28 Derryvolgie Ave

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Semi-detached two-storey late-Victorian villa, built c.1870 by Michael Woods and located on north side of Derryvolgie Avenue, Belfast. Architect unknown. Derryvolgie Avenue runs E-W between Malone and Lisburn Roads, two main arterial routes due south of city centre. One of a pair with No.30; unusually split parallel to the street so that No.28 reads as a detached single dwelling facing onto Derryvolgie Avenue; with No.30 tucked behind, accessed by a long driveway. Screened behind a row of mature trees and hedging, with cast iron gates (featuring name plate ‘DUNSONA’) centred on entrance portico; large stone flags set in gravel lead to modern quarry tiled steps (painted). Extensive mature gardens to the east and north significantly enhance the pair of dwellings within the Derryvolgie and Windsor Conservation Area. Roughly L-shaped on plan, each house has gabled main section abutted by two-storey return to east; returns attach to form a U-shaped plan overall. No.28 retains original outbuildings, connected in part via a flat roofed extension, c. 1970, to main house.

Natural slate roof (Bangor Blue) with black clay ridge tiles. Projecting eaves with exposed carved timber rafter ends and same carved detail to timbers at overhanging gable, arranged in threes. Three red brick chimneys: one centred on main roof ridge, offset to left (W) with canted and soldier coursed bricks to corbelled cap and two octagonal yellow clay pots; another centred on return ridge with same cap detail and three octagonal yellow clay pots; and third set along dividing wall between two properties – the latter is plainly detailed with six circular clay pots and replaced in part.

Materials
ROOF: Natural slate
RWG: Cast iron, including hoppers; replacement uPVC hopper and RWP on E & W Elevations
WALLS: Red brick walling in Flemish bond to S & E; English Garden Wall bond to N & W.
WINDOWS: Single glazed double hung sliding sash with 2/2 panes (horizontally split), unless otherwise described.

Front Elevation (S):
Facing south, largely symmetrical with formal fenestration: five equally spaced windows at first floor, central entrance portico with two windows to left (W) aligned with first floor openings, and single storey canted bay to right with mono-pitched roof cantilevered on painted decorative timber brackets with corner pendant. Canted bay thought to be later, possibly 1930s, although detailed similarly to original bay on east elevation, with fish-scale slates and exposed rafter ends, carved to match main roof. Continuous brick plinth with chamfered brick cap. Soldier coursed brick to window heads, projecting stone cills, painted. Lattice leaded panes to first floor window to far left, top and bottom sashes; and to top sash of window directly below. Solid panels behind parts of these two windows, coupled with attic windows in W gable end, indicate an internal arrangement slightly at odds with the exterior. Portico appears on earlier OS maps (1873 – 1959) but not on 1970 map, suggesting that it may have been replaced. Doric columns (lightweight, hollow construction) with corresponding pilasters support entablature comprised of plain frieze and projecting moulded cornice; lead-lined flat roof with sheeted timber soffit, painted. Timber framed front door, with two moulded panels below mid-rail, multi-paned above with some bulls-eye glass and two further panes below top rail having stop-chamfered edge detail; same detail applied to plain glass over-light, multi-paned side-lights and diagonal sheeted base panels. Rendered and painted panelled soffit above door opening. Lion-head brass door handle.

East Elevation:
Comprised of gable end to main building, and east face of return. Gable: canted bay at ground floor and two windows above; stone roundel to attic, centred on ridge, with blind shield to centre, hood mould and foliated label stops, all painted white; mono-pitched roof (with fish-scale slates) at canted bay cantilevered on decorative carved timber brackets with elliptical corner pendant and similar detail to base of brackets; exposed deep eaves beam, carved rafter ends and verge timbers, all with stop-chamfered edges. Return: two windows each to ground and first floor, formally arranged with openings aligned and diminishing in height. Base plinth, window heads and cills as per front elevation.

