16 COLLEGE GARDENS

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Mid terrace, three-storey with attic red brick late Victorian town house, built 1877. Architect unknown. Part of block of four, including No.15, 17 and 18 College Gardens (HB26.28.019A, 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 return built at half-landing level to rear (N), adjoined to same at No.17 to form wide gable; return abutted by later two-storey flat-roofed extension (of little historic interest). Six 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. Two chimneys: one shared with No15, replaced in modern red brick with several yellow clay pots; and one centred on gable of 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.

Materials
ROOF: Natural slate with PVC membrane to dormers and projecting bay at front (S).
RWG: Ogee profile cast metal gutter (main roof); and uPVC gutter and downpipes elsewhere.
WALLS: Red brick walling in Flemish bond with stucco dressings (S); and English Garden Wall bond (N).
WINDOWS: Timber framed single glazed sliding sash with 1/1 panes (S) and 2/2 panes (N & return), unless otherwise described.

Front Elevation (S):
Asymmetrical with entrance to left (W) at ground floor and stuccoed canted bay with three windows to right (E) at ground floor; three equally spaced windows at first and second floors; and wide 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. Ground floor bay has stop-chamfered head and jamb to windows, with heavy bull-nosed cills set within reveals; decorative string course above windows and projecting moulded cornice on block modillions.
Half-glazed double ‘storm’ doors in front of original square headed timber framed entrance door; latter has two full-height arched panels with raised fields and bolection moulding; plain glass segmental arched over-light; 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. Windows at first floor have similar hoods with smaller brackets and simple fluting detail.
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 foliated stucco detail above surrounds to second floor window heads.

Rear Elevation (N):
North elevation surveyed from Elmwood Mews – access to rear yard not obtained. Three-storey return built at half-landing level to right (W) side and slightly advanced three-storey hipped roof projection to left with two windows each to first and second floor, single window to ground floor (sliding sash with 1/1 panes) and uPVC door at basement level . Red brick walling in English Garden Wall bond, painted up to underside of second floor cills. 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.
North Elevation of return: one window to second floor, offset to left (E), below which two-storey flat roofed extension abuts. Projecting timber bargeboard and exposed carved purlin end to roof.

West Elevation:
Abutted by No16 College Gardens, including return.

East elevation:
Main building abutted by No15 College Gardens. East face of return overlooks yard; detailed to match rear of main building with brick walling painted white, soldier coursed headers and square-cut stone cills. Boxed timber eaves to roof support half round uPVC gutter. Openings informally arranged with three windows at second floor: one UPVC top-hung casement, one timber framed sliding sash with 6/6 panes and another with 2/2 panes; three windows at first floor, same as second floor windows except both sliding sashes have 2/2 panes; and four windows as ground floor (upper parts seen only) - three sliding sashes with 4/4, 6/6 and 4/4 panes all with shared cill and one modern timber casement window with top hung night vent. First and second floor uPVC windows appear to be within original openings.

Building sits mid terrace in block of similar town houses, rectangular on plan and aligned E-W parallel to road. Boundary at front of property removed to provide off-street parking area; precast concrete paving slabs to front garden. Hedging to boundary with adjoining front gardens at No15 & No17. Front door opens onto two steps, one stone with bull-nosed edge and one concrete; steps flanked by painted dwarf walls. Cast iron boot-scraper on top step, thought to be original. Two-storey red brick extension aligns rear boundary and is joined by a lower red brick wall with wide opening comprised sheeted timber folding doors, painted – flat roof behind.

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.16 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.16 seems to have been W. McKeown, (listed in the 1880 street directory as a ‘leather merchant’), whose family remained there until c.1894. After a period of vacancy, H. Riddell, an engineer, took up the lease in c.1896-97, staying on until 1900 when after another year or two of lying empty Saville C. Hardy, a ‘linen manufacturer’, became resident. In the 1911 census Mr. Hardy is recorded as living there with his spinster sister, Florence Hardy, nephew Brian Hardy and a domestic servant, with the building itself notes as a ‘first class’ dwelling with nine rooms in use by the family. The Hardys were still there in 1918, but by 1924 the house was being shared by Rev. W.H. Smith and James C. Smith, a dental surgeon, who had become the sole occupant by at least 1932 (and who appears to had his surgery within the building). Mr Smith was still there in 1969, with a Kathleen ‘Smyth’ (a relative?) is named as the householder in 1974. By 1980 the property had been converted to offices shared between D. Dorman & Co. (shipping agents) and Queen’s University, with Hood McGowan Kirk Partnership listed as the only occupant from 1986. The flat-roofed extension to the rear appears to have been added c.1990. Hood McGowan Kirk Partnership retained the property until c.2014 after which it was sold into private hands.

No.16 College Gardens was listed in Sept 1979. H.E.D. Files record that Conservation Area grant was awarded towards rebuilding of main chimneystack following works completed in Feb 1991; rear chimney (at eaves to main roof) removed at same time. Planning approval was granted in Sept 2013 to convert to six apartments and in 2015 grant was awarded towards reslating roof in natural slate, repair of windows, historic joinery and plasterwork.

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 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 with attic red brick late Victorian town house, built 1877. Architect unknown. It has group value with No.15, 17 and 18 College Gardens (HB26.28.019A, 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 and a flat roofed rear extension diminish the historic character to some extent. Nonetheless, the original rear return complete with most sliding sash windows survive and the house remains significant as an integral part of the group, which is a good example of an intact terrace of late Victorian dwellings. A bull nosed stone entrance step and a cast iron boot-scraper significantly enhance the quality of its setting.