3 College Place North

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

End of terrace two-storey red brick house, built c.1840, as one of four similar houses. Rectangular on plan facing southeast and located in a cul-de-sac to the north of College Square North.

Pitched natural slate roof with black clay ridge tiles, replacement brick chimneystack with clay pots to the south party wall (shared with No.5 HB26/50/004B) and cast-iron guttering on iron brackets to brick eaves course. Red brick walling laid in Flemish bond with cement pointing. Gauged brick flat-arched window openings with painted sandstone sills, rendered reveals and replacement 6/6 timber sash windows.

Front elevation is two windows wide with a square-headed door opening to the right having four-panelled timber door with bolection mouldings, boarded overlight flanked by large plain console brackets supporting a hood cornice. Door opens onto concrete step to the front pavement with the remains of a plinth wall to the former railed front area.

South side elevation abutted by adjoining house No.5 (HB26/50/104B).

Rear elevation not seen.

North gable is blank and abutted by industrial buildings to the adjoining yard.

Setting

Forming part of a terrace of four similar houses lining the northwest side of College Place North at the entrance to an industrial yard and located to the north of College Square North.

Roof: Natural slate
RWG: Cast-iron
Walling: Red brick
Windows : timber

Historical information

No. 3 College Place North, a two-storey terraced dwelling, dates from c. 1840 and is amongst the few examples of late-Georgian / early-Victorian housing to remain in Belfast city centre. The property, together with the adjoining nos 5-9 (HB26/50/104B-D) and nos 11-13 College Place North (HB26/50/105A-B), was constructed by the second edition of the Ordnance Survey map for Belfast in 1858. The terrace was not depicted on the first edition (1832-33) which shows that the area lay vacant; at that time Belfast’s development was focused to the north and south-east, however with the opening of the Royal Belfast Academical Institution (HB 26/50/023) in 1814 and the increase in population with the Victorian period, the construction of terraced streets to the west of Belfast’s centre began to take place.

Griffith’s Valuation (1860) records that nos 3-13 College Place North were owned by a Mr. Thomas McCammon. A tanner, leather merchant and flour miller, McCammon operated his business from a tannery factory on 23 King Street (directly to the north of College Place North) and was also the lessor of a number of other dwellings in the area (Belfast Street Directories). In 1860 McCammon leased No. 3 College Place North to a Mr. James Neill who was employed as an accountant clerk was the chief administrator of McCammon’s mill; at that time the property was initially valued at £9.

James Neill continued to reside at No. 3 College Place North until c. 1867 when McCammon passed control of the company to his administrator prior to his death in 1869 (PRONI Wills); upon coming into possession of the company (which changed its name to Neill’s Flour) James Neill vacated No. 3 College Place North. By 1877 the property was occupied by Thomas Hill, a weighmaster, and in 1880 the Belfast Street Directory recorded a wool draper by the name Mr. James McGill as tenant; however during this period the Annual Revisions continued to record James Neill as the occupant and Thomas McCammon as lessor.

In 1900 the Belfast Revaluation recorded that the terrace had come into the ownership of a Mr. Samuel Gibson, a druggist and general merchant who owned properties on King Street (Belfast Street Directories); the terrace was revalued and No. 3 College Place North was increased in value to £10 10s. and rented out at an annual rent of £17. The revaluation did not include any specific details concerning No. 3 College Place North, however it was undoubtedly similar to the adjoining nos 7 and 9 which were described as two-storey dwellings of approximately 50 years in age, which were heated by gas and contained five rooms (excluding a kitchen).

By 1901 No. 3 College Place North had been occupied by a Mr. John Gourley, a retired porter. The 1901 Census recorded that Gourley (65, Presbyterian) resided at the terrace with his wife Ellen (65) and their three grown children; the census building return described No. 3 College Place North as a 2nd class dwelling that consisted of six rooms. John Gourley had died by the 1911 Census which records that his widow Ellen continued to reside at the site with her adult children.

