26 Windsor Park

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

No26 Windsor Park, paired with no28, comprises the eastern half of a terrace originally made up of four dwellings, built 1889 to designs by Robert Watt and known as ‘Victoria Gardens’. Facing south onto Windsor Park, a tree-lined street running E-W between Lisburn and Malone Roads, two main arterial routes due south of Belfast city centre. Group value with its immediate terraced neighbours, nos 22, 24 & 28 (HB26/28/073A & C), nos 30 & 32 (HB26/28/074A & B) and 34 Windsor Park (HB26/28/075). Whilst not sharing the same architect – nos 30-34 were designed by William Batt – this terrace, the semi-detached pair at nos 30 & 32 and the detached house at no 34 were all built in the late 1880s and when seen together, form a substantial late Victorian red brick group displaying similar stylistic devices, including bold pedimented gabled attics, bay windows and decorative brick and terracotta detailing. Each of individual merit, they make a striking and confident contribution to the Derryvolgie and Windsor Conservation Area.

Red brick, three-storey with full attic, three bays wide with three-storey rear return built at half-landing level and conjoined to same at no28 to form a wide gable. Both properties are converted to apartments with four each to front and two in upper floors of shared return. Nos 22 & 24 (the left hand side of the terrace) is a mirror image of nos 26 & 28, both on an inverted T plan. Single-storey gabled appendage abuts return, also shared by no28, with adjoining flat-roofed enclosure - possibly an original walled yard. Natural slate roof with terracotta (red) ridge tiles and finials. Main block with ridge running E-W, full-width gabled dormer to front (S), large chimney with multiple pots shared with no24 and second chimney on gable end of return. Two modern roof-lights at rear slope.
Partially enclosed fire escape rising to full height abutting north-east rear of the main block and east side of the return.

Materials
ROOF: Natural slate
RWG: Cast aluminium to front, plastic to rear (where seen)
WALLS: Red brick in Flemish bond, with decorative brick and terracotta detailing
WINDOWS: Single glazed double hung sliding sash, 1/1 panes to front, replacement timber framed double glazed top-hung casements to rear with mock central glazing bar and applied horns to resemble original 2/2 paned sliding sashes unless otherwise described.

Front Elevation (S)
Asymmetrical. Chamfered brick plinth with underfloor ventilators. All openings are segmental headed with brick arches, moulded reveals and sandstone cills. At ground floor, rectangular single storey bay to left (W) of arched entrance screen at lean-to porch; latter shared with No28 springing from a central carved timber column with sheeted timber privacy screen behind. The porch is supported at either end by carved sandstone corbels. Six panelled entrance door, with raised panels and plain glass over-light; tall thin sidelight to right of door (sliding sash with 1/1 panes). Ground floor projecting bay has two windows, with raised parapet, sandstone coping and flat roof behind (not seen). The coping returns onto the face of the building to form a moulded string course and cill to first floor windows. The bay is further defined by a continuous gutter, which runs across the face of the parapet and the eaves of the lean to porch. Three windows each at first and second floors, diminishing in height. Above the first floor windows, a decorative moulded string course rises to form a hood; and to the underside of the second floor window cills, raised apron detailing. Above the second floor windows, a further continuous moulded string course.
Decorative egg and dart and modillion terracotta cornice runs under the eaves, broken by a pedimented attic dormer almost the full width of the original house. Exposed rafter ends with plain bargeboard supported on three curved timber brackets on moulded brick corbels. Pair of smaller sash windows, with a continuous cill and decorative raised apron, centred on the dormer gable.

Carved white marble plaque with ‘Victoria Gardens’ in dark grey lettering (possibly lead) set in wall at first floor between nos 24 & 26.

East Elevation
No28 abuts west elevation, including return.

Rear Elevation (N)
Three-storey gabled return, shared with no28, placed centrally between the two properties. Right (W) of return, no26 has one window each at ground, first and second floors and above return, a single window at attic level. 1/1 panes to ground floor sliding sashes; and replacement timber framed casements to upper floors, largely obscured by metal escape stair, comprising series of metal open tread stairs and landings, partially enclosed by corrugated sheeting.
Rear gable wall of return is symmetrical, surmounted by wide brick chimney (eight pots, plain brick, no corbel), sandstone coping at verge. Four window openings, two each to first and second floors, all set towards the outer edge of the wall beyond the chimney flues (not expressed externally). To right (W), no 26 has original sliding sash window at first floor and replacement window at second floor, as described above. Single storey gabled appendage abuts ground floor; blank with clipped eaves and joined by flat roofed enclosure.

West Elevation
No28 abuts west elevation.
West face of three-storey return is informally arranged. All openings are plain, with square heads, brick arches and sandstone cills. Ground floor: from S-N has a replacement timber framed door fitted with Georgian wired glass and 5 equally sized windows at ground floor (all within original openings with cills and heads retained); and first and second floors have a fire door and two windows each.
East face of gabled appendage has three windows, as described above. Flat roofed enclosure has modern double glazed doors, painted white, with precast concrete lintel and ramped entrance.

