41 Hamilton Street

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Terraced corner-sited three-storey redbrick late-Georgian townhouse, built c.1835, with front railed area. Square on plan facing south with a three-storey west side elevation fronting onto Joy Street.

Natural slate roof with black clay ridge tiles, hipped to the corner with lead ridge and two rebuilt redbrick chimneystacks with clay pots. Ogee-moulded steel guttering on brackets to brick eaves course and cast-iron downpipes. Redbrick walling laid in Flemish bond with rendered plinth course and painted rusticated masonry quoins to the corner. Square-headed window openings with rendered reveals, painted masonry sills and replacement 6/6 timber sash windows.

Front south elevation is two windows wide with an off-centre round-headed door opening. Projecting moulded rendered surround to door opening with replacement timber panelled door flanked by slender panelled timber pilasters to lintel cornice and decorative fanlight over. Door opens onto tiled step flanked by replacement metal railings on low moulded plinth wall enclosing small tiled front area.

West side elevation is two windows wide, detailed as per front elevation with a single blind bay to the ground floor. Attached to this elevation is a carved limestone memorial plaque to 'Joe McCann'.

North rear elevation abutted by adjoining house No.26 (HB26/30/008G).

East side elevation abutted by adjoining house No.39 (HB26/30/008I).

Setting;
Located on the north side of Hamilton Street at the junction of Joy Street.

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

Historical information

No. 41 Hamilton Street is one of two three-storey buildings, the only survivors of a late-Georgian terrace which originally consisted of six buildings, constructed between Joy Street and Catherine Street North (nos 31-41 Hamilton Street). This terrace was under construction by 1832-33 when the First Survey Ordnance Survey map shows that nos 31-35 had been built; nos 37-41 Hamilton Street were likely constructed very soon afterwards. The Belfast Street Directories record that the terrace was numbered differently in 1843 (nos 27-37) and in that year No. 41 Hamilton Street (then No. 37) was occupied by a Miss Welsh. By 1852 the house had passed to Henry Kingsmill, who was employed as a clerk. Kingsmill was still in possession of the house when it was recorded by Griffith’s Valuation in 1859, valued at £18; at that time No. 41 Hamilton Street (along with the rest of the terrace) was let by a Mr. Ebenezer Crawford.

The Annual Revisions record that Henry Kingsmill resided at No. 41 Hamilton Street until 1877 when a Mr. Robert Crawford came into possession of the house. Crawford briefly resided at the address for two years and in 1879 Robert Colclough, a jeweller, occupied the property. The valuation records suggest that Colclough continued to reside at No. 41 Hamilton Street until c. 1905, however the Belfast Street Directories record that a Mrs. Close and a Ms. Mary Johnston occupied the house in 1901 and 1907 respectively. Ownership of the terrace passed from Ebenezer Crawford to a Mrs. Charlotte Harding c. 1905, at which time the value of No. 41 Hamilton Street was reduced to £15.

In 1908 the house had fallen vacant but by 1910 a Mrs. Ellen McCusker had come into possession. The 1911 Census notes that McCusker, a 52 year old Roman Catholic widow, resided at No. 41 Hamilton Street with her son John and four daughters; like many of the other residents in the Markets area, together they operated a boarding house from the premises. The Census Building Return described the house as a 1st class private dwelling which consisted of 11 rooms and possessed no out offices. Ellen McCusker continued to occupy the house until at least 1918 and by 1925 her son John McCusker, who was employed as a pawnbroker, was recorded as the main occupant. John McCusker was recorded as occupant until at least 1935 when the first general revaluation of property in Northern Ireland was undertaken; the valuer noted that ownership of the terrace had passed to a Mr. Joseph Tyney, whilst the value of the property was increased to £19 10s.

From c. 1940 a labourer by the name William Rooney took possession of No. 41 Hamilton Street, his family continued to occupy the address until 1986. During the Second World War Hamilton Street was badly damaged in the Belfast Blitz, when the Luftwaffe targeted the nearby shipyard industries, and many of the houses along the street were lost (Patton, p. 179). By 1956 the terrace had come into the possession of a Mr. J. R. McKee; in that year the government carried out a second revaluation of property which recalculated the value of the house to £21. Also by 1956 Rooney’s wife or daughter, Mary Rooney, had come into possession of the site; Mary Rooney was employed as a shop assistant and lived at the address until 1986 when the terrace underwent restoration work (Belfast Street Directories).

Hamilton Street was built in the 1830s on reclaimed land to the south-east of Belfast’s town centre; this land was created by the construction of a paper mill dam along the Blackstaff River at the current junction of Ormeau Avenue and Cromac Street (O’Hagan, p. 13). Patton records that Hamilton Street drew its title from the family name of the Dukes of Abercorn who resided in No. 3 Hamilton Street from 1818 (now demolished). The street originally attracted high ranking merchant class residents including many who were employed in the newspaper and printing trade; however by the 1850s the area had become distinctly more working class as businessmen moved to grander houses in the Belfast suburbs. With the flight of the merchant classes the buildings on Hamilton Street and the neighboring Joy Street (HB26/30/007A-C; HB26/30/008A-F) became mainly inhabited by working class traders but also by students who frequented Queens College which had been established in 1849. Due to their size and proximity to the town centre a number of the large houses on Joy Street and Hamilton Street were converted into lodging and boarding houses to accommodate the influx of students and also the many musical performers and actors that frequented the nearby music halls; the occupational history of No. 41 Hamilton Street shows that it was utilized as a boarding house and on census night a ‘Musical Director’ was recorded amongst the boarders (Patton, pp 179-180).

In 1971 Brett described the houses on Hamilton and Joy Street as ‘the best example left in the city of late-Georgian Belfast’ (Brett, p. 4). Many of the original houses on the street, including nos 31-37 Hamilton Street were demolished in the mid-1980s and now only nos 36-46 and 39-41 survive. Nos 39-41 Hamilton Street were listed in 1985 and were restored for the Housing Executive in 1986 by W. D. R. & R. T. Taggart (who also restored nos 14-26 Joy Street (HB26/30/008A-G)). As part of this restoration three sympathetic redbrick houses were constructed on the site of the demolished nos 31-37 linking them to the two surviving buildings of the original terrace; Patton states that nos 33-37 Hamilton Street were built for the Housing Executive, ‘respecting the scale of the older buildings, but spoilt by the use of pivot windows and brick surrounds to the doors’ (Patton, p. 80).

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 – Fourth 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. Belfast Street Directories (1843; 1852; 1861; 1877; 1880; 1901; 1907; 1908; 1910; 1918; 1925-1990).
15. Census of Ireland (1911)

Secondary Sources

1. Brett, C. E. B; McKinstry, T. R. J., ‘Survey and recommendations for the Joy Street and Hamilton Street District of Belfast’ Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1971.
2. O’Hagan, J., ‘The streets where we lived’ Belfast: Unknown Publisher, 2006.
3. Patton, M., ‘Central Belfast: An historical gazetteer’ Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1993.
4. First Survey Record – HB26/30/008 (1987).

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-terrace three-storey brick townhouse, built c.1835. Square on plan facing south with front railed area, forming part of a terrace of two similar houses on the junction of Hamilton Street and Joy Street. 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 41 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.