The Gourley family continued to reside at No. 3 until at least 1918 when the Belfast Street Directory recorded that the property was occupied by Ellen’s son, John Gourley, who was employed as a collar cutter; the Annual Revisions continued to record J. Gourley as occupant of the site until their cancellation in 1930. By the First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1935) No. 3 College Place North had been increased in value to £14 10s. but was no longer occupied by the Gourley family; a Mr. Patrick McCourt was recorded as tenant in that year. The McCourt’s continued to reside at the address by the Second General Revaluation in 1956 when an M. McCourt resided at the site; the property was slightly decreased in value to £14 by the end of the Second Revaluation in 1972.

Brett, writing in 1985, described nos 3-13 College Place North as ‘enchanting little two-storey mid-Georgian houses [which] cannot be earlier than 1832 … they are real jewels with glazing bars all intact, 3 and 5 with their original fanlights;’ however this Georgian date is too early as the terrace was most likely constructed c. 1840-50 during the Victorian development of the area surrounding College Square and most certainly had not been constructed by the 1832-33 Ordnance Survey map (Brett, p. 20). It is clear that College Place North was constructed as part of the development of the increasingly fashionable residential area surrounding the Royal Belfast Academical Institution; a report compiled by the Historic Buildings Branch in 1992 stated that College Place North was erected as ‘mews houses for the servants working in the great houses fronting onto [College] Square.’ Patton states that the terrace was once blocked off with a brick wall at the Killen Street end whilst an opposing terrace stood opposite on the south-west side (now demolished). The terrace remains in the shadow of Neill’s factory which was originally constructed during the Irish Famine but was remodelled in the 1880’s by James Neill (Patton, pp 71-72).

The terrace was listed in 1977, however in the period immediately after its listing the group of mid-19th century dwellings fell into a state of disrepair due to neglect and the advent of vandalism in the area; by the 1990s over half of the houses on the terrace lay vacant. James Neill’s original Victorian mill was demolished in 1986 87 and replaced with the current structure; subsequently Neill’s Mill requested the delisting of College Place North in 1992 with the intention to demolish the terraces and incorporate the site into the factory. The request was rejected and a renovation project was carried out on nos 3-13 College Place North resulting in the restoration of the original character of the terrace (Ulster Newsletter; HB File).

Patton, writing in 1993 at the time of the restoration, described nos 3-9 College Place North as an ‘obtuse-angled terrace of two-storey red-brick houses with some surviving three-lobe fanlights over four-panel doors in simple doorcases;’ the original fanlight for No. 3 has been removed, however the glazing bars noted by Brett have been maintained or restored.

References

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/1/61/1 – Second 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/2/B/7/5D – Griffith’s Valuation 1860
7. PRONI VAL/12/B/43/E/1-24 – Annual Revisions 1862-1930
8. PRONI VAL/7/B/12/20 – Belfast Revaluation 1900
9. PRONI VAL/3/B/3/18 – First General Revaluation of Northern Ireland 1935
10. PRONI VAL/4/B/7/36 – Second General Revaluation of Northern Ireland 1956-72
11. PRONI Wills Catalogue (10 Dec 1869)
12. Census of Ireland (1901; 1911)
13. Belfast Street Directories (1861-1918)
14. First Survey Record – HB26/50/104 (1970)
15. First Survey Image – HB26/50/104 (1974)
16. Ulster Newsletter (30 Sept 1993)

Secondary Sources

1. HB File - HB 26/50/104A
2. Brett, C. E. B., ‘Buildings of Belfast: 1700-1914’ Belfast: Friar’s Bush Press, 1985.
3. Larmour, P., ‘Belfast: An illustrated architectural guide’ Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1987.
4. Patton, M., ‘Central Belfast: An historical gazetteer’ Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1993

Online Resources

1. Neill’s Flour website - http://www.neillsflour.co.uk/companyhistory.html

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
J. Setting
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest

Evaluation

End of terrace two-storey red brick house, built c.1840, as one of four similar houses. Rectangular on plan facing southeast and located in a cul-de-sac to the north of College Square North. Much historic fabric and detailing and its character survive and the whole group forms a coherent nineteenth-century terrace that is one the few examples of late-Georgian/early-Victorian housing of this scale to survive in Belfast city centre.