276 Tennent Street

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

An asymmetrical, two-bay, two-storey-with-attic terraced brick house with wall-head dormer and canted-bay windows, constructed between 1907-09 and located to the west side of Tennent Street, in the Shankill area of Belfast. Facing east and rectilinear on plan with a two-storey, gabled return, single-storey lean-to structure and internal courtyard to the rear. Lean-to extension built to rear wall spanning across full width of elevation (is of no interest).

Pitched, red tile roof with roll-moulded red clay ridge tiles; single replacement brick chimney with plain clay pots. Wall head dormer-window to attic with pitched roof as above with brick copping; central modern skylight to rear roof. Brick moulded eaves with half-round cast iron rainwater goods to east elevation with decorative hopper; remainder are uPVC mounted on plain timber fascia. Walling is Flemish bonded brick with decorative terracotta vents. Rear walling is English Garden Wall bonded with painted roughcast to first floor. uPVC windows throughout (rear elevation not viewed); flat arch heads; offset painted brick sills with some concrete sills to rear ground floor.

Principal elevation is two openings wide at ground floor; brown uPVC front door with moulded brick, camber-arch surround with egg-and-dart motif. Surmounted by deeply projecting, monopitched timber canopy with red-tile roof, decorative flashing and carved fascia. Segmental window to right, replacement brick sill; modern shutters flanking each side and surmounted by label mould. Central, flat-roofed canted bay window to first floor, supported on timber corbels.

The south elevation is abutted by adjoining terrace No.274 Tennent Street; high gable wall extending through eaves, separates the two terraces.

Rear (west) elevation contains two-storey pitched-roof return; south cheek is blank; west gable has central window above replacement lean-to single-storey brick and slated structure (formerly the coal shed). North cheek contains enlarged window and door at ground floor; small window on first floor. Principal rear elevation has central window on ground and first floor; roughcast to first floor; attic window to left-side above return. Rear boundary wall rebuilt and modified with single-storey monopitched extension spanning full length of rear (of no interest).

The north elevation is abutted by the adjoining terrace (HB26/36/001B).

Setting

Located on the western side of Tennent Street in an urban
setting, between Crumlin and Shankill Roads. Small, newly paved garden with rebuilt dwarf brick wall with balustrade and replacement metal gate to the east along Tennent Street; long, narrow garden plot at rear, running west to boundary wall. A paved walkway extends along rear of all properties in terrace, between garden plots and rear of buildings but has been sealed with locked gates to the south. Mixed use business park and apartment complex to west, on site of former Edenderry Spinning Mill. Crumlin Road Presbyterian Church (HB26/36/009) located to the north-east on the corner of Crumlin Road and Tennent Street.

Roof Clay tiles
RWG Cast-iron, uPVC
Walling Brick, roughcast
Windows uPVC

Historical information

Constructed as a part of Edenderry Terrace, the building first appears on the fourth edition OS map (1920-31) on a previously undeveloped site, which formed part of Edenderry flax spinning mill complex. Prior to construction the area had developed rapidly during the mid 19th century as a consequence of the thriving linen industry and the expanding industrial workforce. Erected between 1907-09 the building forms part of a residential terrace, which was built in stages over this period of time and comprises houses of similar design (HB File). This is confirmed by the Annual Revisions (1906-15) in which the house and yard were added in 1909 at a value of £14. Listed as vacant until 1911, the first recorded occupant is Charles Crawford, a grocer from Co. Tyrone who lived with his wife and three young daughters (1911 Census).

The house is first listed as No.10 ‘Edenderry Gardens’ in the 1910 Street Directory but in the following decades it became renumbered as part of Tennent Street. In the first General Revaluations (1935) the value of the house and garden increased to £20 and was occupied by William Hutchinson.

Prior to the building and sanitation regulations of the late 19th century, houses were often shared by a number of families, with no drainage, water supply or rear access, meaning waste from the privy and ash pit was carried through the scullery (Wiener). Constructed by the Edenderry Spinning Company, this house is representative of the design ethos associated with early 20th century terrace housing; intended for occupation by one family with the provision of a rear yard accessible by a passage at the front, a number of sizable windows on the main elevation and the modern amenities of the time.

The house and terrace were built to the designs of the Belfast-based architectural partnership, Robert Hill and Edwin Kennedy (DIA). Constructed toward the end of the city’s second great building phase the house demonstrates detailing from the Arts and Crafts movement, including dormers, bay windows, roughcast and irregular rooflines (HB File; Larmour).

The building remained under ownership of Edenderry Spinning Company until at least 1972 (second General Revaluations (1956-72). The Spinning Company continued to operate on the site to the rear of the property until 1988 and the area has since become an industrial park (Street Directories).

The main elevation has a number of modern decorative additions and minor alterations, which have replaced original features. A new wall has been added to the front garden and the secondary access route to the rear garden area has been maintained but the garden itself shows only some of the original form (HB File).

References

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/1/60/1 First Edition Os Map (1832-33)
2. PRONI OS/6/1/60/2 Second Edition OS Map (1857)
3. PRONI OS/6/1/60/3 Third Edition OS Map (1901)
4. PRONI OS/6/1/60/4 Fourth Edition OS Map (1920-31)
5. PRONI OS/6/1/60/5 Fifth Edition OS Map (1920-38)
6. PRONI VAL/12/B/43/M/3 - Annual Revisions (1906-15)
7. PRONI VAL/12/B/43/M/6- Annual Revisions (1916-30)
8. PRONI VAL/3/B/3/16- First General Revaluation (1935)
9. PRONI VAL/4/B/7/35- Second General Revaluation (1956-72)
10. Belfast and Ulster Street Directories (1902-1990)
11. Census of Ireland (1911)
12. HB File (HB26/36/001A)

Secondary Sources

1. Larmour, P “Belfast, An Illustrated Architectural Guide” Friars Bush Press, Belfast (1987)
2. Wiener, R “The Rape and Plunder of the Shankill” Farset Co-operative Press Ltd, Belfast, 1978 (2nd ed 1980).
3. www.dia.ie - Dictionary of Irish Architects online

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

Three-storey, single-bay terraced house of brick construction, dating from 1907-09. Designed by the architectural firm Hill and Kennedy, the building forms part of a group with the other houses in the terrace (HB26/36/001A-J), built by the Edenderry Spinning Company, which was located to the west of the site. The group as a whole has suffered from inappropriate incremental changes. Although of significance in that they demonstrate key elements pertaining to the Arts and Crafts movement at the time with varied detailing and roofline, their interest has been seriously compromised by loss of historic fabric and detailing and they are no longer of special architectural or historic interest.