47 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.47 is one of nine similar houses (HB26.28.059A-E & G-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), abutted by single storey building (possibly former outbuilding). Commercial use on ground floor; residential above.

Natural slate roof with bands of fish-scale slates; red terracotta ridge tiles and finial (decapitated) to bowed bay; return roof not seen; artificial slates and black ridge tile to single-storey building. Large red brick chimney centred on ridge to main roof with simple corbelled brick coursing to cap and eight 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 gutter.

Materials
ROOF: Natural slate including return; single-storey building: artificial slates.
RWG: Cast iron (E); uPVC gutter and cast iron downpipes (W & return).
WALLS: Red brick walling laid to Flemish bond with painted render/stone dressings (E); English Garden Wall bond (W & return).
WINDOWS: Single glazed timber sliding sash with 1/1 panes to single attic window; otherwise double glazed replacement sliding sash with timber frames and 1/1 double-glazed panes to front.
Replacement uPVC framed double glazed casement windows (W).

Front Elevation (E):
Front elevation faces east, two bays wide with bowed bay offset to left and entrance to right. Deep painted stucco base plinth with chamfered top; projecting moulded cill and string courses and stucco plat band to all floors; all painted. Painted stucco also to bowed bay, except some brick header courses between each floor level. Incised decoration in stuccowork above segmental headed door and flat arched bay windows with edge roll moulding. Hood mould noted to adjacent houses missing from door surround, but label stops remain above plat band on pink marble colonnettes with dressed sandstone plinth and capital (painted); plain fanlight above square-headed 5-panelled timber door; toothed rendered quoins below plat band and decorative terracotta panel (painted) above door head. Colonnettes and terracotta panel repeated on first and second floor windows above door.

Rear elevation (W):
West elevation faces shared alley. Simple detailing: brick, soldier coursed window heads and projecting brick headers to eaves. Three-storey gabled return to left (N) with clipped eaves (no chimney); three uPVC framed casement windows with concrete heads and cills - one to second floor; and two to first floor. Right of return, metal external escape stair, painted red, with one opening per floor: uPVC side hung escape window to third floor and uPVC top-hung casement windows (proportioned to resemble 1/1 sliding sashes) at each ground, first and second floors. Further small timber framed casement window with top-hung night vent to main building above return.
West elevation of single storey building: clipped eaves with uPVC framed casement window offset to left; flat-roofed (asphalt) enclosure between gable end and yard wall.

North Elevation:
No.45 Malone Road (HB26.28.059E) abuts north face. South elevation of return has one uPVC framed casement window to far left (E) at first and second floor half landing levels overlooking flat-roofed extension to yard at No.45; otherwise blank. South elevation of single storey building painted; half-round uPVC gutter on rise-n-fall brackets to eaves.

South Elevation:
No.49 Malone Road (HB26.28.059G) abuts south elevation.
South face of return: detailed as rear (W) elevation of main building with informal fenestration; all windows replacement uPVC with top-hung night vents and randomly spaced and mainly having replacement concrete heads: two at second floor, set either side of fire escape door; three at first floor and four at ground floor; small recess at ground floor at junction with main building in place of former door. Walls painted white.
South face of single storey building: three windows, same as those in return and one flush modern door. Walls painted white.

Set back from tree-lined street with paved front gardens bound by low red brick wall on the west side of Malone Road. Part of terrace of eight other similar town houses aligned parallel to main road. Front garden surfaced in precast concrete pavers graded to provide level access to entrance. Semi-mature tree in front garden; otherwise paved. 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 wall with concrete lintel offset to right above modern smooth red brick in-fill and sheeted timber door; wall topped by palisade fencing to W and S. Yard retains square quarry flagstones.

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.47 – The first occupant of this building seems to have been Colonel R.M. Studdert, a ‘Local Government Board Auditor’. By 1895 he had been succeeded by a Miss Close, and by 1900, by J. Ireland a linen manufacturer, who remained there until c.1909. The property appears to have remained vacant from c.1910 until at least 1915 (and is therefore not detailed in the 1911 census.) By 1918 Dr. Harold Gray was in residence and John McGonigal, a lawyer, by 1925. In 1940 the property is noted in the street directory as ‘Boys’ Residential Club, but McGonigal, now a judge, in recorded as the occupant again 1943. After a period of vacancy in the later 1940s the building had been divided into flats by 1951, remaining so until the early 1970s, when it became the office, occupied by architect W.H. McAllister in 1974 and by the ‘Industrial Training Service Ltd’ from 1986 until at least 1996. Upper floors converted back to residential use in 2016.

The property 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
6 PRONI OS8/30/4/49 OS town plan of Belfast, 1896
7 PRONI VAL7B/14/15 valuation of Belfast, 1900
8 Census of Ireland, 1901, 1911 [online - http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/]
9 PRONI OS8/30/5/49 OS town plan of Belfast, 1903
10 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.37-45 & 49-53 Malone Road, (HB26.28.059A-E & G-I inclusive); as a group they form one of the most impressive terraces within the Malone Road Conservation Area. The Malone Road facade is particularly striking, with rhythm created by each having a full-height bowed bay with conical slate roof and a wealth of ornate detailing. Of particular interest as the only building in the terrace to be in residential use (albeit with commercial use on the ground floor). Strong character deriving from large well lit rooms, particularly to the first floor front, and robust internal detailing.