56 Donegall Pass

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A three-storey two-bay end-of-terrace early Victorian townhouse built c. 1845. Square plan form with two-storey rear return; and single-storey extension. Located on Donegall Pass adjacent to St Mary Magdalene Church (HB26/30/084) south of the city centre, east of Shaftsbury Square.

Pitched natural slate roof with clay ridge tiles; overhanging eaves with timber soffits and paired eaves brackets; cast-iron rainwater goods, semi-circular gutters with circular downpipes. Brick chimneys with replacement clay-pots. Red-brick walling laid to Flemish bond; ruled-and-lined render to the ground floor; long-and-short quoins; smooth render to the rear elevation. 6/6 and 6/3 timber sliding sash; with horns; flat arches over with painted masonry cills; continuous cills to first floor. Four raised-and-fielded bolection moulded panelled door with margin-paned over light; flanked by panelled pilaster rising to foliated console brackets supporting moulded canopy surmounted by stuccowork.

The principal elevation faces south and is asymmetrically arranged. The front entrance is located to the right and accessed by replacement steps. Two windows to the ground, first and second floor. Quoins to the left.

The left gable is blank; quoins to the right; [partially rendered to the left.

The rear elevation is asymmetrically arranged. The left side is abutted by a two-storey return; various openings to the west cheek; landing-window over return. Single-storey modern pitched glazed roof extension abutting the right; first and second floor windows over, matching the south elevation.

The right gable is abutted by adjoining building 58-60 Donegall Pass (HB26/30/083B).

Setting:

The building is adjoined to the east by the associated terrace. Paved area used as a private car park to the front; tarmac yard to the rear enclosed by a palisade gate. The general surroundings are principally two and three-storey residential from various periods. Former School of Music (HB26/30/089) opposite on the south side of the street with St Mary Magdalene Church (HB26/30/084) to the west.

Roofing: Natural slate
Walling: Red brick/render
Windows: Timber sliding sash
RWG: Cast-iron

Historical information

The current terrace, formerly known as ‘Apsley Place’ was built in 1846 in what was then a sparsely developed area of the growing town of Belfast. Donegall Pass had been laid out by the late eighteenth century across a heavily wooded area that was used as a deerpark by the Donegall family, Belfast’s principal landowners at the time. Brett takes the view that Donegall Pass and the Ormeau Road were laid out as carriage drives through these woodland estates and it was not until the control of the Donegalls over their pleasure grounds began to lessen in the 1820s that permission was given to build in this area. By 1823, the land on the north side of Donegall Pass had become the property of Henry Joy who was proprietor of the Belfast Newsletter and an active participant in the political life of the town. The building of the gas works to the east (1823), probably contributed to the development of the area, but at the time ‘Apsley Place’ was built in the mid-nineteenth century, it was one of a handful of terrace developments along the Pass to the north while the territory to the south of the Pass was largely divided among substantial villas set in spacious grounds. (OS map 1858; Brett; Patton; Dictionary of Irish Biography)

The developer of the terrace itself was Thomas Gaffikin (1809-93), a farmer’s son and butcher who built several other terraces in south Belfast. Gaffikin lived at Number 70 and later number 56 Apsley Place from its construction until he moved into a new terrace he had built at Queen’s Elms where he was to remain for the rest of his life. Gaffikin later became the proprietor of a linen and linen-yarn business and a town councillor for Cromac and then St George’s Ward, and has left an important historical legacy in the form of his 1875 lecture entitled ‘Belfast Fifty Years Ago’ which gives a lively impression of the social life of early nineteenth-century Belfast. (Annual Revisions; Dictionary of National Biography)

The houses were occupied by a succession of tenants through the years, reflecting the range of occupations open to the middle and petty bourgeois classes during Belfast’s period of most rapid expansion. The early residents of the terrace were often wealthy business proprietors or ‘gentlemen’, but as the merchant class gradually moved out of Belfast into the more salubrious surroundings of North Down and elsewhere, there is a perceptible shift in the tenantry of the terrace towards the well-doing petty bourgeoisie. The censuses of 1901 and 1911 reveal that by the beginning of the twentieth century, some tenants were sufficiently wealthy to employ a domestic servant, and others supplemented their income by keeping boarders. However, it is not until the modern era that the houses appear to have been used as commercial premises.

