19 COLLEGE GARDENS

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

End of terrace, three-storey with attic (and semi-basement) red brick late Victorian town house, built 1881. Architect unknown. Part of block of four, including No.20, 21 and 22 College Gardens (HB26.28.020B, C & D); the block is largely symmetrical to front with No.19 mirrored by No.22, both at gable ends and No.20 & 21 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. Full-height projecting bay to rear abutted by double return at half-landing level, which steps down from four to three stories.

Natural slate roof with red clay crested ridge tiles and wide flat roofed dormers to both front and rear pitch. Two roof-lights to rear pitch: one modern; and the other conservation-style. Red brick chimney, rebuilt in salvaged red brick with several circular clay pots. Projecting moulded eaves to front on scrolled modillions; deep frieze comprised of fluted pilasters between alternating panels of central roundel within moulded rectangular frame; and paired raised and fielded panels. Base of each pilaster embellished with bestial head moulding. Eaves and frieze detail returned at SW corner to gable end. Rear eaves simpler in alternating angular bricks, however decorative eaves and frieze to front repeated at NW corner; latter forms base to simple rendered verge band and projecting moulded timber barge board.

Materials
ROOF: Natural slate, bar three-storey flat-roofed return and attic dormers (PVC membrane).
RWG: Ogee profile cast metal gutters and circular section RWP (S); uPVC (N).
WALLS: Red brick in Flemish bond (S & W); and English Garden Wall bond to N.
WINDOWS: Timber framed single glazed sliding sash with 1/1 panes, 2nd floor (S) – all others described elsewhere.
Note: Many windows concealed by external boarding at time of survey.

Front Elevation (S):
Asymmetrical with entrance to left (W) and projecting square bay with two windows to right at ground floor; three windows each at first and second floor, aligned with ground floor openings; and flat-roofed dormer centred on eaves with three pairs of casement windows.
All openings are segmental headed and diminish in height from ground to second floor: at second floor, original sliding sashes appear to be retained; at first floor, timber framed casements windows, top hung and matching proportions of sliding sashes; and a ground floor, bay windows are boarded up.
Painted render base plinth with moulded top and vermiculated toothed quoins to SE corner.
Square headed timber framed entrance door comprising two panels with raised fields and bolection moulding; plain glass over-light on simple transom; elaborate concentric arched stucco surround, with egg-and-dart and chevron moulding, pitched keystone and simple pilasters; all painted.
Ground floor bay has flat roof (felt membrane) and similar cornice and frieze to main roof; continued at main façade and repeated below continuous projecting cill at second floor windows. Deep moulded stucco surrounds to ground floor windows with corresponding moulded brackets below continuous projecting cill; same detail at second floor windows with simple chevron moulding in place of brackets. First floor has plainer surrounds between cill and impost level where continuous stucco band runs between windows, enriched with classical-style mouldings; above band, ornate floral detail to moulded surrounds and exaggerated pitched keystones.

Rear Elevation (N):
Full-height projection and double return built at half-landing level to right (W) side and one opening to each basement ground, first and second floor to right. Openings within the main building at first and second floor are widened to suit modern steel framed ‘Crittall’ type windows, although the original soldier coursed brick headers remain. The same applies at basement level, with cement render in place of the window. At ground floor, the original timber framed sliding sash window with 2/2 panes appears to survive intact, complete with square-edged painted cills (stone); window reveals are rendered and painted.
Alternating angled brick eaves to main building repeated at both return roofs.
Full-height lean-to Projection is blank except for projecting timber eaves board.
North face of hipped-roof return: two openings at second floor offset to right.
North face of flat-roofed return: deep rendered plinth (painted); three basement windows, blocked up - salvaged brick above concrete blocks suggest far left opening was probably a door, with segmental arched soldier coursed brick above. At ground and first floor, single wide opening on each floor, offset to right side: at second floor, three-part steel framed casement; and at first floor, same proportion as above, boarded up.

