1-5 Malone Place

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

January 2007
The original building has been substantially dismantled and re erected in 2004.

The front east facing elevation has had the shop front removed and new window openings and door inserted to the ground floor. New openings have simple moulded surrounds to match the existing first floor fenestration. All windows are now new sliding sash two over two
The new front door is a painted timber six panel type with a simple rectangular fanlight. The finish is now plain painted render

The gable elevation has been remodelled with the original shop front removed and new windows installed. Ground and first floor have two moulded window openings to match the front elevation. The attic has two narrower round headed plain openings. All windows are sliding sash
The finish is plain painted render

The return has two windows to the first floor to match the originals with new sliding sash windows. To the right hand side the ground floor has a simple painted timber four panelled entrance door with a small plain rectangular fanlight. On the immediate left of the door is a sliding sash window.

To the left on the ground floor of the S face of the return there is a flat arched vehicle doorway now bricked up and containing two low book matched entrance doors with simple rectangular fanlights. The finish is fair faced brick to match the rest of the terrace facing Malone place of which it forms part

Feb 2003

Relatively small two storey rendered house of c.1837-43, with two storey rear return and plain single storey projection to north of c.1843-49, much altered in 1893 with the addition of a large projecting shop front. The property is set at the east end of the short terraced block of Malone Place, fronting on to the southern end of Sandy Row.

The front elevation faces E and is asymmetrical. The elevation is made up of the main building and the E face of the tall single storey projection to the right hand side. The whole of the ground floor level of the main building is completely covered by the large projecting rendered shop front, which is set at an angle, projecting further the closer it gets to the left hand (S) edge of the elevation and culminating to the SE corner in a bevel. The shop front has a recessed right of centre doorway which is now blocked (this most recently gave access to a bookmakers shop which was mainly contained within the projection to N), with a large window to left- now boarded over, and a much smaller high level window to right - now blocked. Above these there is a simple timber frieze (for the shop sign), a large part of the facing of which has fallen off. The frieze is topped with a simple moulded cornice course and the roof of the shop front is flat.

To the first floor there are three original window openings each with a simple moulded surround and a modern replacement timber frame top-hung over fixed pane windows. The rest of first floor level is finished in plain painted render with simple pilasters to the wall edges and a bracketed eaves course. [The render may have been added along with the shop front in 1893, however, the pilasters suggest it may have been original; other (now demolished) mid 19th century houses in Sandy Row situated on the site of the neighbouring, recently-built apartment block had similar pilasters.]

The E elevation of the projection to N is now blank, its single centrally positioned window having been blocked up (only the sill remains).

The S elevation faces into Malone Place proper and consists of the gable of the main building (to right) and the S face of the two storey return. The return is slightly shorter than the main building, has a partly hipped roof, and to the W side merges with the rest of the Malone Place terrace. In date it may be slightly more recent than the rest of the building, possibly added c.1843-49 when most of the houses in Malone Place were constructed.

To the left on the ground floor of the S face of the return there is a flat arched vehicle doorway set within an elliptical arched recess. The doorway has a timber sheeted double door. To the right of the doorway there is a window with a doorway to its immediate right (both boarded up). To the first floor of the return there were originally two window openings, but these have been blocked. This face of the return is finished in painted render.

The whole of the ground floor level of the S gable of the main building is covered by the shop front. This has a low doorway to the left, then a large square window, with a taller doorway (which leads into the shop) and narrow window to right- all of these openings are boarded. Much of the rendered upper portion of the gable is now covered by a large billboard, with no openings to the attic level. Internal evidence suggests there was originally at least one small window opening at this level.

Much of the N gable of the main building is covered by the large single storey projection. This projection has a skewed N face (which is blank and rendered) and a single pitch roof. The remainder of the N gable of the main building is rendered, with the outlines of two small square window openings at attic level (both blocked).

The rear elevation of the building could not be seen in its entirety. It appears to be wholly in brick with a lean-to section to the ground floor with a corrugated iron roof. This lean-to merges with the rear of the single storey projection to N (whose rear face extends beyond that of the main building), and has several small blocked up window openings. The first floor of the main building there is a blocked up window opening. The lean-to is constructed in a more modern-looking red-orange brick, suggesting it is not original. The (N-facing) rear elevation of the return could not be seen, but internal evidence shows that the vehicle entrance goes all the way through the return and that to left of this, on the ground floor, there is a blocked up window and doorway.

The roof of the main building and that of the return are both slated, with that to the projection covered in corrugated iron. The return roof is hipped to the E side and does not merge with the roof of the main building, suggesting (once again) that the return was added at some point. There is a rendered chimneystack with a projecting cornice-like stringcourse to each of the gables of the main building, with a similar (but only partly rendered0 stack to the E end of the return roof. There are no chimney pots. There is a small cast iron skylight to the W (rear) side of the roof of the main building. Metal rw goods

Historical information

The short stretch of street now known as Malone Place was originally the very eastern end of Blackstaff Lane, a country route which ran between what is now Falls Road (originally the road to Crumlin) and what is now Bradbury Place / University Road (the original road to Dublin), and, after 1816, the newly cut Lisburn Road. It is shown on the OS map of 1832 still in its undeveloped rural state save for a building on the site of the present 1-5 Malone Place. Whether this is the same building we see today is uncertain, but it seems unlikely for it does not appear to have been recorded in the valuation of 1837, suggesting it was a modest, possibly single storey, property.