The first resident to be noted at number 56 was Mrs David (1850) followed by Thomas Gaffikin, the developer of the terrace, (1852-8) and Rackenham Erskine in 1859. Griffith’s Valuation (1859) gives dimensions for a three-storey house with return and stable valued at £31. The associated valuation map shows a wall and gate to the front of the property. Subsequent tenants were John Alexander Arnold, clothier of High Street (1863-4), Major Lundy (1865), William Thompson of J Thompson & Co (1870) and in 1877 William H Taggart, commission merchant. The McCaughey family were resident from 1884; L McCaughey was proprietor of the Crown Dining Rooms. John Finnegan BA BSc gave ‘University Classes’ at the house from 1896-7.

The 1901 census records the house as having eight windows to the front facade and ten rooms. Dormer windows had possibly been inserted at the roofline, now gone. The occupier was John Campbell, a master handkerchief printer and finisher who lived with his wife, four adult children and a boarder who was a wholesale grocer. Campbell’s eldest son was also a master handkerchief printer and finisher and his younger son an inspector at the National Telephone Company. His older daughter was a dressmaker. By the time of the 1911 census the house was occupied by widow Elizabeth Alderdice who lived with her extended family of daughter, son, son-in-law and granddaughter. The daughter, working as a typist, and son-in-law who was an unemployed railway accountant, had returned from India where their seven-year-old daughter had been born. Two boarders lived at the house, a sixty-five-year-old stevedore and an assurance superintendant of 24. (1901/1911 census)

The house was subsequently the home of Clare Copley, better known as ‘Ma’ Copley, boxing promoter. (Ulster History Circle) Boxing was introduced to the ‘Chapel Fields’ in front of St Malachy’s church in the early 1930s and ‘Ma’ Copley, who had moved to Belfast from her native England, was an unmistakeable figure at the bouts. “With a large leather bag strapped to her waist she collected the door money herself, and with entrance fees ranging from 3 old pence to 6 old pence the fighters’ remunerations were scanty enough.” The City Fathers closed down the venue in 1938 and ‘Ma’ moved to the Ulster Hall where she introduced regular Wednesday and Saturday fight nights. When she died in 1949 at the age of 84 she received a standing homage by the ‘hardened Ulster Hall fans’. (Heatley) The house is currently in use as offices.

References:

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/1/61/1 – First Edition OS Map 1832-3
2. PRONI OS/6/1/61/3 – Third Edition OS Map 1858
3. PRONI OS/6/1/61/4 – Fourth Edition OS Map 1901-2
4. PRONI OS/6/1/61/6 – Sixth Edition OS Map 1931
5. PRONI VAL/2/B/7/1/D –Griffith’s Valuation (1859)
6. PRONI VAL/12/B/43/A/1-45 – Annual Revisions (1863-1930)

Secondary Sources

1. Brett, C.E.B., Gillespie, R. and Maguire W.A. “Georgian Belfast, 1750-1850, Maps Buildings and Trades” Dublin and Belfast: Royal Irish Academy and Belfast Natural History and Philosophical Society, 2004
2. Heatley, F “Belfast, Paintings and Stories from the City” Donaghadee: Cottage Publications, 1998
3. McGuire, J and Quinn, J, eds “Dictionary of Irish Biography” Cambridge: Cambridge University Press and Royal Irish Academy, 2009
4. Patton, M “Central Belfast: An Historical Gazetteer” Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1993
5. Ulster History Circle
6. www.dia.ie – Dictionary of Irish Architects online

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
I. Quality and survival of Interior
J. Setting
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

R. Age
S. Authenticity
X. Local Interest

Evaluation

A three-storey two-bay end-of-terrace early Victorian townhouse built c. 1845, located on Donegall Pass adjacent to St Mary Magdalene Church. Converted for use as an office and design studio, interventions have been largely sympathetic. Externally the building has retained much of its historic fabric and late-Victorian detailing. Although the interior has been slightly modified as a response to the changing requirement of the buildings usage, the layout and features of interest have largely remained unaltered. Number 56 adds significant value to this listed group of buildings (HB26.30.0836A - G), retaining the style, proportions and detailing of the terrace and contributing positively to its overall historic character.