14 COLLEGE GARDENS

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

End of terrace three-storey with attic double fronted red brick late Victorian town house, built 1877. Architect unknown, but similar in style to adjacent block by William Batt. Part of block of four, including No.11, 12 and 13 College Gardens (HB26.28.018A, B & C), the block is largely symmetrical to front with No.11 mirrored by No.14, both at gable ends with narrower properties No.12 & 13 between. 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 car-park) rear extension, added c.1995; latter of little historic interest and is not described. Building subdivided into self-contained apartments.

Natural slate roof with black clay ridge tiles. Replacement red brick chimneys, one shared with No13 and the other centred on gable end, both with several circular clay pots. Projecting moulded eaves on plain frieze band between projecting moulded string courses, returned at gable ends to form base to simple painted timber verge detail and projecting timber barge board. Two wide duo-pitched dormers to front of roof, aligned with bays to either side of entrance door; these appear contemporary with the 1995 extension. Modern skylights to rear roof slope.

Materials
ROOF: Natural slate
RWG: Ogee profile cast metal gutters and square section downpipes, where seen.
WALLS: Red brick walling in Flemish bond with painted dressings (S & E); and English Garden Wall bond to N.
WINDOWS: Replacement double glazed sliding sash with 1/1 panes (S & Ground Floor to E), replacement timber windows with top-hung casements and faux horns elsewhere.

Front Elevation (S):
Facing south and symmetrical with central entrance flanked by single storey projecting bays: that to right (E) squared and with two windows; and that to left canted. Painted render base plinth with moulded and chamfered top and toothed quoins to SW corner; painted stucco bays, each with parapet roof (not seen), foliated moulded cornice and plain frieze. Predominantly red brick walls above, with projecting moulded string courses as first and second floor cills. Segmental arched openings: single window above entrance at each upper level, flanked by pair of windows aligned with ground floor bays; moulded stucco surrounds, with projecting hoods at first and lugged at second floor. Stop-chamfered head and jamb to ground floor bay windows, with heavy bull-nosed cills set within reveal. Bays have serrated lower edge to frieze. Square headed replacement timber entrance door with multi-paned glazed upper and moulded lower panels; 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. Doors opens onto two stone steps, between painted dwarf walls with open balustrade and square end piers, all having painted canted caps.

Rear Elevation (N):
North elevation overlooks Elmwood Mews. Largely obscured by 1995 L-shaped gabled extension, which abuts original building between single bay to far E & W. Detailing simpler than front elevation with projecting brick eaves course, soldier coursed brick headers and unpainted cills. Windows replaced, although openings appear to be original, with one window each at first and second floor to E of extension, and one window each to ground, first and second floor to W, diminishing in height.

East Elevation:
Abutted by No13 College Gardens. East face of extension is largely blank.

West elevation:
Comprised of gable end to original building and extension.
Gable: red brick in Flemish bond with two segmental headed windows with moulded stucco surrounds centred at ground floor, one similar square headed window above and a new opening inserted at each first and second floor; otherwise blank. Replacement timber sliding sash windows to ground floor; top-hung timber casements above.

Set back from tree-lined street by painted modern metal railings on low red brick walling on south side of College Gardens, building forms end of terrace to block of similar town houses, rectangular on plan and aligned E-W parallel to road. Painted metal gate-posts, possibly original, with replacement gate opening on to concrete path flanked by gravelled areas, semi-mature planting and trees. Mature tree and hedging along W boundary. Rear extension fills width of site along N 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.14 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.14 appears to have been George Fuller, Professor of civil engineer at Queen’s College [present QUB]. John W. Haslett of J. & J. Haslett (‘chemists and druggists’ of 18-20 North Street) took up the lease c.1885, followed by Robert Thomas Martin, a solicitor, in 1900. In the 1901 census Mr Martin was living there with his wife, Edith, their two young children and three domestic servants, with the house itself a first class dwelling with 16 rooms in use. The 1911 census return is similar, but with one of the children still in residence. Mrs Martin is named as the householder in the 1924 directory, but by 1932 Howard Stevenson, a surgeon, is noted as the occupant, remaining there until at least 1943. By 1951 the property had become a nurses’ home in the hands of Belfast City Hospital, changing to a Hospital doctors’ residence in the early 1970s, and was still being used as such in the late 1980s.

No.14 College Gardens was listed in 1979 when in ownership of DHSS. Declared surplus in 1990. As at 1994, it was reported as being 'at risk' and 'empty for 7-8 years'. That same year an application was submitted for the property to be sub-divided into seven apartments with a substantial full-height extension added in place of the original rear return in the process. Scheme subsequently agreed and approved c1995 for redevelopment, including demolition.

H.E.D. Files record that No.14 was delisted some time after 1979 in accordance with policy at the time for property in Crown ownership; it was subsequently relisted in 1994.

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
J. Setting
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

R. Age
S. Authenticity
X. Local Interest

Evaluation

End of terrace three-storey with attic double fronted red brick late Victorian town house, built 1877. Architect unknown, but similar in style to adjacent block by William Batt. It has group value with No.11, 12 and 13 College Gardens (HB26.28.018A, B & C) as part of a block, which is largely symmetrical to the front. Set on 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. Symmetrical and well proportioned with stucco dressings and ground floor bays to main façade. A substantial extension added c.1995, although largely concealed from view on College Gardens, diminishes the historic character at the rear to some extent. Nonetheless, it remains significant as an integral part of the group, which as a whole survive as a good example of late Victorian domestic architecture. Painted metal gate posts with decorative pointed caps, presumed to form part of an original gate from College Gardens, enhance the quality of its setting.