18 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.15, 16 and 17 College Gardens (HB26.28.019A, B &C); 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 detached hipped roof garage and lean to outhouse at rear boundary.

Natural slate roof with black clay ridge tiles and wide flat roofed dormer to front pitch; dormer clad in PVC membrane. Two red brick chimneys, both replaced in modern red brick with several circular clay pots: one shared with No17 and one centred on gable end. Projecting moulded eaves to front on curved moulded brackets alternating with pitched square motif at deep frieze, all on projecting string course with continuous band of dentils below; detail returned at SW corner to gable end. Rear eaves simpler and comprises two courses of projecting brick, however decorative eaves and frieze at front repeated at NW corner; latter forms base to simple rendered verge band and projecting moulded timber barge board.

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

Front Elevation (S):
Asymmetrical with entrance to right (E) at ground floor and projecting square rendered bay with two windows to left (W) at ground floor; latter repeated at first floor, slightly shallower in red brick with separate 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 SW corner.
Ground floor stuccoed bay has stop-chamfered head and jamb to ground floor bay 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.
Square headed timber framed entrance door comprising two full-height arched panels with raised fields and bolection moulding; plain glass segmental arched over-light on deep moulded transom; elaborate stucco surround, with roll-edged reveal, 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 heads to first floor at square bay and foliated detail above surrounds to second floor windows.

Rear Elevation (N):
North elevation surveyed from Elmwood Mews. Three-storey gabled return built at half-landing level to left (E) side and one window to each ground, first and second floor to right. Red brick walling, detailed simpler than front elevation with projecting brick eaves course, soldier coursed brick headers and square-edged painted cills.
North elevation of return: one window to second floor, offset to right (W) and two at first floor, offset to left – all as described above. Remnants of flashing on brick wall suggest evidence of former gabled single storey return, now gone.

East Elevation:
Abutted by No17 College Gardens. East face of return is detailed as rear of main building and largely blank, except single window at first floor overlooking yard to No17; wall rendered smooth and painted below first floor cill height.
West Elevation:
Comprised of gable end to original building and west 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, and two small round arched windows near to eaves at attic level, with painted rendered reveals.
Return: as described for north elevation. Windows informally arranged: two each at first and second floor (not aligned). Ground floor not seen.

Set back from tree-lined street by low red brick walling with stone coping and hedging on south side of College Gardens, No18 forms end of terrace to block of similar town houses, rectangular on plan and aligned E-W parallel to road. Same walling and hedge aligns boundary with No 19. Painted metal gate, not original, opens on to concrete paved path with lawn and planted areas, semi-mature beech tree to SW corner. Painted metal railing divides front garden of No18 from that at No17. Front door opens onto two replacement steps, flanked by painted dwarf walls with open balustrade between square end piers, all having painted cambered caps. Rear boundary marked by variegated brownish red brick wall with curved terracotta cap, which steps down to newer red brick containing modern steel lintel over polyester powder coated metal roller shutter that opens to hipped roofed garage on reverse side. Flush timer door with precast concrete lintel over opens from yard to Elmwood Mews.

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.18 This property belongs to a terrace of four symmetrically arranged single-fronted townhouses 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 1880 street directory records the occupants of no.18 as Robert Woodside. By 1887 the lease had been taken up by Alexander M. Carlisle (‘of Harland & Wolff…survey to Bureau Veritas, and registrar of shipping – British and foreign’), who was followed in c.1893 – after a period of vacancy for a year two – by J.C. White, a solicitor. It is noted as vacant again in 1896-97, with M. Wilson, ‘sec. the Belfast Bank’, named as resident in 1899, and Mrs. Elizabeth S. Sinclair in 1900. In the following year’s census, Mrs. Sinclair, a widow, is recorded as living there with her daughter Emily and two domestic servants with the building itself a ‘first class’ dwelling with 13 rooms in use by the family. In 1911 Miss Emily Sinclair and a single domestic servant are noted as the occupants, however, the street directories indicate that she was sharing the house with a Dr F.H. Sinclair, whose [?main] residence is given as ‘Cooleen’ in Warrenpoint. Miss Sinclair is listed as the householder up until at least 1932, but by at least 1943 the property was in the hands of the government, and by 1951 was occupied by Queen’s University’s Air Squadron, remaining as such until at least 1969, before serving as a University run student residence in the 1970s and 1980s. It seems to have returned to private hands by 1996, with Nuala M. McLoughlin named as the occupant in the (final) street directory of that year.

No.18 College Gardens was listed in Sept 1979. H.E.D. files recordsthat the chimneys were replaced c.1989, with guttering to front of house replaced in 1991 when the property was owned by Queens University Belfast. By 2006, the property was in a decrepit state and that same year, an application was submitted to rebuild the two-storey bay and the dormer window to the front, re-point brickwork, and replace windows and doors. In 2016, planning approval was granted to replace the existing garage and rear yard and to insert double doors in place of a ground floor rear window.

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
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. It has group value with No.15, 16 and 17 College Gardens (HB26.28.019A, 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. Replacement windows and reconstruction of the front bay have been sensitively handled and do not diminish the historic character of the building. No.18 is significant as an integral part of the group, which survive as an intact terrace of late Victorian dwellings. Painted rendered walling with open balustrade adjacent to the entrance enhances the quality of its setting.