10 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 west 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, partially rebuilt. 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 to the right and a railed front area. Square-headed door opening has a replacement flat-panelled timber door with a lugged architrave surround and a rectangular overlight having interlacing glazing bars. Door opening flanked by slender panelled pilasters and foliate console brackets supporting dentilled cornice and shallow pediment having acroteria and a wreath to the tympanum. 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.11 (HB26/50/102E).

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. Single-storey lean-to extension abuts the rear elevation with a small enclosed yard.

East side elevation abutted by adjoining house No.9 (HB26/50/102C).

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 and opening onto College Place.

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

Historical information

No. 10 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 9, 11 &12 College Square North (HB26/50/102 C, E & 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

In c. 1830 the Townland Valuations noted that the newly completed No. 10 College Square North was valued at £52 and was occupied by a Mr. George Sloan (of whom nothing is known); Sloan resided at No. 10 during the 1830s, however by 1843 his widow, a Mrs. ‘George’ Sloan, was recorded as occupant in the Belfast Street Directories. Mrs Sloan continued to reside at No. 10 until at least 1852 when she was recorded in that year’s Belfast Street Directory; however by Griffith’s Valuation (1860) she had been replaced as occupant by a Dr. William McGee (one of a number of medical professionals to reside at the fashionable College Square). In 1860 the valuer noted that the building was owned outright by the McGee family and that the value of No. 10 had been increased to £60 since the 1830s.

Dr. William McGee, as well as being a medical surgeon, was also employed as a local magistrate; as a Justice of the Peace Magee continued to reside at No. 10 College Square North until his death in 1874 (PRONI Wills). Despite his death, McGee continued to be recorded as tenant of No. 10 until c. 1900; however the Belfast Street Directories note that the townhouse was occupied by a Dr. John W. Browne in 1877. Dr. Browne continued to occupy No. 10 College Square North until his death in 1923.

In 1900 the Belfast Revaluation increased the value of No. 10 to £66 and noted that the Georgian townhouse consisted of 10 rooms (including sitting rooms and bedrooms but excluding kitchens) and was installed with gas and electrical lighting installations. The 1901 Census records that Browne (55, Presbyterian) resided at No. 10 with his wife Matilda (49) and a number of domestic servants; the census building return described Browne’s property as a 1st class dwelling that consisted of 10 rooms and possessed coach house as its sole outbuilding, located to the rear of the terrace.

By 1910 No. 10 College Square North was no longer utilised as a private dwelling; after the construction of the imposing Belfast Technical College in 1900-07, College Square lost some of its appeal as an idyllic residential district. Shortly after the completion of the college Browne moved to a new residence on Windsor Avenue and converted his former home into a medical surgery practise; in 1910 Browne operated the surgery with his relative, a Dr. J. Anderson Browne, however by 1918 he was the sole partner (Belfast Street Directories). With Browne’s death in 1923 at the age of 78, No. 10 College Square North was purchased outright by a Mr. John Bristow. Bristow was employed as a solicitor and administered the estate of the Earl of Shaftesbury; the First General Revaluation of property in Northern Ireland recorded that the value of No. 10 College Square North had greatly increased to £199.

No. 10 College Square North was utilised as the Estate Office for the Earl of Shaftesbury; Anthony Ashley-Cooper, the 9th Earl, held the title between 1886 and 1961 and employed John Bristow as his agent in Belfast. The 1943 Belfast Street Directory noted that No. 10 consisted of the Estate Office and also included the Co. Antrim Sherriff’s Office and Belfast Lieutenancy Office, all of which were administered by Bristow. 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. By the Earl’s death in 1961, No. 10 College Square North had passed into the ownership of Johnston Umbrellas Ltd. Who leased the building out to the Pensions Appeal Tribunal who utilised the site as their main office in Northern Ireland; the building was exempt from taxation and its value stood at £188 by the end of the revaluation 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. 10 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 who possessed the lease for nos 1-12 whilst the rest of the terrace was erected for Zachariah Leaf Orrett (Brett, p. 60). Throughout its history No. 10 was occupied by members of a medical profession and in the 20th century was utilised as the Earl of Shaftesbury’s Estate Office.

No. 10 College Square North was listed along with the rest of the terrace in 1979. 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. PRONI Wills Catalogue (10 Feb 1874)
14. Belfast Burial Records (19 Dec 1923)
15. Census of Ireland (1901; 1911)
16. Belfast Street Directories (1843-1943)
17. First Survey Record – HB26/50/113 (1970)
18. 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. 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 26/50/113C to HB 26/50/102D