Woodbine Cottage

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Small free-standing 1¾ storey planned ‘cottage’ of c.1845-50 with stucco façade with simple classical detailing including a shallow Doric portico. The property is set on the W side of the Antrim Road.

The symmetrical front elevation faces roughly E. To the centre of the elevation is the is the main entrance which consists of a panelled and glazed PVC double door with fake Georgian glazing bars sandwiched within the double glazing. Above the door is a narrow Greek key band, above which is a plain rectangular fanlight. The entrance sits within a shallow Doric portico with reeded entablature and lead covered hipped roof. The threshold has some early 20th century mosaic tiling with the name ‘J McKenzie & Son’ spelt out thereon.

To the left of the entrance are two tall Georgian paned sash windows (6/6) with simple moulded surrounds and plain entablatures. To the right are two similar windows. To the edge of the façade are plain pilasters, which rise to a plain frieze which is topped with a dentilled eaves course.

To the S gable there is a window to right on the first floor. This window is as front, but smaller and window the moulded surround. To the N gable there are two such windows to right and left on the first floor.

To the left at the rear there is a timber sheeted door with large square fanlight. To far right of this is a large window with metal frame. This window was probably enlarged in the mid 1900s. To immediate right of this window there extends a small single storey shed with mono-pitched roof. Set at a higher (half-landing) level to the centre of the elevation is a tall casement window with four panes to each light. To right of this is a small half-dormer with mono-pitched roof and sash window (as gables).

The front façade and gables are finished in painted lined render, with the rear in painted brick. The gabled roof is slated and has three small skylights to front and one (to left) at the rear. Two rendered chimney stacks (to gables). Cast iron rw goods.

To front of the house a small space is enclosed with a low wall and relatively plain railings. The small shed extending from the rear elevation is in painted brick with a slated roof. It has two small plain sash windows to its N face and a plain sheeted door to the short E face (where the line of the façade projects further to N). At its W end the shed narrows considerably, and is largely open. To rear of the house there is a small yard with a larger higher level garden space. The garden is enclosed by tall brick walls to N and S and to the W by a large two storey part brick part corrugated metal shed, built c.1930s.

Historical information

The Antrim Road in its present form was laid out c.1820 and remained a largely rural highway until the middle of the century. This house was one of the first dwellings to appear directly on the side of the road, built on land which had been held by the Tennent family since at least c.1830. The actual date of construction is uncertain. The building is not shown on the OS map of 1832, but does appear on that of 1857, where it is marked ‘Antrim Road Cottage’, however, but no dwelling of this name is listed in the directories prior to this date. It is possible that the house is the ‘Antrim Place Cottage’ listed in the directory of 1852 as the home of one J. Beath, a ‘commission merchant’, or one of the few unnamed houses listed along the road in the 1840s directories. The valuation of 1860 grades the building ‘B+’, suggesting it may have been 20 years old (or slightly older) at that date, so it may have appeared c.1840.

By 1860 the property was in the hands of a jeweller named John Francis Harbinson and had changed its name to ‘Woodbine Cottage’. It was later occupied by a tea merchant named John Whitten, and, by 1896 by painter named James McKenzie. The McKenzie family remained there until the 1970s, running their painting business from the premises to rear, the large shed (built c.1930s) used for the mixing of paints.

After some years of virtual abandonment, the property was acquired by Hearth Housing Association and restored in 1995-96.

References- Primary sources
1 D.1748/B/3/24 Tennent Papers Map showing fields belonging to William Tennent off the ‘new Antrim Road’, c.1829
2 PRONI OS/6/1/61/1 OS map, Co Antrim sh 61, 1832
3 D.1748/B/1/22/1-2 Tennent Papers Letter from Robert Tennent to William Berwick concerning land on the ‘new’ Antrim Road and reply from Berwick, 9-10 July 1833
4 ‘Henderson’s Belfast Directory’ [later ‘Belfast & Province of Ulster Directory’], 1843-
5 PRONI OS/6/1/61/2 OS map, Co Antrim sh 61, 1857
6 PRONI VAL/2B/7/3h Second valuation, Belfast (St Ann’s Ward), 1860
7 PRONI VAL/2D/7/15 Second valuation town plan of Belfast sh 15, 1860
8 PRONI OS/8/30/2/15 OS town plan of Belfast, sh 15, 1871-73
9 PRONI OS/8/30/3/15 OS town plan of Belfast, sh 15, 1883-84
10 PRONI OS/8/30/4/15 OS town plan of Belfast, sh 15, 1894-95

Secondary sources
1 ‘Hearth- A review of projects 1999’ (Belfast, 1999), pp.48-49

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
H-. Alterations detracting from building

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest
Z. Rarity

Evaluation

Small free-standing 1¾ storey planned ‘cottage’ of c.1845-50 with stucco façade with simple classical detailing including a shallow Doric portico.