22 Ashley Ave

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Two-storey with attic terraced house, built 1870 and possibly to designs by Luke Livingstone Macassey, although this cannot be confirmed with certainty. Rendered façade with canted bay, entrance aedicule, two-over-two paned sliding sash windows and natural slate roof. Two-storey gabled return built at half-landing level to rear. Facing north on Ashley Avenue, one of a series of densely populated streets comprising similarly scaled terraced and semi-detached properties off Lisburn Road, south Belfast. Group value with Nos. 24 & 26 Ashley Avenue (HB26 28 054B & C), the three survive as the left-hand part of an original terrace of five, with Nos. 28 & 30 demolished between 1959-70. Set within Lisburn Road Area of Townscape Character; in vicinity of an early Christian occupation site (ANT 061:014).

Natural slate roof (Bangor Blue) with black clay ridge tiles; including rear return. Gabled dormers to front and rear; front dormer has segmental arched sliding sash timber window with 1/1 panes, painted timber boarded cheeks and scrolled timber brackets that support overhanging eaves and fascia; rear dormer appears to be recent. Two chimneys centred on ridge of main roof, both rendered with corbelled cap and six octagonal yellow clay pots; one at gable end and one shared with No. 24. Replacement red brick chimney sits midway along return roof, centred on ridge. Projecting eaves course on paired block modillions to front. Simpler projecting eaves course to rear, with UPVC half-round gutter.

Materials:
ROOF: Natural slate, including return (few random fibre cement replacements to latter)
RWG: Cast iron ogee gutter (N), cast iron RWP (N) and remainder uPVC.
WALLS: Render with stone dressings, all painted.
WINDOWS: Single glazed double hung single glazed sliding sash with 2/2 panes, unless otherwise described.

Front Elevation (N):
Asymmetrical: single storey canted bay with parapet roof and railings to left; entrance to right at ground floor; and two equal-sized windows at first floor. Toothed quoins to left (E) side. Walls rendered smooth, and painted, with lines indented up to first floor cill height to resemble rusticated stone; dressings highlighted in contrasting colour: continuous cill, moulded string, head and cornice to bay; entrance aedicule and first floor moulded window surrounds. Projecting course between first floor cills, moulded string at attic level and projecting eaves painted to match main walling. Timber framed door, painted with bolection moulding; raised and fielded panelling, round-arched upper panels having carved spandrels and cast iron knocker, letterbox and brass handle all intact; plain glass overlight. Aedicule comprised of panelled sides and lintel, decorative scrolled console brackets, projecting hood with moulded cornice and pediment above. Lever bell-pull recessed within aedicule, possibly original.

Rear Elevation (S):
Two bays wide, with two-storey gabled return to left (W); inward opening glazed hopper at basement (with metal bars to external reveal), one window each ground and first floor and wide duo-pitched attic dormer to right side. Main building also has single window above return to left side. Smooth rendered walls, painted with projecting cills and eaves course. Barrel vaulted steel framed conservatory encloses most of yard between return and boundary wall with No20, and projects further south into garden; supported at that point on rendered plinth wall; steel framed with single glazed facetted panes and highly ornate cast iron ridge and spike finial; hipped roof glazed ‘lantern’ on top, with vents manually operated by winding pole mechanism from inside. Beyond conservatory, small open yard next to kitchen window.
South elevation of return: clipped eaves; single opening at first floor, offset to left containing six-paned fixed light, with curved top and bottom edges; stained timber door with multi-paned timber framed sidelights and stained glass over-light at ground floor.

East Elevation:
No.20 abuts east elevation of main building, with small part of gable end exposed at top.
East face of return: at ground floor, from right to left: large timber sliding sash window, single glazed with ten-over-ten panes and two round-arched openings with plain fanlights and modern timber framed glass doors; at first floor: three windows, two equal-sized and a third smaller; latter comprised of timber sliding sash, 1/1 with margin panes.

West elevation:
No24 abuts west elevation of main building. West side return faces onto yard at No24; rendered smooth and painted white with projecting eaves course and uPVC gutter to match S elevation; single window at first floor, offset to far left (N).

Set back from pavement by low plinth wall topped by railings with matching gate and same wall and railings along front boundary with No.24 and No.20 (according to previous owner, railings and gate salvaged from a church on University Rd, c.1980s); hedging and shrubs behind. From historic maps, terrace appears to have yard for each property, communal passage and then individual gardens to rear; gates between yards remain although passage now gone. Rendered boundary wall separates small patio area at No24 from No22, with adjoining gate (cast iron and according to previous owner, salvaged from a horse paddock c.1980); hedging to remainder of W boundary. Yard surfaced in square quarry tiles, possibly original, with steps up to lawn and planted area to S; S & E boundaries: red brick walling.

