50 Windsor Avenue

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Two-storey semi-detached Italianate villa, built c.1865, located at the junction of Windsor Avenue and Windsor Avenue North. Principal elevation faces south onto Windsor Avenue and its neighbour on the North side faces north (HB26/28/098B - No.1 Windsor Avenue North).

Shallow hipped natural slate roof with black clay ridge tiles; profiled uPVC rainwater goods to deep overhanging eaves on paired corbel brackets; stucco panelled chimneystacks with corniced caps, also on paired brackets. Stucco walling over a projecting plinth with projecting quoins, band-rusticated to ground floor with platband between floors and string course beneath eaves; single-storey projecting bays have dentilled cornice and flat roofs.

Round-headed window openings to ground floor, segmental window openings to first floor, all with moulded stucco architraves with pilasters, impost moulding, keyblocks and painted projecting masonry cills; ground floor windows have panelled aprons. Box bay openings are grouped in threes.
Windows appear mostly original 1/1 timber sliding sash with single glazing.

Front elevation (S):
Principal elevation faces south and is asymmetrically arranged; it reads as a primary three-bay proportion to left, with an additional two bays to the right beneath a slightly lower roofline, division emphasised by a downpipe and chimneystack over party wall; first floor openings arranged in pairs to all but the second and fifth from left; ground floor has (from left) a canted bay, principal entrance, a large square projection fronted by a canted bay, a shallow box bay with later patio doors inserted, and a single window.
Principal entrance set in a round-headed opening with moulded stucco surround, timber four-panelled door (boarded over but door visible behind plywood), top two panels glazed, with overlight; there is a roofless cast-iron porch frame attached, with embellished squinches and side panels; original decorative tiles to entrance porch.

A set-back return abuts to east and has diminished proportions and flush eaves. South elevation has two openings to each floor (windows are uPVC, replacement hardwood door and through-entry to ground floor); east elevation of return is abutted to ground floor level by adjacent building (No.52 Windsor Avenue) with a single window opening to first floor level; north elevation of return is largely blank with a first floor fire escape door.

West elevation:
No.50 has a two-storey canted bay, same detailing as S elevation bays; hipped roof.

North elevation:
Abutted by S side of No. 1 Windsor Avenue North.

Setting:
The pair of semi-detached houses occupy a wedge-shaped corner plot in a suburban
setting, divided between the two houses at west by a hedge, which also bounds the properties from the road. No.50 retains its lawned garden plot, with tarmac drive to east.

Materials:
Roof: Natural Slate
Walling: Stucco
RWG: uPVC and l cast iron
Windows: Timber sliding sash with s/g and some replacement uPVC

Historical information

The current dwelling house is one of a semi-detached pair at 50 Windsor Avenue and 1 Windsor Avenue North built in 1862-3 by David Taylor, future mayor of Belfast. The architect could not be definitively determined but evidence suggests that the dwellings may have been designed by Thomas Jackson. An area captioned ‘Windsor’ between the Old Lisburn Road (later the Malone Road) and the New Malone and Lisburn Road (now Lisburn Road) is shown on the 2nd edition OS map of 1859 After 1799 the Marquis of Donegall had begun to extend longer leases to his tenants in the townland of Malone Lower which encouraged building and rebuilding and the gradual suburban spread of Belfast southwards. The Windsor area was acquired by Hugh Wardlow, merchant, and began to be parcelled off for the construction of villas for the mercantile classes.

The 2nd edition map shows several dwelling houses on a triangular plot of land bounded by roads, within the ‘Windsor’ area, the most prominent of which is captioned ‘Bertha’ (71 Malone Road –demolished in the 1990s, although the gate lodge remains). The house (1853 – a new house was built adjacent to an earlier dwelling) and the gate lodge (1877) were both designs of Thomas Jackson (the latter is credited to his partnership with his son), although the gate lodge was rebuilt in 1927. Paul Larmour has stated that this house was positioned at the change from terraces to largely detached house development along the Malone Road, establishing ‘the essentially Victorian character of Malone’. Bertha was built for Scots-born David Taylor, a prominent Belfast merchant (a partner in John Arnott & Co, wholesale and retail woollen drapers, silk mercers and general warehousemen (1865 Street Directory)), chairman of the Board of Guardians and three times mayor of Belfast (1867, 1883 and 1884). Taylor was knighted in 1884, at the ceremonial laying of the foundation stone for Belfast City Library, for his services to the town. He was a founding member of the Benevolent Society of St Andrew and was active in numerous charitable societies, notably as president of the YMCA, a committee member of Forster Green Hospital and a board member of the Royal Victoria Hospital, the Ulster Institute for the Deaf and Dumb and Blind and the Ophthalmic Hospital.

