14 Joy Street

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

End terrace three-storey redbrick house, built c.1840. Rectangular on plan, facing west lining the east side of Joy Street forming part of a terrace of nine similar houses. Alterations carried out by Hearth Housing Association c.1985.

Natural slate roof, hipped to the corner with roll-moulded black clay ridge tiles (lead to hip ridge) and two rendered brick chimneystacks with clay pots. Cast-iron guttering to brick eaves course and cast-iron downpipe. Redbrick walling laid in Flemish bond with cement pointing, moulded plinth course and rusticated quoins to the corner. Square-headed window openings with rendered reveals, painted masonry sills and replacement 6/6 timber sash windows.

Front elevation is two windows wide with a round-headed door opening having a moulded surround with keystone, scribed pilasters and impost mouldings and a replacement timber panelled door with lintel cornice and replacement fanlight opening onto a concrete step. Iron bootscraper set within the wall with rendered surround.

North side elevation is two windows wide with the west openings rendered.

Rendered gabled rear elevation abutted by a single-storey return and having a single square-headed window opening and a round-headed window opening.

South side elevation abutted by adjoining house No.16 (HB26/30/008B).

Setting:
Forming part of a terrace of nine similar houses lining the east side of Joy Street.

Roof Natural slate
RWG Cast-iron
Walling Redbrick
Windows Replacement timber sash

Historical information

No. 14 Joy Street is the corner building of a terrace of seven three-storey Georgian houses which first appear on the 1858 edition of the Ordnance Survey map for Belfast (HB26/30/008A-G); however it is certain that the terrace was erected sometime prior to 1858 during the late Georgian period sometime during the late Georgian period as the first edition of the Ordnance Survey maps shows that construction of the neighbouring buildings in the area (such as nos 36-46 Hamilton Street HB26/30/009A-F) had begun by 1832-33. Joy Street had certainly been constructed by 1843 when the Belfast Street Directories first recorded the terrace, although at that time Joy Street was numbered differently.

In 1852 and 1861 the Belfast Street Directories recorded that No. 14 Joy Street was occupied by a Mr. John Abbot who worked as a clerk for a company in the town centre. In 1859 Griffith’s Valuation noted that Abbott let No. 14 Joy Street from a Mr. Ebenezer Crawford at an annual rent of £20 (Crawford also owned the rest of the houses on the terrace); the valuer described the house as a three-storey B+ class (‘not new but in sound repair’) dwelling which measured 6 ½ by 8 yds and was valued at £17. The Annual Revisions indicate that Abbott continued to reside at the address until 1900 when a Mr. Thomas McCullough came into possession, however the Belfast Street Directories record that Edward Rice, a grain merchant, and a Mr. William Porter occupied the address in 1877 and 1880 respectively. The Annual Revisions also record that in 1884 the house was reduced in value to £15; although it is not known why the house was revalued, each house on the terrace was similarly devalued in the same year. What is certain is that McCullough, a 45 year old Roman Catholic warehouse labourer, had taken possession of the house by 1901 when he and his family were recorded in the census of that year. Like most of the houses in the Markets area McCullough let out rooms in his house to boarders, many of whom were musical artists or actors who performed in the nearby music halls and theatres. The 1901 and 1911 Census Building Returns described No. 14 Joy Street as a 2nd class dwelling which possessed six rooms.

In 1900 around the time McCullough occupied No. 14 Joy Street the house was again reduced in value to £13, however by 1906 this value had increased to £14 10s. around the time a Ms. Charlotte Harding purchased the terrace from Ebenezer Crawford. Thomas McCullough vacated the house sometime between 1911 and 1915 when a Mrs. Anna Nugent came into possession; over the next twenty years the Belfast Street Directories indicate that No. 14 Joy Street passed between a number of occupants, none of whom resided there for a long period of time.

In 1920 Charlotte Harding put nos. 14-26 Joy Street up for public auction, the yearly rent for the terrace and a number of other buildings attached to the row was advertised at £416 3s. In 1935 the First General Revaluation of Northern Ireland recorded that the terrace had come into the ownership of a Mr. Joseph Tyney (who presumably won the auction and was described in the 1911 Census as a Manufacturer of ship parts) and that No. 14 Joy Street was used as a lodging house valued at £30. The property continued to house tenements by the second revaluation between 1956 and 1972 when the value had been reduced to £22; however from 1962 the house fell vacant and remained so for the next twenty years (Belfast Street Directories).

