15 COLLEGE GARDENS

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

End of terrace, three-storey with attic red brick late Victorian town house, built 1877. Architect unknown. Part of block of four, including No.16, 17 and 18 College Gardens (HB26.28.019B, C & D), the block is largely symmetrical to front with No.15 mirrored by No.18, both at gable ends with narrower properties No.16 & 17 between. Set midway along 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 gabled return built at half-landing level to rear (N), and later external fire escape. Three doorbells at entrance indicate subdivision into apartments.

Natural slate roof with black clay ridge tiles and later flat roofed dormers to both front and rear pitches; dormers clad in PVC membrane. Four red brick chimneys: one shared with No16, replaced in modern red brick; one centred on gable end, which appears to be original with rendered lower stage, red brick above, decorative stone brackets to corbelled cap and eight circular clay pots; one rising from eaves to rear which is largely rebuilt above gutter level; and one centred on gable to rear return, rendered with no cap or pots. Projecting moulded eaves on curved brackets that alternate with pitched square motif on deep frieze, all set on projecting string course with continuous band of dentils below. Rear eaves simpler and comprises two courses of projecting brick, however decorative eaves and frieze repeated at N corner to main gable end to match opposite side; latter forms base to simple rendered verge band and projecting moulded timber barge board.

Materials
ROOF: Natural slate with PVC membrane to dormers and projecting bay at front (S).
RWG: Ogee profile cast metal gutters; uPVC hoppers and RWPs (main roof); uPVC gutter and cast iron RWPs (return).
WALLS: Red brick walling in Flemish bond with stucco dressings (S & E); and English Garden Wall bond to N.
WINDOWS: Timber framed single glazed sliding sash with 1/1 panes, unless otherwise stated.

Front Elevation (S):
Asymmetrical with entrance to left (W) at ground floor and projecting square rendered bay with two windows to right (E) at ground floor; latter repeated at first floor, slightly shallower in red brick with one window aligned over entrance; three equally spaced windows at second floor; and flat roofed dormer to attic, placed centrally above eaves cornice. All windows are segmental headed and diminish in height from ground to second floor level.
Painted render base plinth with moulded top and vermiculated toothed quoins to SE corner.
Ground floor projecting bay has stop-chamfered head and jamb to windows, with heavy bull-nosed cills set within reveal; decorative string course above windows and projecting moulded cornice on block modillions. Moulded cornice repeated at first floor projecting bay, on band of dentils with simpler moulding below.
Square headed timber framed entrance door with two full-height arched panels having raised fields and bolection moulding; plain glass segmental arched over-light on deep moulded transom; elaborate stucco surround, with roll-edged reveals, foliated scrolled console brackets and moulded edge to hood; floral stone roundel between console brackets with plain spandrels; all painted. Window at first floor above entrance door has similar hood with smaller scrolled brackets.
Predominantly red brick walls at first and second floor level, with projecting moulded stucco surrounds and cills at first and second floor windows (painted). Decorative flower carving framed within surround at window head to first floor windows at square bay and foliated detail above surrounds to second floor windows.

Rear Elevation (N):
North elevation surveyed from Elmwood Mews – access to rear yard not obtained. Three-storey gabled return built at half-landing level to right (W) side and one window to each ground, first and second floor to left. External metal dog-leg stair spans yard and provides fire escape from return and main building. Red brick walling in English Garden Wall bond. Detailing simpler than front elevation with projecting brick eaves course, soldier coursed brick headers and square-edged painted cills.
Flat roofed dormer with modern casement window to attic at main building; second floor window retains timber framed single glazed sliding sash window with 2/2 panes; first floor window replaced with modern flush fire exit door (width of original opening unchanged); ground floor has window with metal bars fixed to external reveal and further opening appears bricked up below (modern red brick) that possibly led to basement.
Return: one window to second floor, offset to left (E) and two at first floor, offset to right – all timber framed single glazed sliding sash window with 2/2 panes. Further small window at ground floor with metal bars fixed to external reveal, two blocked up openings and evidence of former gabled single storey return, now gone.

