7 Malone Place

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Jan 2007
The building was extensively altered in 2004.
The front S facing elevation has the two original window openings to the first floor. The ground floor shop front has been removed and an entrance door to match No 5 installed and a window to match the first floor. The external finish is fair faced brick to match the rest of the terrace

Feb 2003
Small two storey terrace house, of c.1843-49, with two storey rear return, much altered in 1897 with the insertion of a large shop front. The property is one of a group of seven which form much of the terrace on the north side of Malone Place, just to the north of the east end of Lisburn Road, west of Sandy Row.

The asymmetrical front elevation faces S. The ground floor level is completely taken up with a large plain shop front, with recessed glazed doorway to left and large two light shop window to right of this. The shop front also has a plain stall-riser and signboard frieze with simple box cornice. To the first floor are two plain sash windows whose sills sit directly on top of the shop front. The first floor level is rendered and painted.

The rear of the property could not be seen, but there is a two storey return with three windows (with modern timber frames) to the first floor level of the E face.

The gabled roof is slated (to front at least) with a brick chimneystack to E with four matching pots. The roof of the return could not be seen. PVC rw goods to front.

Historical information

The short stretch of street we now know 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 beyond) 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 no.1-5 Malone Place. The same situation is shown on a larger scale OS map of 1843, but with the main section of today’s no.1-5 in place.

No.7 and the six houses to its east side are recorded in a street directory of 1849. It is likely that it and the rest of the terrace were built by James Warnock, a pawnbroker who is recorded as the owner of Malone Cottage in 1849, as a Sarah Warnock (presumably James’ relative) is listed as the freeholder in the 1860 valuation. No.7 remained in the Warnock family until 1894 when it acquired by a William Rosbotham. The following year it was converted to a shop.

The property remained a shop (latterly a shoe repairers) until the 1970s after which it became a store for a local furniture shop.

The shop was converted back int o dwelling in 2004

References- Primary sources
1 PRONI OS/6/1/61/1 OS map, Co Antrim sh 61, 1832
2 PRONI OS/9/50/2/1-2 Large scale maps showing the areas at the Municipal boundaries of Belfast
3 ‘Henderson’s Belfast Directory’ [later ‘Belfast & Province of Ulster Directory’], 1849- (1990s)
4 PRONI OS/9/50/3/43 OS map of Belfast, sh 43, 1858
5 PRONI VAL/2B/7/4H Second valuation, St George’s ward, Belfast, 1860
6 PRONI VAL/2D/7/43a Second valuation town plan of Belfast sh 43a, 1860
7 PRONI VAL/2D/7/43b Annual valuation revision town plan of Belfast, sh 43b, 1860-95
8 PRONI VAL/12B/43D/4 Annual valuation revision books, St George’s ward, Belfast, vol.IV, 1863-82
9 PRONI OS/8/30/2/43 OS town plan of Belfast, sh 43, 1871-73
10 PRONI VAL/12E/192K/43/1 Valuation plan of Belfast, sh 43, 1873-97
11 PRONI VAL/12B/43D/9 Annual valuation revision books, St George’s ward, Belfast, 1882-96
12 PRONI OS/8/30/3/43 OS town plan of Belfast, sh 43, 1883-84
13 PRONI OS/8/30/3/49 OS town plan of Belfast, sh 49, 1894-95
14 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
C. Ornamentation
J. Setting
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest
Z. Rarity

Evaluation

Small two storey terrace house, of c.1843-49, with two storey rear return, much altered in 1897 with the insertion of a large shop front and with major late 20th century changes to the interior. Much altered again in 2004 when it was returned to residential use. The property is one of a group of seven which form the bulk of the terrace on the north side of Malone Place. It is one of the few remaining pre 1850s houses in the centre of Belfast and, although it has been radically altered both inside and out, it forms part of Malone Place (much of which is also 1840s) and, thus, has group value. It also forms the junction with Nos 1-5 (HB26/29/003A-C).