30 Derryvolgie Ave

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Semi-detached two-storey late-Victorian villa, built c.1870 by John 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.28; unusually split parallel to the street so that No.28 reads as a largely symmetrical 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, extensive 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 and both have later single-storey additions.

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. Three red brick chimneys: one centred on main roof ridge, offset to left (W) with canted and soldier coursed bricks to corbelled cap, one octagonal yellow clay pot and two smaller black 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 guttering, ogee profile (N & E); cast iron RWP (W gable); otherwise uPVC
WALLS: Red brick walling in Flemish bond to N & E; English Garden Wall bond to S & W.
WINDOWS: Single glazed double hung sliding sash with 2/2 panes (horizontally split), unless otherwise described. Historic glass to N Elevation windows (probably cylinder).

Front Elevation (N):
Facing north, symmetrical with formal fenestration: five equally spaced windows at first floor, central entrance portico flanked by two windows at ground floor (aligned with those above). Continuous brick plinth with chamfered brick cap. Soldier coursed brick to window heads and projecting stone cills, painted. Sheeted timber panels behind window to far right (W) at first floor and part of window immediately below; same applies to window second from left at first floor. Coupled with attic windows in W gable end, this suggests an internal arrangement slightly at odds with the exterior. Portico appears on earlier OS maps (1873 – 1931) but not on 1959-85 maps; current owner raised the existing stone plinth, column base and collar by height of three steps and formed the remainder of the existing porch in concrete / timber. Replacement slate risers and treads. Doric columns (circular hollow section concrete) with corresponding pilasters support entablature comprised of plain frieze and projecting moulded cornice; lead-lined flat roof. Timber framed front door, with two moulded panels below mid-rail, plain glass panels above with two further panes below top rail having stop-chamfered edge detail; same detail applied to plain glass over-light, side-lights and diagonally sheeted base panels. Brass door knocker, probably original.

East Elevation:
Comprised of gable end to main building and east face of return. Gable: projecting timber bargeboard and carved timber supports arranged in threes; stone roundel to attic, centred on ridge, with blind shield to centre, hood mould and foliated label stops; two windows at first floor, matching those to front elevation; and canted bay at ground floor having mono-pitched roof (with fish-scale slates) 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 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, centred on apex; two windows at first floor with that to left larger and aligned with attic window and that to right blocked up; modern timber framed glass door in what appears as original opening at ground floor, with small timber framed casement window offset to right side. Gable abutted by full-height bay with cat-slide roof and clipped eaves; timber sliding sash window with 1/1 panes at first floor and diminutive fixed pane to attic. Near valley with return roof, fixed triangular-shaped light between cat-slide and main roof. Modern sky-light adjacent. Ground floor walling painted white and faces onto small paved yard. Yard partially enclosed by butterfly glass roof with central valley gutter; latter abuts gable in part.
Return: single window at first floor and three-part timber framed window with side-hung opening casement at ground floor; ground floor walling rendered and painted white.

Rear Elevation (S):
No.28 abuts south side of return. South elevation of main building has modern timber framed glass door at ground floor, with small timber framed casement window offset to right side; and single window at half-landing level above with reeded glass panes. Ground floor walling rendered and painted white.

Red brick wall abuts W side of front elevation, containing ledged and braced sheeted timber gate leading to yard. Original outbuildings demolished by previous owner and replaced with single-storey rendered lean-to with corrugated asbestos roof and slide-back garage door. Yard partially enclosed by glazed roof (described above).

Large symmetrical formal garden to E of house with timber pergola flanked by copper beech hedging encircling various water features, paved and planted areas. Metal gates on modern brick piers mark entrance to No30 from approximately half-way along driveway; drive sweeps round to front of house with lawns and mature planting either side.

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 (‘Sorrento’, 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.30 was occupied by Rev. James Herron (or Heron) 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 Rev. Herron (‘Professor of Church History’) recorded as living there with his wife, Margaret and their four grown-up children. By 1903 the house was being leased to a Joseph Richardson Turtle Mulholland, whom the 1911 census records as occupying the property with sister, Anna, his sister, Mary Irvine, a house guest, Mary StClair Mulholland, and two domestic servants.

Miss Anna Mulholland was still living in the house in 1918, but by 1924 it had passed to J.B. McGown, a linen merchant with another linen merchant, D.V. Crossley noted as resident in 1932. Mrs Crossley was still there in 1951. At some point later in that decade the property was acquired by Dr. A. Gailey, who ran his surgery in what is now the studio room and replaced the outbuildings with the present structures. The current owner bought no.30 in 1976 and since that time has made some changes to internal layout and largely rebuilt the portico. He also advised that the glass to the east facing windows was replaced c.2001 following damage as a result of an occurrence at the nearby church.

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 John Woods. Architect unknown. One of a pair with No.28; 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; the entrance portico is later.
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. 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.