11 Wellington Place

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

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

Roof concealed behind a cornice and blocking course, having brick chimneystack to right side. Metal rainwater goods. Walling is redbrick laid in Flemish bond. Plain timber sashes with painted reveals, jack arches and projecting sills.

Front elevation: Ground floor partly shopped, but retaining portico entrance to upper floors with flight of three steps, fluted Doric columns on stone bases, pilaster responses and flat entablature with triglyphs and guttae. Front door covered with flush panel under plain fanlight with Greek key pattern on transome. Remainder of the ground floor has a modern shopfront with columns and metopes in imitation of the portico. Upper floors of dark red Flemish bond brick with three bays of windows without horns, now single pane, at first and second floors; height reducing at each floor. Third floor windows smaller and bricked up. Painted cornice below parapet. Brick chimney.

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
Roof: Not visible
RWG: Square metal rainwater goods
Windows: Timber

Historical information

No. 11 Wellington Place, a four-storey redbrick Georgian townhouse, was constructed in c. 1830 along with the adjoining nos 7 and 9 (HB26/50/029A-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 West 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. 11 Wellington Place was valued at £62 and was occupied by a Mr. Thomas Ferguson.

By 1843 No. 11 had passed to a Dr. Robert Stephenson who continued to reside there until 1869. Griffith’s Valuation (1860) recorded that Stephenson had purchased the property outright from the McClean estate; his townhouse had increased in value to £70 since the 1830s. The Annual Revisions note that Dr. Robert Stephenson died in 1869 leaving possession of No. 11 Wellington Place to his nephew David McCance who had occupied the adjoining No. 9 in 1843 (PRONI Wills); by 1877 the site had passed to Dr. Richard Barnett who practised as a dentist. Despite his death the Annual Revisions continued to record Robert Stephenson as occupant throughout the remainder of the 19th century, however in 1898 the former public dwelling was purchased by a Mr. Alex McCullough and occupied by Ellen Brady who converted the site into a hotel; the change resulted in a significant increase in the value of the site from £70 to £240.

The Belfast Revaluation of 1900 recorded that the hotel was known as the Royal Hotel. In that year the value of the building was, once more, increased to £290; the valuer set the annual rent at over £300. No longer utilised as a private dwelling, No. 11 Wellington Place was not included in the 1901 Census of Ireland, however in 1911 the census described the building as a 1st class property which contained 22 inhabited rooms; in that year the hotel was administered by an Englishwoman Kathleen Gritton (28, Church of Ireland). The Royal Hotel went out of business by 1914 when the former boarding-house was converted into commercial premises with the installation of a shopfront on the ground floor. In 1914 the ground floor shop was occupied by Frank E. Smith & Co., a florist and nursery business, whilst the upper floors were utilised as offices for a number of private companies; the total value of the building after this conversion stood at approximately £455 10s.

Frank E. Smith & Co. had vacated No. 11 Wellington Place by 1918 when the ground floor shop was occupied by a Mr. T. Edens Osbourne who established his general store ‘Edison House’ which advertised ‘Cycles, Household Utensils, Phonographs, Gramophones, Pathéphones, and Records; Books, Filters, Mangles, Oil Stoves, Doall Mop Wringer, Bissell Carpet Sweepers and Palestine Olivewood Goods’ (Belfast Street Directories). Osbourne continued to operate from the address for a number of years; however by the cancellation of the Annual Revisions in 1930 the ground floor shop of No. 11 Wellington Place had been occupied by a Ms. Jane Hackney, the value of the building stood at approximately £477 15s.

In 1935 the government carried out the First General Revaluation of property in Northern Ireland, under this project the value of No. 11 Wellington Place was increased to £563 15s. 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. From c. 1954 No. 11 was occupied by the Carlton Restaurant who remained at the site until at least the 1990s; by the end of the second revaluation in 1972 the value of No. 11 Wellington Place stood at approximately £1522 15s.

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 district 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 altered 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. 11 Wellington Place has been utilised as a commercial property since being converted into a hotel in 1898. Patton states that No. 11’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. 7 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. Primarily utilised as commercial space and offices since the early-20th century Patton states that the Carlton Restaurant, which occupied the site in c. 1954, operated from the address until at least the 1990s; Brett notes that, despite the conversion of the building into commercial space, traces of the buildings domestic use were only recently removed. In 1985 he wrote: ‘[No. 11] had until recently a dingy mirror so placed that, in theory at least, an aerial view of the visitor on the doormat might be reflected through the fanlight to the cowering householder’ (Patton, p. 334; Brett, p. 20). The First Survey Image (c. 1970) depicted No. 11 Wellington Place undergoing a restoration at which time the current shopfront was installed; the upper-storey windows, which are currently obstructed with bricks, were blocked up from at least the 1970s.

No. 11 Wellington Place was listed in 1979 and continues to be utilised as a commercial premises, however at the time of writing the ground floor shop lies vacant, whilst the upper floors are utilised as office space.

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. PRONI Wills Catalogue (21 Sept 1869)
15. Belfast Street Directories (1861-1918)
16. First Survey Record – HB26/50/029 (1971)
17. First Survey Image – HB26/50/029 (1976)
18. 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, including built of brick, a later bow window to upper floors. Although somewhat compromised by the modern shopfront, it is 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.