West Elevation:
Abutted by No16 College Gardens. West face of return: painted brick and largely blank, except single window at first floor overlooking yard to No16 and heavy timber eaves board.

East elevation:
Comprised of gable end to original building and east face of return.
Gable: red brick in Flemish bond with toothed quoins returned from main façade and decorative eaves returned at N & S ends as described above. Two segmental headed windows with moulded stucco surrounds centred at ground floor, one similar square headed window at first floor and two at second floor aligned directly above; all have square edged unpainted stone cills. Small round arched windows near to eaves at attic level, with painted rendered reveals.
Return: as described for north elevation; partially concealed by fire escape. Some brick soldier coursed headers replaced suggesting altered openings. Windows informally arranged: two at second floor that appear original with 2/2 panes; three at first floor, one with 2/2 panes, one small metal framed window with top hung night vent and the third replaced with a modern flush fire exit door and precast concrete lintel over; and two windows at ground floor.

Building forms end of terrace to block of similar town houses, rectangular on plan and aligned E-W parallel to road. Carved sandstone pillar marking SE corner presumed to form part of an original gated entrance from College Gardens; together with the nearby tree, it enhances the character of the
setting. Boundary at both front and rear of property removed to provide off-street parking areas; path formed in precast concrete paving slabs leads to entrance. Low red brick walling with hedge over aligns boundary with front of No.14; and hedging to boundary with front garden to No16. Front door opens onto two stone steps, flanked by painted dwarf walls with open balustrade between square end piers, all having painted cambered caps. Cast iron boot-scraper on top step, thought to be original.

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.15 This former dwelling house belongs to a terrace of four symmetrically arranged single-fronted properties built in 1877. The identity of the architect is not known, but the developer of everything in College Gardens from no.11 to no.32 appears to have been Rev. George Cron, the then minister of the Evangelical Union Church in Wellington Place.

The original occupant of no.15 seems to have been John M. Barnett, a surgeon. He was followed by William Heburn of flax spinners of Wm. Ross & Co. in c.1886, Major Walter P. Alexander of the Scots Greys in c.1889 and Robert John Hilton a tobacconist c.1891. In the 1901 census Mr. Hilton (a widower who described himself as ‘tobacco manufacturer’) was living there with his four grown-up children and two domestic servants, with the house itself noted as a ‘first class’ dwelling with 15 rooms in use by the family. By 1907 a Mrs McCalmont was in residence, Rev. Joseph Worthington by 1908, and John Black (‘manger [of] wholesale drapery’) by 1910, whom in the 1911 census was occupying no.15 with his five grown-up children and a single domestic servant. Mr Black’s daughter, Josephine, was still living there in the mid 1930s, but by 1943 the building was in the hands of the ‘British Sailors’ Society’. It had returned to domestic use by 1951, as an R.R. Browne was in residence, but was back in office use by the end of the decade, having been acquired by the architects / engineers’ firm of Ferguson & McIlveen, who stayed on until the early 1970s when the building became a doctor’s surgery (‘Dr I.G. Doran and partners’). The surgery was still operating in 1980, but it is noted as vacant in 1986, and no tenants are recorded in the subsequent directories. After this date the building was converted to student accomodation.

No.15 College Gardens was listed in September 1979. H.E.D. files record that a planning application was submitted in 1985 to convert the property to student housing. The building fell vacant around 2011 and suffered from vandalism at that time. It has subsequently been refurbished and is since re-occupied.

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
D. Plan Form
H+. Alterations enhancing the 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

End of terrace three-storey with attic red brick late Victorian town house, built 1877. Architect unknown. It has group value with No.16, 17 and 18 College Gardens (HB26.28.019B, C & D) 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. Asymmetrical and well proportioned with fine stucco detailing and projecting bay to main façade. Removal of boundary walling and the addition of flat roofed dormers diminish the historic character to some extent. Nonetheless, the original rear return complete with sliding sash windows survive and the house remains significant as an integral part of the intact terrace of late Victorian dwellings. A carved sandstone pillar, presumed to form part of an original gated entrance from College Gardens; together with stone entrance steps, adjoining walling and a cast iron boot-scraper significantly enhance the quality of its setting.