Jim O’Hagan records that Joy Street gained its name from a former paper mill in the area which was owned by Henry Joy, a relative of Henry Joy McCracken, the United Irishman; the mill formerly stood at the junction of Ormeau Avenue and Cromac Street and due to the construction of the mill’s dam, acres of land to the south-east of Belfast’s town centre was reclaimed at the turn of the 19th century (O’Hagan, p. 13). Joy Street and the surrounding Markets area was laid out during the late Georgian period, gradually developing southwards from May Street on the reclaimed land. The grandiose redbrick terraces that were erected c. 1830-40 were originally occupied by well respected merchants; however, due in part to the mass influx of working class labourers into Belfast in the wake of the Great Famine, by the 1850s the merchant classes abandoned the area, favouring instead the new suburbs in Malone to the south.

With the flight of the merchant classes the buildings on Joy Street and Hamilton Street were inhabited by working and lower middle class occupants whilst a number of the large houses were converted into lodging and boarding houses. Further, the establishment of the Queen’s College in 1849 resulted in a large number of student residents choosing the markets area where they sought cheap lodgings until c. 1850-70 when the student population gradually moved to lodgings in the immediate vicinity of the university. After this second exodus the lodging houses in Joy Street and Hamilton Street predominantly became the destination of business lodgers and also musical performers that frequented the nearby Music Halls. The occupational history of No. 14 Joy Street shows that the building was one of the many buildings in the area that was for a time utilised as a lodging house although it was later converted into a set of tenements and continued in this use until the 1960s when it fell vacant (Brett and McKinstry, pp 2-6).

In the mid-1960s the Sub-Committee of the Ancient Monuments Advisory Council recommended that nos. 14-26 Joy Street should be maintained ‘as an excellent illustration of Georgian Housing in pre-industrial Belfast’ (Brett and McKinstry, p. 6). Patton records that after years of decline nos 14-26 Joy Street were restored for the Housing Executive between 1982 and 1986 by W. D. R. & R. T. Taggart and described the intact terrace as ‘the finest block of Georgian houses in Belfast’ and a good example of ‘the grandeur and dignity of the Markets area when it was first developed’ (Patton, p. 203). No. 14 Joy Street was listed, along with the rest of the terrace, in 1985 during this restoration and continues to be occupied as a private dwelling.

References

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/1/61/1 – First Edition Ordnance Survey Map 1832-33
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 1901-02
4. PRONI OS/6/1/61/4 – Fourth Edition Ordnance Survey Map 1931
5. PRONI OS/6/1/61/5 – Fifth Edition Ordnance Survey Map 1938
6. PRONI VAL/2/B/7/1B – Griffith’s Valuation 1859
7. PRONI VAL/12/B/43/A/1 - Annual Revisions 1863-1881
8. PRONI VAL/12/B/43/A/24 - Annual Revisions 1882-1896
9. PRONI VAL/12/B/43/A/35 - Annual Revisions 1897-1905
10. PRONI VAL/12/B/43/P/2 - Annual Revisions 1906-1915
11. PRONI VAL/12/B/43/P/5 - Annual Revisions 1915-1930
12. PRONI VAL/3/B/3/21 – First General Revaluation of Northern Ireland 1935
13. PRONI VAL/4/B/7/50 – Second General Revaluation of Northern Ireland 1956-1972
14. PRONI D2964/CB/221 – Public Auction: Particulars and conditions of sale for 14-26 Joy Street 1920
15. Belfast Street Directories (1843; 1852; 1861; 1877; 1880; 1901; 1910; 1918; 1920; 1930; 1940; 1950; 1960; 1970; 1980; 1990
16. Census of Ireland (1901; 1911)

Secondary Sources

1. Brett, C. E. B; McKinstry, TR. J., ‘Survey and recommendations for the Joy Street and Hamilton Street District of Belfast’ Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1971.
2. Larmour, P., ‘Belfast: An illustrated architectural guide’ Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1987.
3. O’Hagan, J., ‘The streets where we lived’ Belfast: Unknown Publisher, 2006.
4. Patton, M., ‘Central Belfast: An historical gazetteer’ Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1993
5. First Survey Record – HB26/30/008 (1985)

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

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

Criteria for listing: historic interest

R. Age
S. Authenticity
X. Local Interest

Evaluation

End of terrace three-storey redbrick Georgian townhouse, built c.1840. Located on the junction of Joy Street and Catherine Street North in Belfast city centre, forming part of a terrace of nine similar houses. The building displays proportions and detailing typical of the Georgian period. Restored in recent years in a sensitive manner by Hearth Housing Association c.1985 much of the architectural fabric remains intact. Externally the building has retained much of its historic fabric with appropriate alterations. Number 14 adds significant value to the group as a whole, retaining the style and proportions of the terrace thus ensuring the continued survival of this rare example of late Georgian terraced housing in the centre of Belfast.