Setting
Set back from tree-lined street by front garden; boundary is not defined. Large mature tree dominates front lawn, shared with no28. Tarmacked drive to E aligned with hedging and some timber fencing to rear; and tarmacked path to entrance, with three modern tiled steps spanning porches to no26 & no28. Large rear garden now gravelled and used as shared car-park for the two properties. Intact, substantial eight-foot high, boundary wall in red brick with stone saddleback coping to north. Modern concrete block wall aligns W boundary with no24 – apart from small length of red brick wall with moulded brick coping at yard next to main building.

Historical information

Windsor Park (originally ‘Windsor Park Avenue’) was laid out in c.1873, its line following that of previously taken by a path that ran through a large nursery belonging to ‘Laurel Bank’ (later renamed ‘Bellevue’), a house that stood to the east close to Malone Road. Laurel Bank was built c.1835 within one of the long-established strip farms that originally stretched from the high ground of the Malone Ridge westwards to the Bog Meadows, many of which were converted into small semi-rural demesnes in the mid 19th century, and in turn broken up by the more intensive suburban expansion which gradually spread southwards along the Malone Ridge in the late Victorian era. A large number of these later 1800s streets were created along the boundaries of these former farms / demesnes, but in the case of Windsor Park it is northern and southern boundaries of the building plots either side of the street that mark the respective limits of the older property.

The earliest of the houses to be developed along the new thoroughfare was No.33 in 1873, with nos.42-44 following in 1874, and 11-13 a year later (all since demolished). Much of the southern side of the street was developed within the next two decades, but the land to the north was retained as a nursery into the mid-1890s when it too began to be populated with a mixture of large detached, semi-detached and terraced dwellings.

No.26 Windsor Park This property belongs to a terrace of four – ‘Victoria Gardens’ - built in 1889-90 to designs by Robert Watt for James Hetherington, a linen manufacturer of the ‘Broadway Damask Company’, who himself lived in ‘Canmore’ (since demolished) on the opposite side of the Windsor Park. Oddly, although the terrace and its eastern neighbours were completed by late 1890, it is not shown on the 1896 OS town plan. It does appear on that of 1903, however. Early letting advertisements for the group describe each house as possessing ‘three reception rooms and seven bed rooms, cloakroom, lavatory etc; all fittings first quality; garden in front; also garden and conservatory in rear’.

The first occupant of no.26 (originally 3 Victorian Gardens) appears to have been Mrs. John Arnott Taylor, followed in 1899 by John Corbett (of ‘Brown, Corbett & Co.’ – wine merchants). In the 1901 census the household is noted as consisting of Mr. Corbett, his wife Mary, daughter Kathleen and two domestic servants, with the house itself a 1st class dwelling with 10 rooms in use. By 1908 G. Gregory Smith, Professor of English at QUB had become resident, and in the 1911 census he was occupying the property with two domestic servants. Professor Smith vacated no.26 c.1919 and in 1924 W.R. Dawson ‘Chief Medical officer Ministry of Home Affairs Northern Ireland’ is listed as resident, remaining until c.1931. A chemist, James Dundee, is recorded as the occupant from at least 1943, but by the later 1950s the property had been split into three flats, one of which continued to be occupied by Mr. Dundee into the 1970s. By 1980 the property contained four flats, but by 1990 it was under single occupation once again, with Irene E. Ringland named as resident. Ms. Ringland was still living there in 1995.

References – Primary sources
1 ‘Northern Whig’, 3 June 1889, 9 December 1890, 15 January 1894, 13 January 1896
2 ‘Belfast and Province of Ulster Street Directory’, (Belfast News-Letter, Belfast), various dates from 1890 to 1996
3 PRONI VAL12B/43D/14, 1882-96
4 PRONI OS8/30/4/53 OS town plan of Belfast, 1896
5 PRONI VAL12B/43DA/36, 1897-1905
6 PRONI VAL7B/14/15 valuation of Belfast, 1900
7 Census of Ireland, 1901, 1911 [online]
8 PRONI OS8/30/5/49 OS town plan of Belfast, 1903
9 PRONI VAL12B/43P/3, 1906-15
10 PRONI VAL12B/43P/7, 1916-30
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.186

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, red brick dwelling, three-storeys high with full attic, built 1889 to designs by Robert Watt as part of a terrace of four originally known as ‘Victoria Gardens’. Facing south onto Windsor Park, a tree-lined street running E-W between Lisburn and Malone Roads in south Belfast. Group value with its immediate neighbours: nos 22, 24 & 28 (HB26/28/073A & C); the semi-detached pair nos 30 & 32 (HB26/28/074A & B); and the detached no 34 Windsor Park (HB26/28/075). Whilst not sharing the same architect – nos 30-34 were designed by William Batt – they form a substantial late Victorian red brick group displaying similar stylistic devices, including bold pedimented gabled attics, bay windows, decorative brick and terracotta detailing. Each of individual merit, they make a striking and confident contribution to the Derryvolgie and Windsor Conservation Area, significantly enhanced by the mature trees within front gardens.
Internal subdivision to form self-contained apartments has resulted in some loss of plan form and replacement windows to the rear return detract from its character. Nonetheless, No.26 remains significant as part of a strong group, fabric is largely intact, and as a whole it is a very good example of late Victorian domestic architecture in Belfast.