13 College Place North

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

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

Pitched natural slate roof with black clay ridge tiles and a profiled brick chimneystack with terracotta pots to the west party wall (shared with No.15). Cast-iron guttering on iron brackets to brick eaves course and cast-iron downpipe. Red brick walling laid in Flemish bond with painted rendered plinth course. Gauged brick flat-arched window openings with painted sandstone sills, rendered surrounds and replacement timber casement windows.

Front elevation is two windows wide with a square-headed door opening to the left having rendered surround, replacement timber panelled door and rectangular overlight. Door opens directly onto the pavement.

West side elevation abutted by adjoining building No.15.

Rear elevation not seen.

East side elevation abutted by adjoining house No.11 (HB26/50/105A).

Setting:
Forming part of a terrace of two similar houses returning onto the principal section of College Place North as a terrace of four further houses lining the northwest side of College Place North at the entrance to an industrial yard.

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

Historical information

No. 13 College Place North was constructed c. 1840 and, together with the neighbouring terrace, it is an example of late-Georgian / early-Victorian housing that was once found in the college Square area of Belfast city centre. Nos 11 and 13 College Place North (HB26/50/105B) are two-storey dwellings, however they possess a slightly lower storey-height than their neighbours, nos 3-9 (HB26/50/104A-D); the entire terrace was constructed by the second edition of the Belfast Ordnance Survey map in 1858. The row 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.

In 1860 Griffith’s Valuation noted 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 that year No. 13 College Place North was occupied by a Mr. John Kennedy; the dwelling he resided in was valued at £5 by Griffith’s Valuation, significantly lower than the dwellings of the adjoining terrace. John Kennedy continued to reside at College Place North by 1880 when he was employed as a linen lapper in a local factory (Belfast Street Directory); however by 1900 he had vacated the site when a Mr. Francis Gordon was recorded as occupant.

The Belfast Revaluation of property was carried out in 1900 and noted that 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. 13 College Place North as a two-storey dwelling that was approximately 50 years old, was fitted with gas installations and possessed three inhabited rooms (including sitting rooms and bedrooms but excluding the kitchen). Under the revaluation project the value of the terrace was changed and No. 11 was slightly increased to £5 10s; the occupant, Francis Gordon paid a weekly rent of 3s. 8d.

The 1901 Census notes that Gordon (48, Presbyterian) was employed as a stone merchant and resided at College Place North with his wife Margaret (40), a weaver; the census building return described their house as a 2nd class dwelling that consisted of four inhabited rooms. No. 13 College Place North fell vacant in 1908 and over the next decade was sporadically occupied by a number of tenants. In 1910 a plasterer by the name of William Carr became tenant; however he was replaced by an upholsterer, John Magee and his family in 1911. The Magee’s were recorded in the census of that year but moved out shortly afterwards; in 1918 J. Jordan, a carter became occupant but throughout this period the Annual Revisions continued to record Francis Gordon as tenant despite leaving the property by 1907.

By 1935 the Kelly family had come into possession of No. 13 College Place North; in that year the First General Revaluation of property in Northern Ireland revalued the two-storey house at £7 5s. The terrace escaped the destructed inflicted upon the centre of Belfast during the 1941 Blitz and in the aftermath of the conflict the site was once more revalued under the second general revaluation which began in 1956. At that time No. 13 College Place North was occupied by a Mr. Or Mrs. H. W. Kelly and by the end of the revaluation in 1972 the value of the site stood at £8 10s.

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. 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’ whilst stating that nos 11-13 were very similar, also two-storey, but of lower storey height.’

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/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 – HB26/50/105 (1977)
14. Ulster Newsletter (30 Sept 1993)

Secondary Sources

1. HB File - HB 26/50/105A
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
D. Plan Form
H-. Alterations detracting from building
J. Setting
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Terraced two-storey red brick house built c1840, as one of two similar houses. Irregular on plan facing south and located in a cul-de-sac. Although the pair has been compromised by recent alterations, it forms part of a Nineteenth-century terrace and some of its original character survives. It remains something like a text book example of second and third rate buildings of a type that is becoming rare in the city.

General comments

Renumbered previously HB26/50/105