21 Wellington Park

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Brick, south facing two storey semi-detached dwelling, with full height rear, central, projection, with front elevation having projecting bay windows to ground and first floor. Constructed circa 1890, as one of a pair, forming part of a disparate terrace and is located within the Malone Conservation area. “T” shaped in plan with rear three storey rear return mirrored with number 19 – HB26 28 129 A.

Natural slate roof with black clay ridge tiles to return, flanked, either side of the property with tall, plain brick chimney stacks, having a plain corbeled course to cap, topped with four circular chimney pots. Symmetrical front elevation built in stretcher bond red brick with central arched doorway, having projecting two storey bay window either side, topped with pyramidal natural slates edged with lead flashings and capped with ornamental metal filial. Black coloured, replaced, metal guttering with circular downpipes above projecting brick eaves detail with dog tooth course below. Bay windows having central one over one painted sliding sash windows with side lights separated with brick piers and all with polychrome, charcoal/red soldier coursing above and having painted window cills linked across elevation with single course, horizontal charcoal brick banding. Ground floor bay windows as described above with centrally positioned, horizontal projecting corbelled band between floor levels. Plain front doorway with elliptic arch above door fanlight bordered with polychrome, charcoal/red soldier coursing. Doorway framed with painted circular stone columns with square plinth and shaft head adorned with Corinthian scrolls. Painted render plinth to entire frontage of dwelling. Front door approach via two contemporary bull nosed granite steps.

Rear elevation with roof finishes, eaves detailing and guttering as described previously. Brickwork throughout with masonry paint finish to ground floor only. Left hand side with two windows vertically stacked (room ref. G08 & F08), with two over two painted timber sliding sash windows having two horizontal transoms per window. At right angle on left hand side a pair of windows on first and second floor with single pane opening in uPVC and to right a pair of vertically stacked one over one top hung uPVC windows. Ground floor section of wall blank brickwork. Gable to central projection blank except for centrally positioned aluminium sliding patio door installation – giving access to G05. Right hand side of rear elevation with painted timber sliding sash window having two horizontal transoms at first floor and mahogany framed outward opening doors at ground floor, giving access to G04.

SETTING

Although distinct in style the house is set in an urban context and forms part of a terrace of mature double fronted attached dwellings along the north side of Wellington Park. The
setting is enhanced with the proliferation of semi mature trees which define the front boundary with the public footpath which together with a mature hedgerow soften the setting and conceal the contemporary paving which provides parking behind the low set double gates at the front. The rear of the property is defined by a high boundary wall to shared alleyway with a personnel access door, giving access to a narrow “U” shaped garden /yard area, circumventing the rear of the property.

MATERIALS

Roof; Natural slate.
Walls: Red brick throughout – painted at ground level to rear.
Windows: Painted, timber, double hung sliding sash. Aluminium and mahogany patio doors to rear. Several small Upvc windows to upper levels to rear
RWG: Cast iron and cast aluminium.

Historical information

21 Wellington Park was constructed in 1889/90 as one of a pair (with number 19) by the builder Andrew Dempter Gibson and is first shown on the OS map of 1902. The architect is currently unknown.

After 1799 the Marquis of Donegall began 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, as the town expanded. In 1850, an area captioned ‘Wellington Park’ on the 1853 OS map was acquired by George Tate, timber merchant, who built Wellington Park House (most probably named after the Duke of Wellington who died in 1852) and parcelled off the remainder of the land for development.

Wellington Park as a road was first laid out in the same decade, and with Eglantine Avenue and Malone Avenue forms the southern boundary of terraced development in Belfast. South of Malone Avenue, Malone was largely developed in detached (and some semi-detached) villas. Dwellings with a double frontage are particularly characteristic of Wellington Park with dwellings slightly more closely packed in surrounding streets.

The houses were constructed by Andrew Dempter Gibson (1901 census), a builder with premises in Camden Street, and enter valuation records in 1889 at a valuation of £45 each. Gibson built several other houses in Wellington Park and in other streets nearby, namely Wellesley Avenue (17 houses approved between 1897 and 1896), Eglantine Avenue (two houses approved 1882-1888) and Blackstaff Road (now Donegall Road - 14 houses 1891).

In January 1890, A D Gibson placed a newspaper advertisement for a pair of houses for sale, ‘two two-storey new double houses Wellington Park, three large reception and seven bedrooms, 11ft 6in ceilings, ready for occupation; are worthy of inspection to anyone wanting comfortable house to buy’, most likely referring to the current houses and in March 1890 the Works Committee reported that they granted permission for A D Gibson to take in water to two houses in Wellington Park. After a few years of being rented out, the two houses were purchased from Gibson by Samuel Hogg, Shankill Road grocer, who was resident at number 19 from at least 1894. Samuel Hogg was a relative (most likely an uncle) of the photographer, Alexander Robert Hogg.

Number 21was let out by Hogg from at least 1895 to the Montgomery family, Charles John Montgomery, who was engaged in the linen and damask trade (before his death in 1898), Mary Jane Montgomery and their son, Charles Adam Montgomery, who was also a linen manufacturer with premises in the White Linenhall (demolished 1896) and subsequently in Linenhall Street.

The Montgomerys were likely related through marriage to Samuel Hogg. Hogg’s daughter Maggie was married to Robert Montgomery, secretary, the marriage taking place at 19 Wellington Park in 1894 (the relationship of Robert to Charles Adam Montgomery is unclear but as Charles John Montgomery had seven siblings, it is possible they were cousins). The Montgomery household is recorded in the 1901 census, and comprised English-born Mary Jane and her son 25-year-old Charles, the family maintaining a general domestic servant from ‘King’s County’. Charles Adam Montgomery lived in the house almost until his death in 1951. In his later life Charles Montgomery was closely associated with the Mission Hall of the Adult Deaf and Dumb in College Square North, for which he campaigned and raised funds.

