39 MALONE ROAD

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Mid terrace four-storey two-bay red brick late Victorian town house, built 1886-87 to designs by William Eaton, architect. Located at north end of Malone Road, Belfast, No.39 is one of terrace of nine similar houses (HB26.28.059A & C-I inclusive) running between Malone Avenue and Eglantine Avenue. Rectangular on plan as a group on N-S axis with ends gabled; they form one of the most impressive terraces within Malone Road Conservation Area, each having full-height bowed bay with conical slate roof. Three-storey gabled return built at half-landing level to rear (W) on right side, abutted by single storey duo-pitched brick appendage (of little interest) that extends almost full length of yard; flat roofed shed between the latter and brick boundary wall to alley. Currently used as commercial offices, dental surgery and self-contained attic flat.

Natural slate roof with bands of fish-scale slates to bowed bay and red terracotta saw-tooth ridge tiles and finials to main building; black clay ridge tiles to return. Large red brick chimney centred on gable end to main roof with simple corbelled brick coursing to cap and eight circular yellow clay pots; smaller red brick chimney centred on gable end to return with two octagonal and one circular yellow clay pots. Cast iron gutter supported on scrolled terracotta brackets and projecting eaves course to front (E); bowed bay rises beyond main eaves, highlighted by cornice of classical ornamentation in stuccowork below the gutter.

Materials
ROOF: Natural slate
RWG: Cast iron; uPVC downpipe to rear return.
WALLS: Red brick walling laid to Flemish bond with painted stucco dressings; English Garden Wall bond to return
WINDOWS: Single glazed double hung painted timber sliding sash with 1/1 panes to main building and 2/2 panes to return, unless otherwise stated.

Front Elevation (E):
Front elevation faces east, two bays wide with bowed bay offset to right and entrance to left. Projecting moulded cill and string courses and painted stucco plat band to all floors. Painted stucco walling also to bowed bay, except some brick courses between each floor level. Bay windows and segmental arched door have incised decoration in stuccowork above openings with edge roll moulding. Moulded stucco hood and label stops to door, above painted stucco plat band on pink marble colonnettes with moulded stucco foliated caps; plain fanlight above square-headed 5-panelled replacement timber door; toothed stucco quoins below plat band and decorative terracotta panel above door head. Colonnettes and terracotta panel repeated on first and second floor windows above door.

North Elevation:
No.37 Malone Road (HB26.28.059A) abuts north face of main building. Flank elevation of three-storey return has informally arranged fenestration and simple detailing: brick, soldier coursed window heads and projecting brick headers to eaves supporting ogee cast iron gutter that discharges to uPVC downpipe. 2/2 sliding sash as described above to first floor (one; nearest to gable end) and second floor (two); replacement top-hung timber casement windows to ground floor; further two top-hung uPVC casement windows and one timber casement at first floor; and steel-framed multi-paned window with translucent glass, concrete head and painted cill at second floor. Natural slates to single-storey extension roof, with similar projecting eaves course, uPVC gutter and RWP. Red brick walls in stretcher bond (suggesting later date); painted. Same applies to shed, with asphalt flat roof.

West elevation:
West elevation faces shared alley. Three-storey gabled return to right (S) with clipped eaves and chimney as described above to gable end, otherwise blank. To left of return, main building has fire exit doors in place of windows at each level, opening onto external galvanised steel escape stair; and to right, above return, one sliding sash window with 2/2 panes and one top-hung timber casement window with concrete head and cill. Soldier coursed window heads and projecting brick header course to eaves. Fire exit doors are timber except at first floor (uPVC); plain glass over-light to ground, first and second floor.

South Elevation:
No.41 Malone Road (HB26.28.059C) abuts south face of main building. Flank elevation to return detailed as north elevation; sliding sash windows with margin panes overlooking yard to No41 at both first and second floor half-landings.

