7 Wellington Place

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A four-storey three-bay late Georgian terrace house built of painted brick, converted to commercial use but with many internal features intact.

Roof is not visible, concealed behind a cornice and blocking course; metal rainwater goods. Walling is of painted brick. Windows are double-hung timber sash with plain reveals and projecting cills.

Front elevation: Ground floor partly shopped, but retaining portico entrance to upper floors with flight of four stone steps, fluted Doric columns on stone bases, pilaster responses and entablature with trigyphs and guttae. Front door probably panelled but covered with flush panel (both sides) under plain fanlight. Remainder of the ground floor has a modern shopfront with curved sides, attached columns and metopes in imitation of the portico. Upper floors of painted brick with three bays of windows at first second and third floors of 6 over 6 sashes with fine glazing bars and without horns; height reducing at each floor. Painted cornice below parapet.

Rear elevation: Not visible.

Setting: Part of a terrace of three contemporary houses (HB26/50/029 A-C), the oldest surviving part of Wellington Place.

Schedule of materials:
Walls: Red brick, painted
Roof: Not visible (Return roof asphalt flat roof)
RWG: Square metal rainwater goods
Windows: Timber

Historical information

No. 7 Wellington Place, a four-storey redbrick Georgian townhouse, was constructed in c. 1830 along with the adjoining nos 9 and 11 (HB26/50/029B-C); the terrace, which originally contained six dwellings was designed by Adam McClean. McClean (1765/66-1849) was an amateur architect and linen draper, based in Belfast who constructed nos 7-11 Wellington Place, but also erected a terrace of nine houses on Donegall Square (only one of which still survives at the corner of Donegall Square East and May Street) and warehouses at 19-23 Franklin Street; McClean also owned a large number of properties in Belfast’s town centre although Brett states that ‘he was genuinely interested in architecture and not merely in property speculation’ (Bret, pp 13-20; Dictionary of Irish Architects). The Hodges & Smith Belfast Street maps (c. 1850) states that Adam McClean’s lease commenced on 17th August 1829 suggested that the terrace was constructed in that year; the contemporary Townland Valuation (c. 1830) records that No. 7 Wellington Place was valued at £62 and was occupied by a Miss Montgomery.

Montgomery continued to reside at the address in 1843; however by 1852 she had been replaced as occupant by Thomas Kennedy, a textile manufacturer who produced the cotton fabric, muslin (Belfast Street Directories). By Griffith’s Valuation (1860) ownership of No. 7 Wellington Place had passed to a Mr. John McCance; John and his brother David McCance were local linen merchants who were employed at the White Linen Hall in Donegall Square and resided in the adjoining No. 9 in 1843. In 1860 the valuer recorded that McCance leased No. 7 Wellington Place to a Mr. Robert Henderson and that Henderson’s dwelling had been increased in value to £70 since the 1830s. The Annual Revisions note that Henderson vacated the site in 1865 when a Mr. Thomas Reade took over possession of the property; however by 1880 he was also replaced as occupant when a Dr. Richard Ross was noted as tenant in the Belfast Street Directories.

No. 7 Wellington Place continued to be utilised as a private dwelling until 1896 when the building was taken over by T. Shanks & Son, merchant tailors who, in that year, partially rebuilt the property resulting in a provisional increase in the value of the building to approximately £143. The renovation of No. 7 Wellington Place was incomplete in 1896; however the converted shop had been completed by the Belfast Revaluation (1900) which set the total value of the property and its upper-storey offices at £353. The valuer noted that ownership of the site had passed to a Ms. Mary Ewing who charged annual rent of £175.

From 1896 No. 7 Wellington Place was no longer utilised as a private dwelling and as a result was not included in the 1901 Census of Ireland; the 1911 Census, however described the tailors shop as a 1st class commercial property, at that time possessing rooms occupied by the Lady Clerk of the company, Sara Orr. T. Shanks & Son continued to operate from No. 7 Wellington Place until 1922 when Thomas Shanks purchased the building outright and leased the ground floor property and its upper offices to tenants; the ground floor offices were occupied by the Norwich Fire Insurance Co. in that year. The value of the entire building was increased to approximately £484 as a result of the change and by the cancellation of the Annual Revisions in 1930 the value of the site stood slightly lower at £469.

In 1935 the government carried out the First General Revaluation of property in Northern Ireland, due to the late changes to the site prior to the cancellation of the Annual Revisions the value of No. 7 Wellington Place was only slightly increased to £489. The terrace survived the destruction of the 1941 Belfast Blitz and after the completion of the Second World War the value of the building was once again reassessed under the second general revaluation with commenced in 1956. The Norwich Fire Insurance Co. vacated No. 7 Wellington Place by 1964 when the building was subdivided into multiple offices; the total value of the building had been increased to £968 10s. by the end of the revaluation in 1972.

