42 FORTWILLIAM PARK

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Detached asymmetrical multi-bay two-storey with attic gabled Tudor Revival building, built c.1908 to the designs of Vincent Craig. Irregular on plan facing east and set back on the north side of Fortwilliam Park forming part of the Dominican College complex.

Pitched natural slate roofs with roll-moulded black clay ridge tiles and three profiled reconstituted chimneystacks with terracotta pots. Moulded steel guttering to chamfered reconstituted stone eaves course with steel box hoppers and downpipes (some gutters replacement aluminium). Flat-roofed lead-lined dormer windows to front and rear pitches. Rock-faced reconstituted stone walling with cement joints. Square-headed window openings with moulded cement surrounds and sills, replacement top-hung timber casement windows (unless otherwise stated).

Principal elevation is seven windows wide with central full-height gabled projection and entrance porch to the re-entrant angle. A further full-height gable to the right end bay. The central gable has paired window openings to the attic with a shallow circular bay at ground level with three windows on continuous moulded sill and lead-lined roof. To the left bay is a corner window returning onto the south side elevation with corner pier. Square-plan entrance porch with lead-lined flat roof and basket-handle door opening having decorative dropped panels and corbels rising to continuous frieze and cornice with scrolled pediment. Double-leaf decorative panelled doors open onto cobble-lock platform flanked by raking plinth walls. Slender window openings to both cheeks have Art Nouveau leaded glazing with timber casements with top-hung opening lights.

Asymmetrical south side elevation has twin gables and a single-storey canted bay window to the right.

West rear elevation has an advanced symmetrical section to the right with two gables, with that to the left abutted by square-plan two-storey projection. The recessed section to the north has a further two-storey gable to the left with a flat-roofed curved entrance bay to the re-entrant angle. The entrance bay has curved timber casement windows with Art Nouveau leaded coloured glazing and a timber panelled door with glazed upper half flanked by fixed-pane leaded windows. Door opens onto sunken paved area.

North side elevation is abutted by single-storey wing, built c.1960.

Roof Natural slate
RWG Steel and replacement aluminium
Walling Rock-faced reconstituted stone
Windows Replacement timber

Setting:
Located at the end of a long winding bitmac avenue through the landscaped grounds of the Dominican College Fortwilliam. Avenue opens onto Fortwilliam Park via pair of decorative iron gates hung on rendered piers flanked by matching S-curve railings.

Historical information

No. 42 Fortwilliam Park, a two-and-three-storey artificial stone house located within the grounds of Dominican College (HB26/46/003), was constructed in 1908-9. The house, which was also known as ‘Fairbourne,’ was constructed on land that was provided by the breaking up of the Fortwilliam Estate in the mid-19th century. Fortwilliam Park was laid out in c. 1864 between the Antrim and Shore Roads and swiftly became one of Belfast’s more affluent residential streets. Larmour states that many grand Victorian mansions were erected on the former estate in the 1860s and 1870s although No. 42 Fortwilliam Park was constructed in the Edwardian period and displays contemporary Arts and Crafts features (Larmour, p. 31).

Fairbourne House was constructed on land that had been part of Walton House (now Dominican College) which had been originally built in c. 1865. At the turn of the 20th century Walton House was occupied by Humphrey Barron, a local magistrate and soap and candle manufacturer. In 1908 Barron provided a plot of land on the eastern side of his holding for the construction of a new residence for Lloyd Campbell, a flax spinner who was employed with Henry Campbell & Co. Ltd., based on Royal Avenue (UTD). The Irish Builder records that Fairbourne House was designed by Vincent Craig in 1908. Craig (1869-1925) was a Belfast-based architect who was also the younger brother of James Craig, the first Prime Minister of Northern Ireland. Apprenticed to W. H. Lynn during his early education Craig spent a year travelling Europe before establishing an independent practise in 1891. He was a key proponent of the emerging Art Nouveau which was popular during the Edwardian period and stressed asceticism of design over functionalism. Craig was one of the very few early advocates of the style in Ulster and employed a free style to his design of Fairbourne House which displays Elizabethan, Baronial, Arts and Crafts and Art Nouveau features. The construction of the house was carried out by the local building firm of McDowell, Leathern & Frazer (Irish Builder, p. 18; DIA).

The Annual Revisions set the total rateable value of Fairbourne House at £188 and noted that the building possessed a gate lodge valued at £7 (now demolished). The 1911 Census of Ireland described No. 42 Fortwilliam Park as a 1st class dwelling that consisted of 21 rooms and possessed a shed as its sole outbuilding. The house was recorded on the fourth edition Ordnance Survey map which depicted the building along its current layout. Lloyd Campbell continued to reside at Fairbourne House until c. 1925 when the house passed to Samuel Boyd, a local magistrate and distiller. Boyd only briefly resided at the site before his own death in 1932 (PRONI Wills) at which time the house passed to his widow Annie. The First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936-57) decreased the value of the house to £150 and noted that the building continued to be utilised as a private dwelling until 1950 when it was acquired by the adjoining Dominican Convent and converted into classrooms and storage.

No. 42 Fortwilliam Park was listed in 1987. The NIEA HB Records note that during the 1980s and 1990s the building consisted of classrooms on the ground floor and storage space on the upper floors. The building, whose name was changed to ‘St. Joseph’s, continued to be utilised for educational purposes until c. 2000 when it was deemed unsuitable for use by the Department of Education. A condition survey of the building, carried out in 2004, described the former house and schoolhouse in the following terms: ‘Although rather plain on the outside, built in artificial stone, the interior contains many examples of [Vincent] Craig’s distinctive Art Nouveau detailing’ (NIEA HB Records).

Resources

Primary Sources
1. PRONI OS/6/1/61/2 – Second Edition Ordnance Survey Map (1858)
2. PRONI OS/6/1/61/3 – Third Edition Ordnance Survey Map (1901-02)
3. PRONI OS/6/1/61/4 – Fourth Edition Ordnance Survey Map (1931)
4. PRONI OS/6/1/61/5 – Fifth Edition Ordnance Survey Map (1938)
5. PRONI VAL/12/B/43/H/4-7 – Annual Revisions (1906-1930)
6. PRONI VAL/3/C/3/10- First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936-72)
7. PRONI VAL/4/B/7/16 - Second General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1956-72)
8. Irish Builder (9 Jan 1909)
9. Ulster Town Directories (1910-1943)
10. PRONI Wills Catalogue (4 Jun 1932)
11. Census of Ireland (1911)
12. First Survey Record – HB26/46/004 (1985)
13. NIEA HB Records – HB26/46/004

Secondary Sources
1. Larmour, P., ‘Belfast: An illustrated architectural guide’ Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1987.

Online Resources
1. Dictionary of Irish Architects - http://www.dia.ie

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

Criteria for listing: historic interest

V. Authorship
X. Local Interest
Y. Social, Cultural or Economic Importance
R. Age
S. Authenticity

Evaluation

Detached asymmetrical multi-bay two-storey with attic gabled Tudor Revival building, built c.1908 to the designs of Vincent Craig. The elaborate elevations and decorative detailing represent a revivalist style executed in advanced construction materials of the time. The reconstituted stone is of some technical interest despite the loss of some original fabric to the exterior. The building forms part of a wider complex of buildings, including the listed Walton House (HB26/46/003A) now in educational use as part of the Dominican College Fortwilliam.