9 College Square North

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Terraced four-storey rendered former townhouse, built c.1830, as part of a terrace of five similar houses with front railed area. Rectangular on plan facing south onto College Square North. Restored from dereliction by Hearth Housing c.1999.

Pitched roof, not visible from the street with profiled rendered chimneystack to the east party wall with clay pots. Roof set behind parapet wall with moulded eaves cornice. Painted ruled-and-lined rendered walling with moulded plinth course and redbrick walling to rear elevation laid in stretcher bond. Cast-iron guttering on iron brackets to red brick eaves course at rear elevation with cast-iron downpipes. Square-headed window openings with sandstone sills and replacement timber sash windows without horns.

South front elevation is three windows wide with an entrance portico to the left and a railed front area. Square-headed door opening has a replacement flat-panelled timber door with rectangular overlight having margin lights flanked by plain rendered pilasters and responding fluted Ionic columns supporting hood with full entablature. Door opens onto replacement paved platform and five replacement nosed stone steps enclosed by replacement iron railings returning to enclose front area.

West side elevation abutted by adjoining building No.10 (HB26/50/102D).

North rear elevation is two windows wide with red brick walls, gauged brick window heads and two round-headed window openings to the half-landings.

East side elevation abutted by adjoining house No.8.

Setting

Part of a terrace of five similar houses lining the north side of College Square North, facing the former Municipal Technical Institute (HB26/50/222). Common parking area to the rear enclosed by rendered walls, opening onto College Place.

Roof : Slate
RWG : cast-iron
Walling: Rendered
Windows: timber

Historical information

No. 9 College Square North, a four-storey three-bay Georgian townhouse, was constructed between 1822 and 1832-33; the terrace of College Square North was not depicted on the 1822 map included in George Benn’s ‘The History of Town of Belfast’ which recorded that the Royal Belfast Academical Institution (HB26/50/023) lay to the western limit of the town and was still not surrounded by many building. The terrace, which included the adjoining nos 10-12 College Square North (HB26/50/102 D-F), the Old Museum (HB26/50/102B) and 1-6 College Square North (5-6 College Sq N- HB26/50/102A), had been completed by the first edition of the Ordnance Survey map in 1832-33

The Townland Valuation (c. 1830) records that shortly after its erection, No. 9 College Square North was valued at £52 and occupied by a Mr. Samuel Graeme Fenton. Fenton was a local magistrate and a partner in Saddler, Fenton & Co., a local linen merchant firm based in the White Linen Hall. Samuel Fenton resided at No. 9 College Square North until at least the mid-1850s; in 1852 Fenton was elected Mayor of the town of Belfast, the second mayor of Belfast to reside along the fashionable residential area of College Square (William G. Johnston, mayor in 1849, resided at the adjoining No. 12 in 1852) (Belfast Street Directories - 1843-1852).

Samuel G. Fenton had vacated College Square by Griffith’s Valuation (1860) when a Mr. Charles Duffin was recorded as occupant; Duffin was a local flax spinner and manufacturer who administered the Clarence Street Mill in 1861 (Belfast Street Directory). The valuer noted that Duffin leased the property from a Ms. Jane Irvine and that the dwelling had slightly increased in value to £57 since the 1830s. Charles Duffin was also employed as a local magistrate and continued to reside at No. 9 College Square North until c. 1877 when he was replaced as occupant by a Dr. Henry Burden, the first of a number of medical professionals to reside at the address. Burden only briefly lived at College Square and in 1885 a Dr. Peter Reilly O’Connell came into possession of the site. In that year the house was decreased in value to £50 and was partially occupied by the offices of the Young Women’s Christian Aid Organisation (the religious charity group vacated the site by 1889).

There was little change to No. 9 College Square North until the Belfast Revaluation in 1900. At that time the dwelling was revalued at £47; the valuer noting that the building was fitted with gas installations and possessed a stable block to its rear. The 1901 Census records that Dr. O’Connell (39, Roman Catholic) was also a local alderman for Co. Antrim and resided at No. 9 College Square North alone employing a single domestic servant; the census building return described O’Connell’s property as a 1st class dwelling that consisted of ten rooms and possessed the rear stale block as its sole outbuilding. College Square, formerly a very fashionable and desirable residential area for doctors and other professionals, lost its setting with the construction of the Belfast Municipal Technical Institute in 1900-07 resulting in many professional residents moving to the new terraced squares in South Belfast; Dr. O‘Connell left College Square North by 1910 when the townhouse lay vacant (Belfast Street Directory – 1910).