Patton states that Wellington Place was laid out in the 1790s as ‘superior terraces;’ named after the Duke of Wellington who once resided in Belfast during his youth, Wellington Place was, by 1822, the most densely populated residential area of Belfast and was a popular area frequented by Doctors and others of a professional class (Patton, p. 333). Nos 7-11 Wellington Place are the surviving remnants of a terrace of six similar buildings constructed by Adam McClean in c. 1830; the terrace ran between Fountain Street and Queen Street, the four-storey structures formed part of the western expansion of Belfast in the late-Georgian period and were originally intended as residential private dwellings lining the road towards the newly laid out College Square and the Royal Belfast Academical Institution (HB26/50/023). Brett stated that Adam McClean, who possessed many plots and leases in this area, accumulated his holdings from the Donegall family in the 1820s and that ‘it appears he was one of those who sought to benefit from the second marquess’s financial difficulty by acquiring good, long leases at low rents which he then built up’ (Brett, Georgian Belfast, p. 60).

In 1985 Brett used nos 7-11 Wellington Place to illustrate how building styles in Belfast developed during the late-Georgian period; he stated that ‘gradually, good brickwork gave way to sleazy stucco … the meeting-point is exemplified by 7, 9 and 11 Wellington Place, three houses built by Adam McClean in [c. 1830], of which the central one has regency stucco bows; its neighbours are of brick with formal ionic porticoes’ (Brett, p. 20).

Originally intended as a private dwelling, No. 7 Wellington Place has been a commercial property since its renovation by T. Shanks & Son in c. 1896 when the first ground floor shopfront was likely installed. Patton states that No. 7 Wellington Place’s surviving original features include small-paned window sashes and the distinctive doorcase ‘with fluted columns supporting entablature’ above; a similar ornate doorcase at No. 11 Wellington Place suggests that the feature was common along McClean’s original terrace, however the central building in the remaining terrace, No. 9, has lost its Ionic doorcase. Upon its conversion to commercial use, the upper offices of No. 7 Wellington Place were used by a variety of companies and individuals; one notable occupant of the building was the Belfast-based architect Anthony Thomas Jackson (1838-1917) who practised from the site between 1901 and 1906 (Patton, p. 334; Dictionary of Irish Architects). No. 7 Wellington Place was listed in 1979 and continues to be utilised as a commercial premises, the upper floors recently reopened as vintage arts showroom.

References

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/1/61/1 – First Edition Ordnance Survey Map 1832-33
2. PRONI OS/6/1/61/2 – Second Edition Ordnance Survey Map 1858
3. PRONI OS/6/1/61/3 – Third Edition Ordnance Survey Map 1901-02
4. PRONI OS/6/1/61/4 – Fourth Edition Ordnance Survey Map 1931
5. PRONI OS/6/1/61/5 – Fifth Edition Ordnance Survey Map 1938
6. PRONI VAL/1/B/720A+B – Townland Valuation c. 1830
7. PRONI VAL/2/B/7/4B – Griffith’s Valuation 1860
8. PRONI VAL/12/B/43/D/1-18 – Annual Revisions 1862-1930
9. PRONI VAL/12/B/43/E/1-24 – Annual Revisions 1862-1930
10. PRONI VAL/7/B/9/47-48 – Belfast Revaluation 1900
11. PRONI VAL/3/B/3/14 – First General Revaluation of Northern Ireland 1935
12. PRONI VAL/4/B/7/42 – Second General Revaluation of Northern Ireland 1956-72
13. Census of Ireland (1901; 1911)
14. Belfast Street Directories (1861-1918)
15. First Survey Record – HB26/50/029 (1971)
16. First Survey Image – HB26/50/029 (1976)
17. Ordnance Survey Map – 130-13SE (1959)

Secondary Sources
1. Brett, C. E. B., ‘Buildings of Belfast: 1700-1914’ Belfast: Friar’s Bush Press, 1985.
2. Brett, C. E. B., ‘Georgian Belfast, 1750-1850: Maps, buildings and trades’ Dublin: Royal Irish Academy, 2004.
3. Patton, M., ‘Central Belfast: An historical gazetteer’ Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1993.

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
I. Quality and survival of Interior
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

V. Authorship
X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Four-storey three-bay late Georgian terrace house, now commercial premises, to designs by amateur architect and linen draper, Adam McClean. Built of brick with original portico with many features intact. Part of a group(HB26/50/029A-C) that are the oldest remaining structures on Wellington Place representing early development around Donegall Square and the White Linen Hall. Its history as part of the ambitions of an amateur developer is also of interest. The group is a good example of a type that was mostly swept away in the Victorian boom of the later Nineteenth century.