West elevation:
Comprised of projecting gable end to main building, and west face of return.
Gable: informally arranged with projecting timber bargeboard and carved timber supports arranged in pairs; two small timber sliding sash windows to attic level with 1/1 panes (that to left has broken pane), centred on apex; two windows at first floor offset to right (S) and single window at ground floor. Ground and first floor windows are replacements but match original 2/2 sliding sashes, with double glazed units. Lighter coloured brick between first floor windows in stretcher bond; current owner removed wide steel framed casement window and inserted present windows. Ground floor walling painted white and faces onto small yard (described below). Above extension, gable abutted by full-height bay with cat-slide roof and clipped eaves; modern timber framed window with twin side-hung multi-paned casements at first floor and diminutive fixed pane to attic. Near valley with return, fixed triangular-shaped glazed light between cat-slide and main roof. Modern sky-light adjacent.
Return: ground floor largely enveloped by later extension; single window at each floor; obscured glass to lower sash at ground floor. Small fixed light above flat roof.

Rear Elevation (N):
No.30 abuts north side of return. North elevation of main building exposed at first floor only and contains single window at half-landing level with 1/1 leaded glass panes.

Red brick wall abuts W side of front elevation, containing segmental carriage arch and flat-arched pedestrian entrance. Modern painted metal gates to both, with top section of carriage arch retaining original timber framed gates, including metal strap hinges, and diagonally sheeted boarding. Current owner advised this carriage arch originally served both No28 & No30. Behind wall, small paved yard enclosed by flat-roofed modern extension to N (containing timber framed glazed screen and door), gable end to W and original outbuildings to E.
Outbuildings: two storey, gabled with natural slates, black clay ridge tile and conservation roof-light; painted brick walling. Three openings at first floor, one offset to far right (N) and two to left; single casement window (without glass) nearest to S gable, sheeted timber half-doors to others. Ground floor largely concealed by flat-roofed extension to right side; single wide opening to left with horizontal timber boarding and vertical sheeted timber door, all painted.
Small freestanding greenhouse near SW corner of house. Otherwise garden lawned and planted.

Historical information

Derryvolgie Avenue takes its name from ‘Derrievolgie House’ the large Italianate dwelling (now a crèche) at the south-eastern end of the street. Built in 1856-58 (to a design by Thomas Jackson for Cranston J. Gregg), it was one of a number of middle-sized gentrified dwellings built along the Malone ridge in the mid-19th century, largely by Belfast’s merchant and professional classes wishing to the escape the increasingly commercialised and industrialised town centre for the semi-rural surrounds to the south. These dwellings were sited on the long strip farm plots (probably established in the early 1600s) which stretched down from the ridge itself westwards to the lower ground of the Bog Meadows. In first half of the 19th century the integrity of these was compromised by the building of the new Lisburn Road (1816-19) and the Ulster Railway (1837-39), events which coupled with the willingness of the cash-strapped Donegall estate to sell off its assets, opened the area for development. Up until c.1860 this development largely took the form the construction of relatively large single properties individually set within the bounds of the former plots, utilising the former as small ‘demesnes’, many complete with gate lodges along the Malone and Lisburn Roads. In the decades following, however, the exodus from the town centre intensified and these gardens themselves were carved up. Thus, by the end of the century much of the area had become suburbanised, with the boundary lines of the old farms themselves laid out as streets lined with a mixture of detached and semi-detached housing with terraces later appearing on those streets closer to the northern end of the ridge.

Nos-28-30 Derryvolgie Avenue, a pair of red brick semi-detached dwellings, was built in 1870, seemingly by Michael Woods, an auctioneer with premises in Donegall Street. The previous year, Mr. Woods had advertised for let ‘several hundred feet [of] building ground, suitable for a pair [of] semi-detached villas’, however, he ultimately appears to have developed the site himself as he is recorded as the immediate lessor in the valuation book. The identity of the architect is uncertain. The bracket detailing to the roofs of the canted bays has lead Larmour to suggest William Batt, but other than having designed a house for himself a few doors down in 1884 (‘Sorento’, no.20), as yet no evidence has come to light to confirm his involvement – or anyone else for that matter. The quirky aspects of the design could suggest an amateur / builder-lead design rather that any professional input.