East Elevation:
Comprised of gable end to main building, east face of projection and double return.
Gable: Toothed quoins returned from main façade and decorative eaves returned at N & S ends as described above. Two openings at ground floor: one segmental arched with stucco surround matching bay windows at main façade, boarded up; and one near to centre of gable, in-filled with concrete block and having precast concrete lintel and cill. At first and second floors: single, wide opening centred on apex, boarded up and similar in proportion to steel framed windows at N elevation. Small round arched opening near to eaves at attic level to far left (S), bricked up. Full-height concrete spiral stair to far right side, rising from ground to attic level, where an escape window near to eaves is boarded up.
Projection has one opening at each half-landing level: all boarded up although retaining projecting stone cills and soldier coursed brick headers; and flush timber door at basement level.
Hipped and flat roofed returns: three windows at basement level, all in-filled with concrete blocks; two windows each at ground and first floors, wide steel framed casements to latter (former similar, now boarded up); and three modern casement windows at second floor, all modern casements with shared concrete cill.
Remaining soldier course headers above second floor windows provide evidence that original proportions have been altered.

West Elevation:
Abutted by No20 College Gardens. West face of return surveyed from Elmwood Mews - detailed as rear of main building and largely blank (where seen); brick walling to hipped roof return painted white to first floor level.

No19 forms end of terrace to block of similar town houses, rectangular on plan and aligned E-W parallel to College Gardens. Set back from tree-lined street by low red brick walling with chamfered stone coping, with hedge behind. Temporary gate - flush timber board, locked shut. Hedge returns along E boundary with front garden to No18; to rear yard, red brick walling separates the two. Front door opens onto broad step, possibly stone, with bull-nosed edge. Step flanked by dwarf walls, without balustrade that remains to adjoining properties. Precast concrete paving slabs to path from entrance gate to step at front door; remainder of garden has planting and a lawn. Semi-mature beech tree within garden, next to hedge. Rear boundary to Elmwood Mews removed – temporary fencing in place.

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.19 This property belongs to a terrace of four symmetrically arranged single-fronted townhouses built in 1880-81. 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 1884 street directory records the occupant of no.19 as Samuel Young, a ‘spirit merchant’. By 1887 the lease had been taken up by James Moore (simply listed in the directories as a ‘merchant’), who was followed in c.1891 by Nicholas W. Grimshaw, a linen merchant and member of a Belfast family long-established in the local textile industry. Johnson Symington was the next occupant (c.1893), followed by A.A. Lockhart in c.1898. At the time of the 1901 census the house was in the hands of John Irvine, a Dublin-born a wine merchant, who was living there with his wife, Alice, two grown-up daughters and two domestic servants, with the building itself noted as a ‘first class’ dwelling with the family occupying 15 rooms. Robert Gault, a flax merchant, is listed as resident in 1907, and he is recorded the 1911 census as occupying the house with his wife, Sophia, their infant son and three domestic servants. A surgeon, T.K. Wheeler had taken up residence by 1918, with another medical doctor, J.R. Wheeler (presumably a relative), the householder from the later 1940s, by which time the building appears to have become a surgery. It remained as such until the mid to later 1960s when it became the offices for V.B. Evans & Co., Chartered Quantity Surveyors. It was still their hands in 1996, but appears to have been vacated in 2007.

The large extension to the return, dormers, fire escape stair and the changes to the rear fenestration all appear to be of the mid to later 1960s and as such were probably carried out by V.B. Evans & Co.

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 red brick late Victorian town house, built 1881. Architect unknown. Group value with No.20, 21 and 22 College Gardens (HB26.28.019B, C & D) as part of a block of four; largely symmetrical to the front. The buildings face south and overlook the grounds of Methodist College. Well proportioned with stucco dressings to formally arranged openings and elaborate door surround. Alterations to the rear carried out in the 1960s detract from the historic character of No.19, however, it remains important to the integrity the group, and the remainder of terraces within College Gardens, a tree-lined street of similarly scaled late Victorian townhouses within Queens Conservation Area.