21 COLLEGE GARDENS

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Mid 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.19, 20 and 22 College Gardens (HB26.28.020A, B & D); the block is largely symmetrical to front with No.19 mirrored by No.22, both at gable ends with 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 gabled dormer to front pitch; dormer has pierced timber bargeboard and pointed finial. Three modern roof-lights to rear pitch. One red brick chimney replaced in modern 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 with moulded rectangular frame and paired raised and fielded panels; base of each pilaster embellished with bestial head moulding. Rear eaves simpler in alternating angular bricks.

Materials
ROOF: Natural slate – except three-storey flat-roofed return which has asphalt membrane.
RWG: Main roof- ogee profile cast metal gutter and circular section RWP; hipped roof- uPVC with cast iron RWP; flat roof- ditto
WALLS: Red brick in Flemish bond with stucco dressings (S & W); and English Garden Wall bond to N and return.
WINDOW: Timber framed double glazed replacement sliding sash with 1/1 panes (S) and 2/2 panes (N), unless otherwise stated.
Note: Sashes with 2/2 panes have one continuous double glazed unit per sash, with central glazing bar face-fixed to glass and additional spacers inside sealed unit in line with bar (i.e. No through astragal).

Front Elevation (S):
Asymmetrical with entrance to right (E) at ground floor and projecting bowed bay with three windows to left (W) at ground floor; three windows at first floor, two paired over bay and one aligned with ground floor entrance; same at second floor; and gabled attic dormer centred on eaves with twin round-arched sliding sash windows. Apart from the attic, all openings are segmental headed and diminish in height from ground to second floor.
Painted render base plinth with moulded top. 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 similar cornice and frieze to main roof and Renaissance style balustrade. Frieze continued at main façade and repeated below continuous projecting cill at second floor windows. Deep moulded stucco surrounds to ground floor bay windows with corresponding moulded brackets below continuous projecting cill; same detail at second floor windows with simple cheron moulded stucco in place of brackets. First floor has plain pilasters 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 lean-to projection and double return built at half-landing level to left (E) side and one opening to each basement ground, first and second floor to right. Detailed simpler than front elevation with flat arched openings, soldier coursed brick headers and square-edged painted cills (mainly stone); window reveals are rendered and painted. All windows to main building are as described under 'Materials', except that to basement, which is side hung casement.
Lean-to projection is blank except for chimneystack with replaced brick above eaves, concrete coping and red clay pots.
North face of hipped-roof return: canted bay window at second floor, centred on hip with timber frame and replacement double glazed casement windows, timber beam with decorative carved ends and exposed rafter tails; latter supports uPVC half-round gutter.
North face of flat-roofed return: single storey flat roofed abutment at basement level, with former door opening bricked up to far right (W) side; two double glazed casement windows at ground floor; and two windows at first floor – one small casement window offset to right and a large round-arched sliding sash window with 1/1 panes fitted with Edwardian style leaded glass, sandwiched between two panes of float glass. Original brick headers and stone cills remain to all openings.
Projecting angled brick eaves to returns as per main building; uPVC gutter and RWP.

East Elevation:
Abutted by No20 College Gardens, including the return.

West Elevation:
Main building abutted by No.22 College Gardens. Description below relates to west face of lean-to projection and double return.
Projection has one opening at each half-landing level: sliding sash with 2/2 panes; and a modern sheeted timber door to basement.
Hipped roof return: escape window at second floor, timber casement with concrete lintel; two windows at first floor - that to left is also an escape window; two windows at ground floor and a single casement window at basement level. Escape windows are tilt-n-turn casements that open onto galvanised steel landings with escape ladders. All other windows are as described under 'Materials'.
Flat roofed return: informally arranged windows: to first floor, sliding sash with 2/2 panes and smaller fixed light; ground floor, sliding sash with 1/1 panes; and two casement windows to basement (not aligned). Remaining soldier course headers suggest third basement window (now bricked up).

No21 sits mid terrace in 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 topped by modern metal railings, painted black, with hedge behind. Front door opens onto broad step with coloured band formed in concrete aggregate, flanked by painted dwarf walls with open balustrade between square end piers. Hedge aligns boundary with front garden of No 20. Rear boundary to Elmwood Mews marked by red brick walling with pitched terracotta cap and wide opening with concrete lintel, formerly with sheeted timber door fold-back door (Aug 2016) now boarded over; additional pedestrian door to Elmwood Mews. Square concrete pavers to rear yard and to path at front and side of house. Tarmacked front garden provides off-street parking and vehicular entrance shared with No22.

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.21 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.21 as Robert Carmichael, a publican, followed by a Mrs. Ferguson by 1887, J.R. Ferguson, a civil engineer, (presumably Mrs Ferguson’s husband or son), by 1890, and John R. Jeffryes, ‘Director of the Northern Bank’. In the 1901 census Mr. Jeffryes (a retired widower), was occupying no.21 with his two grown-up daughters, two nurses (he was elderly and presumably in poor health) and two domestic servants, with the building itself noted as a ‘first class’ dwelling with 14 rooms in use. William Russell, ‘managing director of A.S. Henry & Co. Ltd.’ is noted as resident in 1907, with his widow, Mrs. Margaret Linda Russell featuring in the directories from the following year and noted in the 1911 census as living there with her daughter and granddaughter and two domestic servants. The Russells seem to have remained there until at least the mid-1930s. During WWII this property and its eastern neighbour (no.20) were put into government use, but returned to private occupation afterwards with a surgeon, J.A.W. Bingham resident in 1951. Dr. Bingham was still there up until at least the early 1980s.

No21 College Gardens was listed in Sept 1979. It was converted to student housing in 1984 and subsequently fell vacant by 2011. HED files record that the property was in very poor condition by 2013 as a result of water penetration which lead to wet and dry rot. Works approved under a 2015 application to convert the property to six apartments were underway at the time of the second survey of the property (May 2017).

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
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 1881. Architect unknown. Group value with No.19, 20 and 22 College Gardens (HB26.28.019A, B & 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 including Renaissance balustrade and elaborate door surround, broad entrance step flanked by painted dwarf walling with open balustrade . Replacement windows have been sensitively detailed for the most part and do not diminishes the historic character of the building. Subdivision of the upper floors has resulted in some loss of plan form, nonetheless the original staircase survives intact as well as much historic joinery and plasterwork inside. No.21 is important to the integrity the group, and the remainder of terraces within College Gardens, a tree-lined street of similarly scaled late Victorian townhouses running from Malone Road to Lisburn Road and within Queens Conservation Area.