The current semi-detached pair was built on lands to the rear of David Taylor’s residence, most probably by Taylor himself, and first enters valuation records as ‘unfinished’ in November 1862 and complete and occupied by November 1863. The houses are valued at £49 each. Dimensions are given for the two dwellings and the accommodation is described as ‘parlour, dining room, kitchen and three small apartments on the ground floor, five bedrooms, WC and bathroom on the second storey and two small attic rooms in return’. The architect is unknown but David Taylor had commissioned Thomas Jackson several times, both before and after this date, firstly to build his own house in 1853 and later on, Arnott’s warehouse in Bridge Street (1866, destroyed in 1941, rebuilt, closed 1974) and the gate lodge at ‘Bertha’ (1877). The style of the semi-detached pair is consistent with the work of Thomas Jackson.

Valuation books record the first occupier of No 50, which was named ‘Sunnyside’, as Edmund Thomas Chipp (1823-1886), a celebrated English organist and composer who, among other accolades, had received a laudatory testimonial from Mendelssohn after a performance of Mendelssohn’s organ sonatas in 1847. Dr Chipp had been sought out by the Ulster Hall Company who wished to appoint an outstanding organist for their new multi-purpose hall. The Ulster Hall constituted an effort to place Belfast on a status footing with other UK cities such as Birmingham, Liverpool and Bradford. Chipp was brought over from England where he had been the organist of Trinity Church, Paddington and the Royal Panopticon and ‘opened’ the Mulholland organ at the Hall on 17th December 1862. Chipp, who was also appointed organist and choirmaster at St George’s Church and conductor of the two main musical societies in Belfast, namely the Classical Harmonists and the Anacreontic Society, was lauded at the time in the Illustrated London News as having ‘gained a name of European fame among the organists and composers of the day’. The Dictionary of Irish Biography considers that Chipp made ‘an impressive impact’ on the Belfast musical scene, demonstrating ‘the power and versatility of the big secular organ’ and founding a Vocal Union, which later evolved, with other groups, into the Belfast Philharmonic Society, an enduring Belfast institution. Chipp left Belfast in 1866, following disagreements with the Ulster Hall Company, to become the organist of Ely Cathedral, but had been resident at the current dwelling through the greater part of his time in Belfast.

An extension was added to the side/rear of the house between the year of its construction (1862-3) and the depiction of the building on the 1873 large-scale OS map. The two-storey extension, with separate entrance doorway, has survived, having window surrounds that harmonise with those on the main house although detailing is simpler and subordinate. The recently constructed neighbouring house (number 52), which incorporates the former stable belonging to ‘Bertha’, has adopted the detailing of this extension.

The next long-term resident was John Arnott Taylor (from c1877 to 1884), who was the son of Sir David Taylor and one of the Directors of Arnott & Co (John Arnott Taylor’s middle name was taken from his mother, Jessie née Arnott, the sister of David Taylor’s business partner, John Arnott). John Arnott Taylor was also a member of Belfast Corporation and a magistrate for the borough of Belfast.

By 1887 the house had been taken over by Frederick William Hoey, who lived in the house until his death in 1927. Dublin-born Hoey, distiller and JP for County Antrim lived with his English wife, his mother-in-law and two servants at the time of the 1911 census and had his own company, Frederick Hoey & Co in Victoria Street, described as a wholesale wine and spirit merchant in Street Directories, but by the time of his death was a Managing Director of the ‘Old Bushmills’ Distillery Co Ltd. Hoey added a two-storey bay to the W elevation of the house which is recorded in the valuation books in 1897 and raised the valuation of the house by £5.

The 1900 revaluation of Belfast gives a plan and dimensions for the house showing that the footprint of the house has not altered significantly since that time. The plan depicts the glass and ironwork porch which remains in place.

The house was then occupied from 1930 to 1965 by Martin Gore Ellison, barrister-at-law (called to the bar in 1897) who became King’s Counsel in 1936. During his residency at the house, Ellison also became a deputy County Court Judge for County Down. Ellison was resident at the time of the 1934 revaluation when the accommodation was recorded as Ground Floor: Porch, Entrance Hall, two receptions, lobby, WC and cloakroom, First Floor: reception, small study, four bedrooms, bathroom and WC and on the second floor an attic bedroom and a boxroom. Outside was a covered yard with two coal houses and a WC. Ellison constructed a detached garage at the S of the plot in 1954 but this has been removed since 2017.