Historical information

Background - Ashley Avenue was laid out sometime between 1858 and 1860, its course, unlike most others in this area, falling within the plot of one the long-established strip farms which stretched from the what is now University / Malone Road to the Bog Meadows, rather than following one of the boundaries. The earliest property to be built along its length appears to have been that referred to in a Belfast News-Letter notice of August 1860, as a ‘new detached house, now being finished in Ashley Avenue...with front and back parlour, drawing-room, and five bed-rooms...having gas and water and a large garden’. This was ‘Ashley House’, no.30 (now demolished), which was originally freestanding, but which became an end of terrace property when nos.22-28 were built to the eastern side of it in 1870-71. Prior to this, Alexandra Terrace (nos.41-47) had been added at a right angle to the northern side of the street in 1863, no.49 (now demolished) in 1864, nos.4-14 (several demolished) and no.57 in 1868, and nos.53-55 in 1871. Nos.33-39 followed in 1873, 15-27 in 1890, 3-11 in 1892, 16 in 1893, 13 in 1894, but much of the street to the west of this consists largely of c.1920s / 1930s semis, but with a long terrace of rough similar date to the far western end, and Fane Street School, a R.S. Wilshire-designed complex of 1927. In more recent years there has been significant redevelopment within the longer-established eastern section of the street.

The street was probably named in tribute to Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 8th Earl of Shaftesbury (1831-86), who in 1857 married the Marquis of Donegall's heiress, Lady Harriet Chichester.

No.22 – This house and its similar, but non-identical neighbour (no.24) were both built in 1870. The developer was Samuel Clotworthy who had plans for ‘two houses in Ashley Avenue’ approved by Belfast Corporations’ Town Improvement Committee in June 1870. The identity of the architect is uncertain. Luke Livingston Macassey, the Carrickfergus-born ‘architect and engineer’ then of 71 High Street, Belfast, is noted as having worked on plans for a pair of dwellings somewhere in this street in 1871, but it is uncertain which houses these were, or if indeed they were ever built.

The earliest occupant of the property appears to have been Alexander Fisher, with the sequence of residents afterwards as follows, Mrs. Brown (or Browne) c.1875-82, John W. Edgar c.1882-85, Henry Macaulay (‘draper’) c.1885-90, and William Wallace and R.P. Hunter c.1890-98. Capt. Robert Crosby, a ‘retired Master Mariner’ who became resident in c.1898-99, is recorded in the 1901 census as living there with his wife, Martha, two boarders, Anna and Ellen Graves, and a visitor, Anne Bella Linus. A Mrs. Meek is noted as the occupant in 1907, followed by Albert Martin (a ‘Commission Agent’) the following year. The 1911 census notes that Mr. Martin was occupying the house at that date with his wife, Annie Elizabeth, their eight children and a domestic servant, with the building itself a 'first class' dwelling with 7 rooms occupied. The Martin family continued to reside at no.22 until at least the late 1920s, with a Mrs R. Brown listed as the householder in 1932, J.H. Patterson in 1943, and Peter Fitzell (‘clerk’) in 1951. Mr. Fitzell remained until c.1975, when Alun Evans acquired the property and carried out substantial refurbishment. Helen Armstrong is recorded as resident in the street directory of 1996.

References – Primary sources
1 ‘Belfast News-Letter’, 16 August 1860
2 ‘Belfast and Province of Ulster Street Directory’, (Belfast News-Letter, Belfast), various dates from 1860 to 1996
3 PRONI VAL12B/43D/6 annual valuation revision book, 1862-82
4 ‘Northern Whig’, 2 June 1870
5 ‘Belfast Morning News’, 17 May 1871
6 PRONI OS8/30/2/48 OS town plan of Belfast, 1871-73
7 PRONI OS8/30/3/48 OS town plan of Belfast, 1883-84
8 PRONI OS8/30/4/48 OS town plan of Belfast, 1896
9 Census of Ireland, 1901, 1911 [online] (House details page unavailable for 1901.)
10 PRONI OS8/30/5/48 OS town plan of Belfast, 1903
11 OS maps various sheets at 1:1250/2500 scale, 1920-85 [online]

Secondary sources
1 Carleton, S.T., ‘The growth of South Belfast’, (unpublished QUB MA thesis), 1967
2 Larmour, Paul, ‘The Architectural Heritage of Malone & Stranmillis’, (UAHS, 1991), p.28
3 Dictionary of Irish Architects [online]

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
I. Quality and survival of Interior
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

R. Age
S. Authenticity
X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Two-storey with attic terraced dwelling, built 1870, possibly to designs by Luke Livingstone Macassey, although this cannot be confirmed with certainty. Facing north on Ashley Avenue, it has group value with No.24 & 26 (HB26.28.054B & C); the three properties are rendered in different colours and embellished with stucco detailing. They stand apart within the Lisburn Road Area of Townscape Character as good examples of late Victorian architecture. Well proportioned with canted bay, entrance aedicule and two-over-two paned sliding sash windows, the gabled return to No 22 retains its original windows. Inside, the plan form is largely unaltered with an array of historic joinery and plasterwork amongst other features of note. Archaeological remains, reputedly from an early Christian occupation site (ANT 061:014) were discovered in 1975 in an excavation of the cellar of this property.