In 1911 No. 9 College Square North was occupied by a Mr. Thomas Getgood (48 Church of Ireland), a merchant tailor who resided at College Square with his wife Matilda (44) and their four sons. However by 1918 No. 9 College Square North had fallen out of residential use when it was converted into a Gaelic Language College administered by Sean MacMaolain; MacMaolain (1886-1973) was an Irish language, poet and playwright who won first prize for his Oireachtas Ode and published many works including Ean Corr and Finnsceal agus Firinna (Dictionary of Ulster Biography). By 1923 No. 9 College Square North had once again changed occupant, however whilst the former tenants advocated the revival of the Gaelic language in Belfast, in the 1920s the building was occupied as the meeting place for the Prince of Wales Masonic Club; when the club first took possession in 1923 the building was converted into office space resulting in the increase in the value of the building to £80 at which it remained until the end of the Annual Revisions in 1930.

In 1935 the First General Ration of property in Northern Ireland revalued No. 9 College Square North to £115 noting that the building continued to be leased by the Irvine estate. The occupants, the Trustees of the Provincial Grand Lodge of Antrim, continued to operate from the site until at least the 1970s. College Square North survived the heavy bombardment of Belfast’s city centre during the 1941 Blitz and in the aftermath of the Second World War the terrace was included in the second revaluation of property in Northern Ireland which commenced in 1956. During the war the occupants name was changed to ‘Masonic Charities’ and the Belfast Street Directory for 1943 notes that a Mr. Edward Callaghan was the steward of the organisation. Under the second revaluation the value of No. 9 College Square North was increased to £184 at which it remained by the end of the project in 1972.

College Square was laid out in the early-19th century as a large open square containing the newly established Royal Belfast Academical Institution; in the mid-to-late-19th century College Square North was one of the most desirable areas in Belfast and attracted many professionals, including doctors and businessmen, however when the massive Belfast Technical College was installed at the corner of the square and cut off the pleasant view of the Academy’s lawns in 1900-07, many of the city’s professionals moved to South Belfast to more idyllic surrounds such as University Square beside Queens University (Patton, p. 74).

No. 9 College Square North was constructed in c. 1830 as part of the redevelopment of College Square; in his Georgian Belfast: 1750-1850, Brett stated that the ‘imposing Regency terrace’ was developed for John McCammond possessed the original lease for nos 1-12 whilst the rest of the terrace was erected for Zachariah Leaf Orrett (Brett, p. 60). Throughout its history No. 9 has been occupied by a number of medical professionals as well as a number of local magistrates who were involved in the development of the town and the city of Belfast.

No. 9 College Square North was listed along with the rest of the terrace in 1979; Patton states that No. 9 is the only member of the terrace to possess a doorcase with a flat entablature supported on fluted Ionic columns whilst the others possess triangular pediments (Patton, p. 77). . Throughout the turbulent period of the 1970s College Square and the surrounding Smithfield area was targeted in frequent bomb and vandalism attacks; in 1977 the adjoining No. 8 College Square North was demolished by a bomb and over the resulting decades most of the remaining terrace lay vacant and had fallen into a state of disrepair (only No. 12 continued to be occupied). Nos 9-11 College Square North were restored by Hearth Housing Association in 1998-99 and converted into modern flats; the renovation has resulted in the restoration of the terraces original character (Hearth Housing Association website). A replica building, also by Hearth, at No. 8 closes the gap.

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/720A-B – Townland Valuation c. 1830
7. PRONI VAL/2/B/7/5D – Griffith’s Valuation 1860
8. PRONI VAL/12/B/43/E/1-24 – Annual Revisions 1862-1930
9. PRONI VAL/7/B/12/20 – Belfast Revaluation 1900
10. PRONI VAL/3/B/3/18 – First General Revaluation of Northern Ireland 1935
11. PRONI VAL/4/B/7/36 – Second General Revaluation of Northern Ireland 1956-72
12. George Benn’s The History of the town of Belfast (1823)
13. Census of Ireland (1901; 1911)
14. Belfast Street Directories (1843-1943)
15. First Survey Record – HB26/50/113 (1970)
16. First Survey Image – HB26/50/113 (1976)

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 Ulster Biography -
http://www.newulsterbiography.co.uk/index.php/home/viewPerson/1052
2. Hearth Housing Association website - http://freespace.virgin.net/hearth.nireland/CollSqN.html

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
I. Quality and survival of Interior
J. Setting
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Terraced four-storey rendered former townhouse, built c.1830, as part of a terrace of five similar houses with front railed area. Rectangular on plan facing south onto College Square North. Described as the best surviving example of an 1830s terrace in Belfast, the group were rescued from dereliction after a period of neglect. Despite the loss of much original fabric, the plain Georgian character of the terrace survives and its historic interest is significant as a surviving part of Georgian Belfast, similar to the houses at 7-11 Wellington Place.

General comments

Record renumbered from HB 26/50/113D to HB 26/50/102C