26-30 Cliftonville Road

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Symmetrical Regency Greek style two-storey-over-basement villa with attic, built c.1830, (Converted from three villas into six apartments in 1901, renovated in 2010), built in 1830s to designs by Thomas Jackson. Rectangular-on-plan facing north with central Doric entrance portico; smaller Doric entrance porticos at east and west. Continuous walkway around basement at north, east and west, retaining wall surmounted by rendered plinth with saddleback stone coping and ornate cast-iron railings (replacement railings at south side of east and west porticos). Located on a prominent site on the south side of Clintonville Road, Belfast.

Hipped natural slate roof with leaded ridge, lead-valleys, two smooth rendered chimneystacks with multiple pots. Ogee profile cast-iron rainwater goods supported on broad eaves enriched with guttae; four solar panels on south slope. Walling is ruled-and-lined render with projecting stone stringcourse over basement. Windows are square-headed 6/6 timber sliding-sashes contained within rendered reveals and having painted stone sills (unless otherwise stated).

Principal three-bay north elevation is recessed at centre and comprises central single-storey Doric portico (bridging basement walkway) supported on two square columns and pilasters, opening at front divided by a series of four fluted columns supporting deep architrave, frieze with guttae and ovolo moulded cornice; surmounted by flat leaded roof with concealed guttering. Portico accessed by three stone flagged steps. Stone flagging within the portico contains two cast-metal grilles providing daylight to basement level below.

North elevation (within portico) contains single glazed timber panelled entrance door at left, two windows at right, each divided by plain rectangular pilaster responds. Portico surmounted by three windows at first floor with decorative arabesque frieze over. Left and right bays have two windows at each floor contained within four two-storey elliptical-headed recesses and having laurel wreath over second floor window. Six diminished 3/3 timber sliding sash windows at attic level with continuous sill course, each flanked by oversized guttae. Basement has entrance door and window below portico; two windows at each side.

East elevation contains central Doric portico as north (diminished in width, containing two fluted columns and accessed via two stone flagged steps). Portico contains single timber panelled entrance door with margin-paned transom light over. First floor has three equally spaced windows recessed and detailed as north, with two ground floor windows directly beneath, flanking portico. Three diminished 3/3 timber sliding sash windows at attic level detailed as north. Basement has entrance door at centre (below portico), window at left, blind opening at right.

South elevation is almost symmetrical with exception of attic and basement levels; central bay recessed as north with ground sloping steeply down to basement level accessed via stone steps and grass banks. Ground floor contains three windows at centre; outer bays each have a window and a flat-roofed porch (added c.1985) having pilasters supporting plain entablature, timber panelled door and fixed timber windows to cheeks. First floor is abutted by a metal fire escape staircase and projecting walkway providing access to three apartments at first floor. Glazed timber entrance door at centre flanked by a window at each side; at right and left a glazed timber entrance door is flanked by a window above entrance porch; openings in projecting outer bays are contained within elliptical-headed recesses as north. Irregular arrangement of nine 3/3 timber sliding sash attic windows. Basement central bay contains glazed timber panelled door at right, two windows at left; left bay contains paired windows; right bay contains single window. Abutted by retaining wall at right and left with timber sheeted gates providing access to the basement walkway.

West elevation as east except basement has entrance door at centre (below portico), window at left and at right.

Setting:
Built-up urban
setting to the south side of the Cliftonville Road, north of Belfast city centre. Enclosed at north by decorative cast-iron railings on plinth wall with saddleback coping; drive accessed via double cast-metal gates at east and west. Car parking at south.

Roof: Natural Slate
RWG: Ogee profile cast-iron
Walling: Ruled-and-lined render
Windows: 6/6 timber sash

Historical information

The former Home for the Blind in Cliftonville Road was designed and built by the architect Thomas Jackson in the early 1830s as part of a speculative housing development aimed at the rising mercantile and professional classes of Belfast. Jackson had trained in the Clifton area of Bristol and was inspired by his time there to name the estate ‘Cliftonville’. (Larmour) Numbers 26-30 were built as a terrace of three houses in a Greek Revival idiom and together with a semi-detached pair at 34-36 (HB26/43/002B&C) were the earliest to be built and the only survivors of a development of approximately six structures, some divided into a number of dwellings. Thomas Jackson himself lived in a house to the left of the present building which has unfortunately not survived.

The structure is shown on the first edition OS map of 1832-3 together with the semi-detached pair further to the west. The buildings were situated very much on the outskirts of Belfast in what would have been a largely rural landscape, dotted with the substantial houses of the well-to-do set back within spacious grounds. ‘Cliftonville’ represented the first suburban development of the area, as a row of terraced and semi-detached villas, facing onto what was then part of the New Lodge Road.

The Townland Valuation of 1837 values the two outer dwellings at £18.16s.1d and the middle dwelling, which was slightly smaller, at £18.4s.1d. The valuer comments that the houses are ‘quite new and beautifully situated with good gardens to each’. The houses availed of stables, privies and coal holes and dimensions are given for houses and outbuildings. The three occupiers were George McTear, a merchant and agent for the Belfast and Glasgow Steam Shipping Co, George Ash, a wholesale grocer and general merchant with premises in Waring Street and Samuel Gelston, a wine and spirit merchant with premises in North Street. (Belfast Street Directory 1839)

By 1858 the Cave Hill tramway had made the area more accessible from the centre of Belfast and a total of six structures are shown in the row, which is now captioned ‘Cliftonville’. Griffith’s Valuation lists number 26 as the home of William Spotten, of the firm Dunbar, Dixon and Co in High Street. The house is valued at £45 and the rent is £50 per year. The occupier of number 28 is John R Neill and the valuation £40 and in number 30 is George Smith, the valuation also £45. All the houses were leased from Thomas Jackson and were let to a number of tenants in the ensuing years.