Resident from 1969 until recent years were property developer Carlisle Greer, and his wife Evelyn Esther Greer MBE, OBE and JP (d.2021). Evelyn Esther Greer was awarded an MBE in 1979 and subsequently an OBE in 2004 for her services to the 2003 Special Olympic World Games (part of which was held in Belfast) and to sport. Greer was a founder President and former Chairperson of the Special Olympics NI, founded Ireland Special Olympics, was Chairperson of NI SENSE and a Chief Executive of the charity MENCAP among many other roles. She also helped establish nursery units, after-school clubs and residential homes for children and adults with special needs.

This semi-detached mid-Victorian dwelling house constructed for the mercantile classes is consistent with the work of Thomas Jackson and largely retains its original form (with the exception of a two storey bay addition to the W elevation) and much of its original detailing including eaves and cornices, window surrounds and ironwork porch (notable losses are the window alterations towards the rear of the house). The house makes a prominent contribution to the Victorian character of Lower Malone. Adding to the dwelling’s local interest are its associations with Edmund T Chipp, noted organist and composer and Evelyn Greer, prominent figure in the fields of sport and disability, as well as several other notable local figures.

References:
Primary Sources:

1. PRONI OS/6/1/60/1 First Edition OS map (1823)
2. PRONI OS/6/1/60/2 Second Edition OS map (1859)
3. PRONI OS/6/1/60/3 Third Edition OS map (1904)
4. PRONI OS/6/1/60/4 Fourth Edition OS map (1934)
5. Large-scale OS maps, 1858, 1873, 1896 (https://shop.centremapslive.co.uk)
6. PRONI VAL/12/B/43/D/7General Valuation of Ireland - Annual Revisions (1862-1882)
7. PRONI VAL/12/B/43/D/14 General Valuation of Ireland - Annual Revisions (1882 - 1896)
8. PRONI VAL/12/B/43/A/36 General Valuation of Ireland - Annual Revisions (1897 - 1905)
9. PRONI VAL/12/B/43/P/3 General Valuation of Ireland - Annual Revisions (1906 - 1915)
10. PRONI VAL/12/B/43/P/7 General Valuation of Ireland - Annual Revisions (1916 - 1930)
11. PRONI VAL/7/B/14/23 Belfast Revaluation field book 1900
12. PRONI VAL/3/D/3/1/P/77 First NI General Revaluation Binder 1933-57
13. PRONI Street Directories 1863-1995
14. Northern Whig, 3rd November 1862
15. Ulster Echo, 20th June 1884
16. Ulster Echo, 21st June 1884
17. Ulster Echo, 11th November 1890
18. Lisburn Standard, 1st May 1897
19. Northern Whig, 12th August 1927
20. Northern Whig, 8th March 1928
21. Belfast Newsletter, 16th April 1936
22. Belfast Newsletter, 5th May 1938
23. Belfast Newsletter, 31st December 2003

Secondary Sources:

24. Carleton, Samuel Trevor (1967) The Growth of South Belfast. Unpublished MPhil thesis, Queen’s University Belfast
25. Dictionary of Irish Architects (www.dia.ie)
26. Dictionary of Irish Biography (www.dib.ie)
27. Larmour, Paul (1991) The Architectural Heritage of Malone and Stranmillis. Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
H-. Alterations detracting from building
H+. Alterations enhancing the building
I. Quality and survival of Interior
J. Setting
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

R. Age
S. Authenticity
X. Local Interest

Evaluation

No.50 Windsor Avenue is a substantial five bay, two-storey Italianate-style semi-detached villa, built c.1865, located on a wedge-shaped plot on a prominent road junction between Windsor Avenue and Windsor Avenue North, just off the Malone Road in South Belfast. It is attached to No.1 Windsor Avenue North (HB26/28/098B) on the N side and the pair were part of the first phase of prestigious suburban development, southwards from the city, in mid-nineteenth century Belfast, providing a high quality residential environment for wealthy citizens.

Despite the loss of the original windows to the East return, No.50 otherwise retains original 1/1 timber sliding sash windows with single glazing. It also retains a high proportion of original Victorian detailing and character to the exterior, drawing from the well-rehearsed Italianate repertoire of rusticated stucco, string courses and cornicing, further enriched by a range of projections and bays, and by variations in window profile. The later addition of a decorative iron portico adds to the architectural interest. Original decorative historic detailing remains internally also.This house is of local interest, expressing its significance through its level of authenticity, and the immediate setting is enhanced by its high quality architectural features.

In conclusion, this semi-detached mid-Victorian dwelling house constructed for the mercantile classes is consistent with the work of Thomas Jackson. It retains its original form and much of its original detailing including eaves and cornices, window surrounds and ironwork porch. The house makes a prominent contribution to the Victorian character of Lower Malone. Adding to the dwelling’s local interest are its associations with Edmund T Chipp, noted organist and composer and Evelyn Greer, prominent figure in the fields of sport and disability, as well as several other notable local figures.