It is difficult to trace the names of the occupants for the first couple of decades of their existence as the valuers (seemingly erroneously) list both no.28 and no.30 as vacant up until the late 1890s at least, and the lack of house names and street numbers makes the directories tough to decipher. The 1877 directory records John F. Hodges, (a medical professor at Queen’s College), John Reid Jeffryes (general manager of the Northern Banking Co.), Joseph H. Lytle and David B. Lytle living in unnamed properties on this side of the avenue, with only Prof. Hodges and a Rev. S.M. West recorded likewise in 1880. In the detailed 1900 valuation of Belfast no.28 was occupied by Miss Henrietta Benn with the freehold having passed by this date to a Mr. S. Kelly. In the census of the following year the house is recorded as a first class dwelling containing between 10-12 rooms, with Miss Benn recorded as living there with her niece, Mary Selina Hodges (possibly a relation of the aforementioned John F. Hodges) and a domestic servant. By 1903 the house was being leased to a John R. Irvine, a wine merchant, who appears to have been responsible for giving the building the name ‘Dunsona’; it may also have been he who added the bay to the front, however, the OS maps give no clear indication of for when this actually appeared. The 1911 census notes Mr. Irvine as occupying the property with wife Alice, his sister, Mary Irvine, a house guest, Ethel Hannin (‘Professor of Music’), and a domestic servant, Annie Ramsey; 11 rooms were in use by this date.

By 1918 the house was being occupied by jointly by a solicitor, M. McGown, and a B. McGown, with R.D. Morrison, listed in the directory as a J.P., living there in 1924. The Morrisons remained until at least 1951, when the property was acquired by C.G. Mooney (‘company director’), who added the flat-roofed section to the rear at some point between 1959 and 1970. The Mooney family retained no.28 until c.2006 when it was sold to the present owner, who shortly after this date converted the flat-roofed addition into a family room and installed a utility room, shower room and WC.

References – Primary sources
1 PRONI VAL12B/43D/7 annual valuation revision book, 1862-82
2 PRONI OS8/30/3/53 OS town plan of Belfast, 1883-84
3 ‘Northern Whig’, 31 May 1869
4 ‘Belfast and Province of Ulster Street Directory’, (Belfast News-Letter, Belfast), various dates from 1887 to 1996
5 ‘Northern Whig’, 2 Nov 1870
6 PRONI VAL12B/43D/14, 1882-96
7 PRONI OS8/30/4/53 OS town plan of Belfast, 1896
8 PRONI VAL12B/43DA/36, 1897-1905
9 PRONI VAL7B/14/15 valuation of Belfast, 1900
10 Census of Ireland, 1901, 1911 [online]
11 PRONI OS8/30/5/49 OS town plan of Belfast, 1903
12 PRONI VAL12B/43P/3, 1906-15
13 PRONI VAL12B/43P/7, 1916-30
14 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 Rowan, A.J. And Brett, C.E.B., ‘Historic Buildings...Queens University of Belfast’, (UAHS, 1968), p.42
3 Larmour, Paul, ‘The Architectural Heritage of Malone & Stranmillis’, (UAHS, 1991), pp.56-59
4 Information from owner [Jan. 2017]

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

Semi-detached two-storey late-Victorian red brick villa, built c.1870 by Michael Woods. Architect unknown. One of a pair with No.30, the houses are separated parallel to the street so that No.28 reads as a largely symmetrical detached single dwelling from Derryvolgie Avenue with No.30 tucked behind, accessed by a long driveway. Important in this S Belfast context where prestigious residential development flourished at a time of rapid industrial expansion in the city and semi-detached dwellings were considered ‘down-at-heel’. Screened behind a row of mature trees and hedging, group value between the two properties is strong, with matching sliding sash windows, projecting eaves and decorative carved brackets to canted bays.
Roughly L-shaped on plan, the internal layout is slightly at odds with the external fenestration, including a few ‘mock’ windows, that suggests they may be designed by an amateur builder. Nonetheless, the rooms are well-proportioned with an array of historic features and quirky details adding to their idiosyncratic style. Despite a flat roofed extension, which detracts to some extent from its character, original outbuildings and a segmental carriage arch (reputedly intended to serve both houses) further augment No.28. As an intact pair, coupled with their mature setting, the two houses are amongst the best examples of their time within the Derryvolgie and Windsor Conservation Area.