26 Ashley Ave

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Two-storey with attic terraced house, built c1871 and possibly to designs by 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, abutted by later flat-roofed extension (c.1960s), of little historic interest. Site slopes N-S so that rear yard level sits half-storey lower than front entrance. Facing north on Ashley Avenue, one of a series of densely populated streets comprised of similarly scaled terraced and semi-detached properties off Lisburn Road, south Belfast. Group value with adjoining No22 & 24 Ashley Avenue (HB26 28 054A & B), the three survive as part of original five with No 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 mix of red and black clay ridge tiles, including rear return. Modern skylight to rear slope. Rendered chimney centred on ridge with corbelled cap and five octagonal yellow clay pots; shared with No24. Projecting eaves course on paired block modillions to front. Simpler projecting eaves course to rear, with UPVC half-round gutter on rise-and-fall brackets.

Materials:
ROOF: Natural slate, including return (few random fibre cement replacements to latter)
RWG: Cast iron ogee gutter (N), one 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 to left; entrance to right at ground floor; and two equal-sized windows at first floor. Some historic glass remains to ground floor bay windows. All openings are square headed. 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. Entrance with plain glass over-light containing historic glass and timber framed door with painted with bolection moulding; raised and fielded panelling, round-arched upper panels having carved spandrels and cast iron knocker, bell-push, letterbox and brass handle all intact. Aedicule comprised of panelled sides and lintel, decorative scrolled console brackets, projecting hood with moulded cornice and pediment above.

Rear Elevation (S):
Two bays wide, with two-storey gabled return abutted by single-storey extension to left (W); flush painted timber hatch at basement and one window each at ground and first floor to right side. Main building has single window above return to left side. Smooth rendered walls, painted with projecting stone cills and eaves course.
South elevation of return: blank with clipped eaves. Glazed sliding doors and screen to single-storey extension; projecting boxed timber eaves, painted.

East Elevation:
No.24 (HB26.28.054B) abuts east elevation of main building. East face of return has informally arranged openings. Ground floor, from right to left: large timber sliding sash window, single glazed with ten-over-ten panes; uPVC door in original opening; and two windows. First floor: three windows, two equal-sized and a third smaller.
East face of single-storey extension: timber framed casement window split in three with thin concrete cill extended to corner.

West elevation:
West elevation comprised of gable end to main building and west face of return. Gable: rendered, smooth; small section of wall retained as buttress to N and S ends where previously No28 removed and red brick property erected on adjoining site; projecting timber bargeboard, painted.
West face of return: blank save for single window at first floor, offset to left (N).

Set back from pavement by low wall and railings and gate, both replaced but sympathetic to character of building with 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 gardens remain although passage now gone. To right of return, yard surfaced in square quarry tiles, possibly original. Precast concrete paving slabs to small patio area at single-storey extension; lawn and planted borders beyond; and brick boundary wall.

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.26 – This house and its presumably similar, but long-since demolished neighbour (no.28), were both built in 1870. The developer was Samuel Clotworthy who the following year added two further houses to the east (nos.22-24). The identity of the architect is not known. The following year, 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 Mrs Margaret Monteith, who was succeeded in c.1879 by Samuel Clothworthy, presumably the same person responsible for the development of this house and its near neighbours. He is listed in the 1887 street directory as a coal merchant, but appears to have died before 1890, for a Mrs. Clotworthy is listed as the householder from that date. She is recorded in the 1901 census as a widow, occupying the property with her two grown-up son and daughter and a domestic servant, with the building itself noted as a ‘second class’ dwelling with twelve rooms. In the next census of 1911 the house is described as a ‘first class’ dwelling with Mrs. Clotworthy and her daughter the only residents, occupying seven rooms. After his mother’s death c.1922 no.26 passed to Alexander Clotworthy, who appears to have remained there until at least the early 1950s. Edward J. Whinton (a ‘secretary’) is listed as the occupant in 1960, with A.J. Crockart (‘studio manager’) living there from c.1963 until c.1990 and Judith West noted as resident in the final Belfast 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 – but building-related documents unavailable]
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
J. Setting
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

S. Authenticity
X. Local Interest
R. Age

Evaluation

Two-storey with attic terraced dwelling, built c.1871 to designs, 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.22 & 24 (HB26.28.054A & B); the three properties are rendered and embellished with stucco detailing. They stand apart within the Lisburn Road Area of Townscape Character as good examples of late Victorian terraced houses. Well proportioned with canted bay, entrance aedicule and two-over-two paned sliding sash windows, the gabled return to No 26 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 No22. Ashley Ave.