The main portion of the present building appears to have been constructed some time between the date of the valuation and 1843, for its shape and siting match that shown on a large scale map of that year, however the present return is not shown nor anything of the terrace beyond it. Internal evidence in the form of a blocked up window and doorway, as well and the fact that its roof does not integrate with the rest of the building, indicates the return is later and that the main building was originally free standing. This main building, originally known as ‘Malone Cottage’ is recorded in a Belfast street directory of 1849 as the home of a pawnbroker named James Warnock. Seven other houses are recorded in Malone Place also - the bulk of the present terrace. All are shown on a large scale OS map of 1858 and recorded in the valuation of 1860, along with the return, the projection to the north gable and a large triangular shaped garden to the immediate east of the Cottage. By this point Malone Place had ceased to function as the eastern end of Blackstaff Lane, a new short length of road having been cut to the north some time around 1845, creating the straightened route which was to be developed as Donegall Road in the later 19th and early 20th centuries.

In the later 1860s and 1870s Malone Cottage was leased to various occupants including a Dr Young and a draper named Henry Stevenson but remained in the ownership of the Warnock family until 1893, when it was acquired by a William Rosbotham. By this stage Malone Place had long since lost the semi-rural location it enjoyed in the 1840s, with much development in Sandy Row to the east and north, and Bradbury Place and Lisburn Road to the south. The railway cutting to the south appeared in the late 1860s and the straightening of the southern end of Sandy Row and the laying of tram lines had swept away Malone Cottage’s garden by the 1890s. In tune with this urbanisation, William Rosbotham converted Malone Cottage to a shop in 1893, adding the large shop front. The small projection to the north end (along with a small section of the ground floor of the main building) was converted as a separate business premises around the same time, with the first house in the terrace (the present no.7 Malone Place) also acquired by Rosbotham and converted to a shop in 1897.

The former Malone Cottage continued as a shop - originally a furniture sellers - until c.1980s after which it was used simply as a store for furniture. The separate premises to the north side (within the projection etc.) was a bookmakers before it closed c.1990.

The building was substantially dismantled and rebuilt in 2004 with many of the later additions removed.

References- Primary sources
1 PRONI OS/6/1/61/1 OS map, Co Antrim sh 61, 1832
2 PRONI VAL/1B/79 First valuation, Malone Lower etc., 1837 [Malone Cottage does not appear to be recorded in this valuation.]
3 PRONI OS/9/50/2/1-2 Large scale maps showing the areas at the Municipal boundaries of Belfast
4 ‘Henderson’s Belfast Directory’ [later ‘Belfast & Province of Ulster Directory’], 1849- (1990s)
5 PRONI OS/9/50/3/43 OS map of Belfast, sh 43, 1858
6 PRONI VAL/2B/7/4H Second valuation, St George’s ward, Belfast, 1860
7 PRONI VAL/2D/7/43a Second valuation town plan of Belfast sh 43a, 1860
8 PRONI VAL/2D/7/43b Annual valuation revision town plan of Belfast, sh 43b, 1860-95
9 PRONI VAL/12B/43D/4 Annual valuation revision books, St George’s ward, Belfast, vol.IV, 1863-82
10 PRONI OS/8/30/2/43 OS town plan of Belfast, sh 43, 1871-73
11 PRONI VAL/12E/192K/43/1 Valuation plan of Belfast, sh 43, 1873-97
12 PRONI VAL/12B/43D/9 Annual valuation revision books, St George’s ward, Belfast, 1882-96
13 PRONI OS/8/30/3/43 OS town plan of Belfast, sh 43, 1883-84
14 PRONI OS/8/30/3/49 OS town plan of Belfast, sh 49, 1894-95
15 PRONI VAL/12E/192K/43/2 Valuation plan of Belfast, sh 43, 1898-1905

Secondary sources
1 S.T. Carleton, ‘The growth of south Belfast’ (QUB MA thesis, 1967)
2 Information supplied by the current owner (February 2003)

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
J. Setting
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest
Z. Rarity

Evaluation

Relatively small two storey rendered house of c.1837-43, with two storey rear return and plain single storey projection to north of c.1843-49, much altered in 1893 with the addition of large projecting shop front. This property is one of the few remaining pre 1850s houses in the centre of Belfast: although it has been radically altered both inside and out, taken in conjunction with the remainder of Malone Place to its west side, (much of which is also 1840s), it has group value in completing the terrace and turning the corner from Sandy Row into Malone Place.