9 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 with a side elevation fronting onto a truncated cul-de-sac and and located in a cul-de-sac to the north of College Square North.

Pitched natural slate roof with black clay ridge tiles, lead hip ridge and a profiled brick chimneystack with terracotta pots to the north party wall and a further brick chimneystack to the west party wall. Cast-iron guttering on iron brackets to brick eaves course with cast-iron downpipe. Red brick walling laid in Flemish bond with cement pointing and painted rusticated quoins to the outer corner. Gauged brick flat-arched window openings with painted sandstone sills, rendered surrounds and replacement 6/6 timber sash windows.

Front elevation is two windows wide with a square-headed door opening to the right having replacement panelled timber door and rectangular overlight flanked by large plain console brackets supporting a hood cornice. Door opens onto two concrete steps to the front pavement with a sandstone plinth wall and replacement steel railing enclosing small front area.

South side elevation is two windows wide with a smaller window to the west end, possibly forming part of No.11 (HB26/50/105A).

Rear elevation abutted by adjoining building No.11 (HB26/50/105A).

North side elevation abutted by adjoining house No.7 (HB26/50/104C).

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, located to the north of College Square North and returning into a smaller truncated cul-de-sac to the west.

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

Historical information

No. 9 College Place North, a two-storey dwelling which is the corner building of a terrace dating from c. 1840, is an example of late-Georgian / early-Victorian housing that was once prevalent throughout Belfast city centre. Together with the adjoining nos 3-7 (HB26/50/104A-C) and nos 11-13 (HB26/50/105A-B), No. 9 College Place North was constructed by the second edition of the Belfast Ordnance Survey map 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 accelerated.

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). The valuation notes that in 1860 No. 9 College Place North was occupied by a Ms. Caroline Cunningham and that the house she occupied was valued at £10 (the other here houses on the terrace were valued slightly less at £9, the corner building being considerably larger than nos 3-7). Cunningham had vacated the dwelling by 1868 when the Belfast Street Directory recorded that a Ms. Lloyd had taken possession. The occupants of No. 9 College Place North continued to change with regularity over the following decades; in 1877 and 1880 a Mr. Robert Beattie was recorded as tenant, Beattie was employed as a Mechanic and in 1880 also occupied the adjoining No. 7 (HB26/50/104C).

The Annual Revisions note that by 1881 the dwelling was occupied by a Mr. John Ballagh who resided at the site until sometime prior to the Belfast Revaluation of 1900; by that year ownership of the terrace had passed to a Mr. Samuel Gibson, a druggist and general merchant who owned properties on King Street (Belfast Street Directories). The Revaluation report described No. 9 College Place North as a two-storey dwelling that was approximately 50 years old, was fitted with gas installations and possessed five inhabited rooms (including sitting rooms and bedrooms but excluding the kitchen). Under the revaluation project the value of the terrace was changed and No. 9 was slightly increased to £10 10s; the occupant in 1900 was a Mr. Samuel James who paid annual rent of £17.

The 1901 Census records that Samuel James (50, Church of Ireland) was employed as a Sergeant in the Royal Irish Constabulary and resided at College Place North with his wife Evangeline (40) and their seven children; the census building return described their abode as a 2nd class dwelling that consisted of six rooms and possessed no out offices. James and his family vacated No. 9 College Place North by 1910 when a Mr. John Dermot was recorded as occupant in the Belfast Street Directories. Dermot (42, Roman Catholic) was also employed as a R.I.C. Constable and in 1911 resided at the address with his wife Annie (32) and their four infant children; the census building return in that year noted no alteration to the description of the property.

Samuel James continued to be recorded as occupant of No. 9 College Place North, despite vacating the site c. 1910, until the cancellation of the Annual Revisions in 1930, however between these years at least one other occupant, a Ms. Maud McMahon resided at the site (1918 Belfast Street Directory). McMahon continued to reside at the site by the First General Revaluation of property in Northern Ireland which was carried out in 1935 and revalued No. 9 College Place North at £13 10s. McMahon had vacated the site by the Second General Revaluation which was carried out after the Second World War; in 1956 the site had been occupied by a Mr. Or Mrs. B. Kelly and had been, once more, slightly increased in value and stood at £14 by the end of the 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;’ however this Georgian attribution 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 constructed c. 1840 and was once blocked off with a brick wall at the Killen Street end whilst an opposing terrace once 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 famine but was remodelled in the 1880’s by James Neill (Patton, pp 71-72).

The entire terrace was listed in 1977 on the grounds that they represented rare surviving examples of two-storey early-19th century housing in the area, 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, although No. 9 College Place North was amongst the small number of properties on the row that was maintained in generally good condition. In 1986 87 James Neill’s original Victorian mill was demolished 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. 9 is the only example amongst the terrace to have survived, the glazing bars noted by Brett have also been maintained.

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. Census of Ireland (1901; 1911)
12. Belfast Street Directories (1861-1918)
13. First Survey Record – HB26/50/104 (1970)
14. First Survey Image – HB26/50/104 (1974)
15. Ulster Newsletter (30 Sept 1993)

Secondary Sources

1. HB File - HB 26/50/104D
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.

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.