William Campbell, manager of the Workman Clark shipyard, lived at number 26 (known as Willowmount) and was the last private occupier of the building in the nineteenth century. Campbell was a native of Scotland and lived at the house with his wife and nine children, two of his sons were working as marine engineers and the third as an apprentice ironmonger. His eldest daughter was an artist. This eleven room house was designated first class in the 1901census, but both the other dwellings were vacant at the time. The family kept an American-born domestic servant. William Campbell had formerly been an employee of Harland and Wolff and together with another former employee Frank Workman set up a shipbuilding yard on the north bank of the Lagan in 1879. The following year George Clark, also a Scot and able to financially back the enterprise, was brought in as a partner. By 1902 the firm employed 7,000 people on a fifty acre site and was a strong competitor with Harland & Wolff, turning out more gross tonnage in 1902 than any other yard in the United Kingdom. (Kennedy and Ollerenshaw)

By 1901-2 'Cliftonville' had been overtaken by the rapid late-Victorian growth of the city, forming an island in a sea of red-brick terraces. In 1901 the three dwellings were converted for use as a ‘Home Mission for the Blind’ and the building was revalued at £118. A ‘Mrs R B Pim’ and a number of other wives and daughters of the well-to-do had joined together some years previously to carry on home mission work among the blind. The women found that many of the homes they visited were in a ‘wretched’ condition and accordingly they rented a small house to assist some of the most deserving cases. In 1891 they purchased premises in Great Victoria Street but additional space was needed in and 1901 they bought the current building for about £3,000. The Street Directory of the time was warm in its praise for the site, “No more suitable place could have been chosen. The houses stand some distance back from the roads surrounded by private grounds which can be used for recreation and exercise and by a few structural alterations they were converted into a complete residence with apartments for thirty females and twenty males”. Males had not previously been accommodated but this departure proved a success and most of the men were employed in the Workshops for the Blind in Royal Avenue, so that they were ‘practically self-supporting’. The new home was opened on 22nd June 1901 by the Marchioness of Dufferin and Ava. (Street Directory, 1903)

Recorded in the 1911 census, thirty rooms of the building were used as the Home, the staff, comprising a matron and three domestic servants, occupying four rooms. Forty totally and partially blind men and women were resident at the home in 1911, all but one from Protestant denominations. Some had been blind from birth but the majority had acquired the disability later in life from a number of causes including ‘shock’, ‘accident’ and ‘inflammation’. The residents ranged in age from 20 to 93 and although some were unable to work, a variety of trades are listed, including music, wood bundling, basket making, knitting, and mattress making. (1911 census)

Changes made to the house during this period include the addition of extensive fire escapes and large wings to the rear, as well as a bay window to the front of number thirty. Robert Inkerman Calwell designed a public hall and other additions in 1923. (Irish Builder)
During the Second World War, from 1942, the building was used for defence purposes as a ‘Welfare Section’, perhaps for the local administration of rationing which by this time applied to many foodstuffs, petrol, clothing, coal, gas, electricity and soap. (Street Directories)

From 1947 to c1985 the building functioned once again as a Home for the Blind, its purpose for nearly eighty years, but with the onset of the Troubles the Home wished to move elsewhere. In 1986 the former home was converted into apartments by the housing association Hearth, each dwelling being divided into two, making six apartments in all. The original intention had been to restore the building to its original three houses but the houses were felt to be impractically large and each house was divided into two, while retaining original staircases, plasterwork, doors and doorcases. The later wings, bay window and fire escapes were removed. In 2010-11 improvements were carried out including thermal and acoustic insulation, and secondary glazing to improve heating and reduce noise. (www.hearth-housing.org.uk)

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/1/B/719A-B Townland Valuation (1828-40)
6. PRONI VAL/2/B/7/H Griffith’s Valuation (1856-64)
7. PRONI VAL/12/B/43/C/1-31 Annual Revisions (1863-1905)
8. PRONI VAL/12/B/43/F/1-7 Annual Revisions (1905-1930)
9. Street Directories 1839-1995
10. 1901 census
11. 1911 census
12. Irish Builder Vol 65, 8 Sep 1923, p692

Secondary Sources

1. Kennedy L and Ollerenshaw P eds “An Economic History of Ulster, 1820-1940, Manchester University Press, 1985)
2. Larmour, P “Belfast, An Illustrated Architectural Guide” Belfast: Friar’s Bush Press, 1987
3. www.dia.ie – Dictionary of Irish Architects online
4. www.hearth-housing.org.uk

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
H-. Alterations detracting from building
I. Quality and survival of Interior
J. Setting
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest
V. Authorship
Z. Rarity

Evaluation

An semi detached two-storey with attic -over-basement classical style villa, built c.1830 as part of a wider speculative development designed and built by Thomas Jackson. Named 'Cliftonville' by Jackson, following his stay in the Regency Clifton area of Bristol, the development gave the area its name. The Regency Greek style detailing and proportions survive, although compromised by the modern fire escapes. Originally this building comprised three dwellings but the plan form has been altered to accommodate six apartments. However, much historic fabric and detailing survive throughout. This is an elegant building of fine character and by a significant local architect. Few examples of the style survive, especilly in a group. It also represents an early phase of speculation aimed at the rising mercantile and professional classes of Belfast.

General comments

Renumbered as HB26/43/002A with Nos 34 & 36 Cliftonville Road as HB26/43/002B&C.
Previously numbered HB26/43/002