13 COLLEGE GARDENS

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Mid terrace three-storey over basement red brick late Victorian town house, built 1877. Architect unknown. Part of block of four, including No.11, 12 and 14 College Gardens (HB26.28.018A, B & D), the block is largely symmetrical to front with No.12 mirrored by No.13, and wider properties No.11 & 14 at gable ends. Near 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. Substantial four-storey over basement L-shaped extension, c.2001, built at half-landing level to rear (N) and of little historic interest. Building subdivided into self-contained apartments.

Natural slate roof with black clay ridge tiles. Replacement red brick chimney with concrete base centred on ridge of main roof with multiple circular buff and red clay pots (shared with No.14). Projecting moulded eaves on plain frieze band between moulded string courses. Wide duo-pitched dormer with twin round-arched windows, centred at front of roof above cornice, appears to be contemporary with rear extension, c.2000. Further dormer and modern skylight to rear slope of roof.

Materials
ROOF: Natural slate
RWG: Cast metal - replacement (where seen)
WALLS: Red brick walling in Flemish bond with painted dressings (S); and English Garden Wall bond to N (where seen)
WINDOWS: Double glazed replacement timber framed sliding sash with 1/1 panes (S); timber framed with top hung casements to dormer and rear extension.

Front Elevation (S):
Facing south and asymmetrical at ground floor level with entrance to right (E) and single storey canted bay to left. Dark painted render base plinth with moulded and chamfered top; smooth stucco bay and door surround, each having projecting moulded cornice depicting foliage; all painted. Stop-chamfered head and jamb to ground floor bay windows, with heavy bull-nosed cills set within reveal; serrated edge to plain frieze below cornice; shallow parapet above to flat roof (not seen).
Square headed timber framed entrance door comprising twin round-arched raised panels with bolection moulding; plain glass fanlight over deep moulded transom; moulded base either side of surround, with roll-edged reveal, raised keystone and carved stone spandrels below cornice; all painted. Predominantly red brick walls above, with projecting moulded stucco or stone (painted) string courses as first and second floor cills. Segmental arched openings: two windows at each upper level equally spaced; moulded stucco surrounds, with projecting hoods at first and lugged at second floor. Front door opens onto broad platform accessed by two stone steps with bull-nosed edge; cast iron boot-scraper to right side of threshold.

Rear Elevation (N):
North elevation surveyed from Elmwood Mews; access not obtained to rear yard. Rear of original building largely obscured by substantial red brick L-shaped extension, which spans full width of site and extends to rear boundary. Small part of original building visible at gap between extensions to No13 & No14 - red brick appears to match that at front of building, in English Garden Wall bond.

East Elevation:
No12 abuts east elevation of main building. East face of extension abutted in part by mono-pitched return built at half-landing level to No.12; remainder blank and comprised of red brick gable wall.
West elevation:
No.14 abuts west elevation.

Set back from tree-lined street on south side of College Gardens, behind parking area, with modern metal fencing enclosing small garden with young tree and hedge immediately adjacent to bay window. Low brick wall, painted, either side of stone entrance steps. Hit-n-miss timber fencing aligns boundary with No12; mature hedging to opposite side with No14. Extension aligns north boundary.

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 (or upgrading of existing structures) to create small country villas 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 of this. 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.13 This former dwelling house belongs to a block of four (two double-fronted end properties with two single-fronted ones in between) built in 1877. The identity of the architect is not known, but the developer of both this block and those westwards as far as no.32 appears to have been Rev. George Cron, the then minister of the Evangelical Union Church in Wellington Place (his monogram appears to be on the entrance keystone of all properties in this particular block).

The first occupant of no.13 appears to have been Thomas Thompson, noted in the street directories as a linen merchant of James Thompson & Son. He was followed in c.1891 F.W. Smith (a land agent and accountant ‘of 7 Donegall Square East). Mr. Smith died c.1896 and in both the 1901 and 1911 census his widow, Mrs. Hannah Smith, is recorded as living there with a friend, Jane Walshe, and a domestic servant, and the building itself noted (in 1901) as first class dwelling with 13 rooms in occupation. R.T. Martin, a solicitor, was in residence by 1918, with a Mrs. Martin (presumably his widow), there in the 1924. Major Rupert Stanley, is noted as the occupant in 1932. The property, which was renumbered as no.12a during the following decade (presumably for superstitious reasons), is noted as vacant in 1943, but by 1951 was occupied by Dr. Hugo Hall. By the end of the 1950s it had become the offices for the architects and engineering firm of W.D.R. & R.T. Taggart, who remained there until at least the mid-1960s, when they were succeeded by the fellow architects and engineering practice of Ferguson & McIlveen. By at least 1974 the property had changed hands once again, with ‘Belfast Progressive Advertising’ and ‘A. F. Associates Ltd.’ sharing the building; both still there in 1986 with Stevenson Munn and partners named as the sole occupant in 1996.

No.13 College Gardens was listed in Sept. 1979. H.E.D. Files record that grant aid for external wks, rainwater goods & works to roof of bay window was awarded in 1990 and in 2001 the property was sub-divided into four apartments and a large full-height extension added to the return in the process.

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 ‘Belfast and Province of Ulster Street Directory’, (Belfast News-Letter, Belfast), various dates from 1880 to 1996
4 PRONI VAL12B/43D/14 annual valuation revision book, 1882-96
5 PRONI OS8/30/3/49 OS town plan of Belfast, 1883-84
6 PRONI OS8/30/4/49 OS town plan of Belfast, 1896
7 PRONI VAL12B/43A/36 annual valuation revision book, 1897-1905
8 PRONI VAL7B/14/15 valuation of Belfast, c.1900-01
9 Census of Ireland, 1901, 1911 [online - http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/]
10 PRONI OS8/30/5/49 OS town plan of Belfast, 1903
11 PRONI VAL12B/43P/3 valuation book, 1906-15
12 PRONI VAL12B/43P/7 valuation book, 1916-30
13 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
X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Mid terrace three-storey over basement red brick late Victorian town house, built 1877. Architect unknown. Part of block of four, it has group value with No.11, 12 and 14 College Gardens (HB26.28.018A, B & D); the block is largely symmetrical at the front. Set on 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. Well proportioned with stucco dressings and ground floor bay to main façade. A substantial extension detracts from the historic character at the rear of the building and subdivision of interior results in loss of plan form; nonetheless some historic detailing does remain. It is a good example of late Victorian domestic architecture, significantly enhanced by broad stone entrance steps and a cast iron boot-scraper at the entrance.