34 Windsor Park

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Three storey red brick detached house, built c1894 to designs by William Batt, architect. Facing south on 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 adjacent pair of semi-detached houses at No.30 & 32 and terrace at No.22-28 (HB26 28 073 & HB26 28 074 respectively), also designed by William Batt around the same time. Together they make a striking contribution to the Derryvolgie and Windsor Conservation Area, eclectic in style and well articulated with gabled dormers, exceptional terracotta work and somewhat formal fenestration. The unusual proportions of No34 mean it stands out in particular with strong vertical emphasis to the principal facade more commonly adopted in a terraced house.

Natural slate roof with red clay ridge tiles. Main block to front (S) and slightly lower block, of equal width to rear (N); single storey gabled appendage to latter, with mono-pitched roof in profiled metal to attached covered yard and former outhouses. Roofs to both main block and lower block are double hipped. Gabled wall head dormer to S of main block; and tall chimneystack rises from eaves to E with attached gable and chimney cricket. Sandstone finial, coping and kneelers to gables. Second chimney rises between main and lower blocks, to N. Both chimneys have several red clay pots. Two-storey canted bays to S and E and single-storey canted bay to W have leaded roofs.

Materials
ROOF: Natural slate to house; profiled metal to covered yard with polycarbonate roof-lights
RWG: Cast iron ogee profile gutter with mix of cast iron and UPVC circular section RWPs
WALLS: Red brick walling in Flemish bond
WINDOWS: Single glazed double hung single glazed sliding sash with 1/1 panes, square headed, unless otherwise described.

Front Elevation (S):
Asymmetrical, with round arched entrance to left (W) having single window at first floor aligned above and two-storey canted bay to right surmounted by paired round-arched windows centred in gabled wall head dormer . Eaves corbelled on brackets formed in three-course brick specials with fluted brick string course between; all on frieze of alternating four courses brick headers and large square terracotta tiles with elaborate flower heads; all on string course of terracotta beads. Frieze interrupted by window heads and decorative terracotta roundel at second floor; soldier coursed headers with angled hood continuous at windows and perimeter to roundel. Sandstone cills throughout and cavetto moulded terracotta string course between cills on all floors. Sandstone lintels to first floor windows supported on scrolled brackets, placed side-on to resemble shouldered heads; two string courses of projecting fluted brick between windows (separated by two courses brick); and corbelled brick aprons below cills.
Cavetto moulded string repeated between ground and first floor, with projecting brick stretcher course and dentils below.
Ground floor window heads almost identical to first floor but in terracotta to match entrance; lintel spilt into blocks with bead moulding recessed at base; cills on corbelled brick brackets. String course of continuous miniature square terracotta tiles with flower motif between heads.
Six panelled timber framed entrance door with bolection moulding and raised panels; plan fanlight; elaborate arched surround, with projecting moulded hood, scrolled and fluted console brackets and raised keystone all in terracotta; keystone and consoles embellished with foliage and swags; toothed terracotta quoins below arch, with stop-chamfered rounded edge detail.

Projecting brick plinth with chamfered top edge around all four side of the building.

East elevation:
East elevation overlooks landscaped amenity space to modern apartment block.
Comprised of main block to left (S), lower block to right, side face of gabled appendage and enclosed yard walling.
Corbelled eaves, deep terracotta frieze and string courses all returned from front elevation. Tall chimneystack to left and two-storey canted bay to right with advanced surround to round-arched window over that interrupts frieze; latter has slightly higher eaves and shallower roof pitch. Canted bay detailed as S elevation although ground floor windows have sandstone heads.
Lower block has paired windows at ground floor, detailed as above; and single window each at first and second floors; latter is replacement uPVC sliding sash.
E face of gabled appendage has same string courses as main block, plain sandstone lintel and cill to replacement Upvc casement window. Two course stretcher brick projecting eaves. Plinth continues along yard walling; otherwise blank.

Small flat-roofed garage abuts S end of E Elevation and is of little historic interest.