Setting
Set back from tree-lined street by paved front gardens bound by low walling with replacement railings on the west side of the Malone Road, part of terrace of town houses, rectangular on plan and aligned parallel to main road. Located directly opposite Fisherwick Presbyterian Church (HB26.17.014) and from this aspect, at corner of Chlorine Gardens, it is most impressive. Rear yard bound by red brick walling (painted white) with curved terracotta cap; ledged and braced sheeted timber gate to alley. Narrow strip of quarry tiles remain to yard, contained by low red brick walling (possibly for coal storage).

Historical information

Nos.37-53 Malone Road were constructed in 1886-88 to a design by the then Botanic Avenue-based architect, William Eaton, on what had been the grounds of Eglantine Hill, a pre-1832 house bounded by the Malone and Lisburn Roads in the east and west what is now Malone and Eglantine Avenues to the north and south. The terrace, originally named ‘Windsor Gardens’, was built for James Johnston, possibly the insurance agent of that name listed in contemporary directories as operating out of Waring Street. The whole grouping appears to have been completed by mid-1888, and all of the properties are recorded as occupied in the earliest available street directory of 1890.

No.39 – The first occupant of this building seems to have been Henry J. Nicholson of the Greenmount Spinning Company. Around 1895 the tenancy was taken up by T. Matthews, a ‘wholesale director’, but by early 1898 it became the premises for ‘Oriel Ladies College’, a school (that appears to have been formerly based in University Square) run by a Mrs Elizabeth R. Miles and her daughters, Elizabeth, Jane and Isabella. In the 1901 census the property is listed as a 1st class dwelling containing 15 rooms occupied by the Miles family, three other teachers, six pupils and two domestic servants; oddly for a ‘ladies’ college’ one of the pupils was an eight year old boy. The school had vacated the building by 1907.

A Miss A. Johnston is noted as the householder in the 1910 and 1915 street directories, but the 1911 census lists the occupants as Mr James A. Drean (a ‘brewer’s agent’ and magistrate) and his wife Bessie. By 1920 Alexander M. Adams, a linen merchant, (later listed as a ‘linen manufacturer’), had taken up the lease, remaining there until c.1927. The directories record the building as vacant for much of the 1930s, but by 1940 it had become the dressmaking department and a girls’ hostel for the Incorporated Cripples’ Institute, and by 1945 a nursing home, remaining as such until the early 1970s. By 1974 the building was divided into four flats, which had been converted to office use by the end of the following decade. It remains as largely as such today, but with the first floor taken up by a dental surgery (a change which appears to have taken place c.1995).

The building was listed in November 1991.

References – Primary sources
1 PRONI VAL12B/43D/14 annual valuation revision book, 1882-97
2 PRONI OS8/30/3/49 OS town plan of Belfast, 1883-84
3 ‘Belfast Telegraph’, 5 August 1886,15 September 1887
4 ‘Belfast and Province of Ulster Street Directory’, (Belfast News-Letter, Belfast), various dates from 1887 to 1996
5 ‘Belfast News-Letter’, 23 April 1887, 1 January 1898, 31 May 1899, 29 November 1899
7 PRONI OS8/30/4/49 OS town plan of Belfast, 1896
8 PRONI VAL7B/14/15 valuation of Belfast, 1900
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/43K/4 valuation book, 1906-15

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, (UAHS, 1968)

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
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
V. Authorship
X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Mid terrace four-storey red brick late Victorian town house, built 1886-87 by William Eaton, architect. One of a terrace of nine similar houses comprising No.37 & 41-53 Malone Road, Belfast (HB26.28.059A & C-I inclusive); as a group they form one of the most impressive terraces, originally named Windsor Gardens, within the Malone Road Conservation Area. The Malone Road facade is particularly striking due to the rhythm created by each having a full-height bowed bay with conical slate roof and a wealth of ornate detailing. Despite modifications to the internal layout and some replacement windows that detract from its quality, No. 39 retains its original return, complete with chimney. Of interest from a cultural and social perspecive as the former 'Oriel Ladies College'. Now converted for commercial and residential use, the original domestic scale remains legible with some fine historic detailing inside that adds significantly to its character.