung uPVC double-glazed casement to first floor central window, left.
Return: plainly detailed, as rear elevation, with full-height lean-to at re-entrant angle to main building; two windows at first floor; and single storey glazed link with artificial slate mono-pitched roof - this leads to two-storey addition. Original window to right (S) at first floor; all other windows are modern casements.

East Elevation:
No.9 abuts east elevation of main building; east face of return detailed as rear (N) elevation. Ground floor mainly obscured by flat-roofed extension with one timber casement window to right (N) end; two windows offset to left at first floor, both replacement timber sliding sashes with 1/1 panes.
Gable end of two-storey duo-pitched building: red brick, blank with clipped eaves, abutted by lean-to and outbuildings that align N boundary wall within yard.

Set back from tree-lined street by tarmacked car park; mature hedging aligns boundary with front of No.9 & 11 College Gardens. Modern disabled access ramp from car park to front door built in smooth red brick with tubular steel uprights and handrails. Building forms end of terrace to block of similar town houses, rectangular on plan and aligned E-W parallel to road.
Red brick walling in English Garden Wall bond and rounded terracotta cap divides yard from No.9 (raised in part along line of flat-roofed extension) and returns along N boundary; chamfered blue brick on rubble-stone base to this wall - latter joins two-storey extension. Lean-to red brick outbuilding abuts reverse side of N boundary wall, within yard, in line with return. Similar red brick wall with terracotta cap aligns W boundary with No11, at rear yard.

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.10 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. The original occupant of no.10 may have been R.K. Knox the then director of the Northern Banking Company. He was succeeded by David A. Maxwell (c.1889-1909), who in the 1901 census was living there with his wife, Elizabeth, their five (largely grown-up) children, and three domestic servants. By the time of the 1911 census the property was in the hands of Charles Cunningham Connor J.P., (‘flax spinner’) who was living there with a governess, Alice Emma Woods and two domestic servants. He was succeeded in c.1914 by R.R. Leathem (to c.1928), followed by Dr. Ivan H. McCaw. At some point c.1957 the property was converted to a nurses’ home for Belfast City Hospital, remaining so until c.1968. It may have continued in this role into the 1980s, although the 1986 street directory simply refers to it as containing ‘flats’.

No.10 College Gardens was listed in Sept 1979. Planning approval was granted in 1988 to convert the property to an Adolescent Pshychiatric Unit with residentail accommodation. By 1996 it had become a Young People’s Centre run by the then Eastern Health Board.

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
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

End of terrace three-storey double fronted red brick late Victorian town house with gabled return, built 1877 to designs by William Batt, architect. Located within 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.10 has group value with No.7, 8 and 9 College Gardens (HB26.28.017A, B & C). Symmetrical and well proportioned with polychromatic brick detailing and sandstone embellishment to the front façade, it is a good example of late Victorian domestic architecture. Now converted to a public health facility, some replacement windows and a two-storey extension to the rear detract from its character. Inside some historic features of note survive although the plan form has been subdivided. Nonetheless, the original return survives, complete with chimney and yard boundary walls that enhance its setting within the Queens Conservation Area.