Rear Elevation (N):
Main block appears to have decorative eaves and frieze; largely concealed by lower block with chimney offset to left (E), projecting brick eaves and dentils below (in brick special); otherwise blank; single storey gabled appendage has clipped eaves. Yard walling built up in modern red brick to meet verge flashing at modern profiled metal roof; sheeted timber door offset to left, with soldier coursed headed; and smaller opening to right, presumed to be original coal hole, now bricked up.

West Elevation:
Mirror form of east elevation except with different openings to main and lower block; and without chimneys. Main block: slightly advanced bay to second floor with corbelled base, twin round-arched windows, simpler eaves and shallower roof pitch, single window at first floor and six panelled timber door at ground floor, with camber arched fanlight; to lower block, two windows at second floor with plain sandstone lintels, three windows at first floor and wide canted bay at ground floor with two windows, now fitted with replacement Upvc sliding sashes (double glazed); windows at ground and first floor and door have camber arched heads formed in brick headers and projecting moulded terracotta hoods.

Set back from tree-lined street by paved front garden bound by hedging; entrance marked by pair of brick pillars with terracotta caps that appear to be contemporary with the house; wrought iron gates presumed to be later. Rear has lawn and planting with concrete paved paths to E and W sides; hedging continuous to E boundary; red brick walling to north and part of E; latter has rounded sandstone coping. Two stone steps up to entrance. Off street parking. Gardens with mature trees to front and rear.

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.34 Windsor Park This house – ‘St. Margaret’s - along with its similarly styled semi-detached neighbours to the immediate west (‘Colonsa’ and ‘Mingala’ - nos.30-32), was built in 1893-94 to designs by William Batt 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. The contractor was Messrs. J. and W. Stewart of Belfast, with much of the building materials for this ‘commodious villa’, including the ‘terracotta panels in frieze and upper keystones’, supplied by the Annadale Brick Company, with the terracotta doorcase and some of the lintels from J.C. Edwards’ Works of Ruabon in Wales.

The earliest occupant of no.34 was Herbert Darbishire, an English-born ‘stock and share broker’, who in 1901 census is noted as living there with his (Belfast-born) wife, Maria, grown-up daughter, May, two domestic servants and a house guest, Bertha Marian Murray, whilst the building itself is recorded as a 1st class dwelling with 13 rooms ‘occupied by the family’. May Darbishire (along with 3 domestic servants) was still resident in 1911, but by 1918 J.R. Russell, ‘traveller’ had taken on the lease, followed by W.O. Hume (c.1920-c.47). In the later 1950s and into the 1960s, John Brown, a teacher, was the occupant, with the current owners acquiring the property in 1967.

Relatively little alterations have been carried out to the house over the years, the only major external change of note being the roofing over of the formerly open rear yard, which seems to have taken place in the 1970s.

References – Primary sources
1 ‘Belfast News-Letter’, 4 March 1893 [Tender notice by William Batt]
1 ‘Irish Builder’, 1 October, 1 December 1893
2 ‘Belfast and Province of Ulster Street Directory’, (Belfast News-Letter, Belfast), various dates from 1893 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
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

Three storey red brick detached house originally known at St. Margarets and built c1894 to designs by William Batt, architect. Facing south on Windsor Park, it has group value with the pair of semi-detached houses immediately adjacent at Nos. 30 & 32 and the terrace at Nos. 22-28 (HB26 28 073 & HB26 28 074 respectively), all contemporary with this house. Together they make a striking contribution to the Derryvolgie and Windsor Conservation Area, eclectic in style and confident in execution. Whilst sharing the decorative detailing and gable dormers of its neighbours, No. 34's unusual proportions - with a particularly strong vertical emphasis to the principal facade more commonly adopted in a terraced house - give the house an individual quality. Very minor modern interventions. Original fabric, layout and detailing substantially intact. A good example of its time with ornamental terracotta detailing that significantly enhances its interest. Stone entrance steps and brick gate pillars, together with the surrounding mature trees and landscaping further augment its character.