In the Belfast Revaluation (1900) and appeal books of 1901 both 19 and 21 were said to have three receptions and four bedrooms with another four bedrooms in the return, had ‘good kitchen and pantries’ and were fitted with both gas and a bathroom. The two houses were revalued at £58 but the valuation was reduced to £52 on appeal. The accompanying plan of the identical houses show the two-storey main block with a three-storey rear return and a further single storey return at the far rear.

The 1934 revaluation sets out the accommodation as follows: on the ground floor, entrance hall, three receptions, one kitchen, a scullery and a pantry with outhouses (a store and WC) housed in the single-storey rear return. The first floor comprised four double bedrooms, and in the return a bathroom with a separate WC and a single bedroom. The second-floor return contained one single bedroom and a boxroom. Number 21 was still lit with gas at this time and had ‘not been modernised in any respect’.

The Montgomery family were resident until the 1950s and were followed by Frank Kennedy, MB, FRCS, a gynaecologist, and his medic brother Joseph Kennedy. From the mid-1980s the occupier was Philip Riley, also a doctor.

This double-fronted Victorian villa in a domestic gothic revival style retains its original aspect and quality including double-height canted bays, decorative brickwork and historic windows, and much interior fabric and ornamental detailing survives. The plan form of the house is largely intact, a minor exception being the removal (c1965) of the single-storey return at the far rear, formerly containing a store and WC (large-scale maps 1958-9, 1970). High ceilings to the main rooms of the front part of the house were a selling point when the house was built. The building is generally enhanced by its setting, within a tree lined avenue, terraced with substantial double-fronted villas of a similar period (replacement gate and piers were added to the front in 2011). The association of the house with Samuel Hogg, notable Shankill Road grocer and the Montgomery family who were involved in the local linen trade, adds to the building's local interest.

References:
Primary Sources:
1. PRONI OS/6/1/61/1 – First Edition Ordnance Survey Map (1832-3)
2. PRONI OS/6/1/61/2 – Second Edition Ordnance Survey Map (1858)
3. PRONI OS/6/1/61/3 – Third Edition Ordnance Survey Map (1901-2)
4. PRONI OS/6/1/61/4 – Fourth Edition Ordnance Survey Map (1938)
5. PRONI VAL/12/B/43/D/14 Valuation Revision Book 1882-1896
6. PRONI VAL/12/B/43A/36 Valuation Revision Book 1897-1905
7. PRONI VAL/12/B/43P/3 Valuation Revision Book 1906-1915
8. PRONI VAL/12/B/43P/7 Valuation Revision Book 1916-1930
9. PRONI VAL/7/B/14/20 Belfast Revaluation 1900
10. PRONI VAL/3/C/3/33 First Northern Ireland General Revaluation 1933-1957
11. PRONI VAL/3/D/3/1/P/68 Valuers RV Binder 1933-1957
12. Belfast Street Directories 1890-1995
13. Belfast Commercial Chronicle, 27th March 1854
14. Belfast Newsletter, 2nd May 1877
15. Northern Whig, 10th October 1879
16. Northern Whig, 3rd May 1880
17. Northern Whig, 24th March 1881
18. Northern Whig, 3rd November 1881
19. Belfast Telegraph, 18th September 1882
20. Belfast Newsletter, 17th August 1888
21. Northern Whig, 2nd October 1888
22. Belfast Newsletter, 16th January 1890
23. Northern Whig, 28th March 1890
24. Northern Whig, 2nd June 1891
25. Northern Whig, 12th June 1893
26. Northern Whig, 20th March 1896
27. Ulster Echo, 31st May 1898
28. Census of Ireland 1901, 1911
29. Belfast Newsletter, 4th August 1914
30. Northern Whig, 18th May 1925
31. Belfast Newsletter, 20th October 1931
32. Belfast Newsletter, 4th May 1948
33. Belfast Telegraph, 3rd February 1954
34. PRONI Will of Charles Montgomery, died 15th November 1951
35. Belfast Telegraph, 3rd February 1954
36. Northern Whig, 3rd February 1954
37. Larne Times, 22nd July 1954
38. National Museums NI Hogg collection (BELUM.Y3935)
39. Large scale Ordnance Survey maps 1858, 1884, 1902, 1920, 1931, 1937, 1958, 1970, 1986 (www.centremapslive.co.uk)
40. Planning Application Reference Z/2011/1341/F

Secondary Sources:

41. Carleton, Samuel Trevor (1967) The Growth of South Belfast. Unpublished MPhil thesis, Queen’s University Belfast
42. Dictionary of Irish Biography www.dib.ie

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
X. Local Interest

Evaluation

21 Wellington Park Belfast is a two-storey, double-fronted Victorian villa in a domestic gothic revival style, constructed in 1889/90 as one of a pair (with number 19 – HB26/28/129A) by the builder Andrew Dempter Gibson.
This double-fronted Victorian villa along with its conjoined neighbour is uniquely intact in three dimensional form and massing and includes double-height canted bays with natural Welsh slate adorned with decorative metalwork, decorative coloured brickwork, historic windows and largely original rear returns. Much original interior fabric and ornamental detailing survives with the plan form of the house remaining largely intact. The pair of buildings are generally enhanced by their tree lined avenue setting. The level of authenticity and group value along with No.19 adds to its special interest.