15 College Square East

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Terraced four-storey rendered former townhouse, built c.1830, with replacement shopfront to the ground floor. Built as one of a terrace of houses at the junction of College Square East and Wellington Place. Rectangular on plan facing west opposite the Royal Academical Institution (HB26/50/023).

Pitched natural slate roof with terracotta ridge tiles, lead junctions with adjoining houses to either side. Original red brick chimneystacks to either end with sandstone course and angled clay pots (partially rebuilt to the north). Roof set behind lead-lined blocking course and eaves cornice. Painted ruled-and-lined cement rendered walling, red brick laid in English garden wall bond to the rear elevation. Square-headed window openings with masonry sills and replacement timber casement windows. Gauged brick flat-arched window openings to the rear elevation with masonry sills and replacement timber casement windows.

West front elevation is two windows wide with a replacement aluminium-framed glazed shopfront. Round-headed door opening to the north bay with replacement hardwood panelled door and hardwood surround.

North side elevation abutted by adjoining building No.14 (HB26/50/319C).

Rear elevation is two windows wide and abutted by a single-storey flat-roofed structure, built c.1990 and an additional timber-clad projection at the first half-landing.

South side elevation abutted by adjoining building No.16 (HB26/50/319E).

Setting

Part of a terrace of several similar rendered former townhouses lining the east side of Great Victoria Street returning onto Wellington Place.

Roof: Natural slate
RWG: UPVC
Walling: render / red brick
Windows : timber

Historical information

No. 15 College Square East, a four storey late-Georgian townhouse, is one of a terrace of similar buildings which include nos 58-64 Wellington Place (HB26/50/022A-B) and nos 14-16 College Square East (HB26/50/022C-E). The row is a rare surviving Georgian terrace of a type once commonly found throughout the centre of Belfast but now quite rare; similar examples include a four-storey terrace on Chichester Street and two three-storey terraces on Joy and Hamilton Street. The terrace on Wellington Place and College Square East was constructed between 1822 and 1832-33 as the row does not appear on a map of Belfast included in George Benn’s ‘The History of the 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 buildings; the first edition of the Ordnance Survey map (1832-33) depicted both the Wellington Place and College Square East terraces. Contemporary to the first edition map, the Townland Valuation of Belfast recorded that No. 15 College Square East was occupied by a Ms. Bradshaw and was valued at £13 13s. 2d. in 1837; Bradshaw paid yearly rent of 50 guineas.

Mrs. Bradshaw had vacated No. 15 by 1852 when the Belfast Street Directories recorded a Mrs. Rosetta Harrison as tenant; however Harrison only resided at the site briefly and by the 1860 Griffith’s Valuation a Mr. Joseph J. Murphy had occupied the building. The valuer noted that No. 15 College Square East, like the majority of the terrace was leased by the representatives of the estate of a Mr. James Blair, and that the value of No. 15 had increased to £42. Murphy was employed at Linfield Mill (due to the professional class of the occupants of College Square at the time it is likely he was a manager of the mill or held a high position), however by 1877 he had vacated the site when a Dr. Brice Smith was recorded as occupant (the first of a number of medical professionals to reside at the address).

Dr. Smith continued to reside at No. until at least 1880 when he was recorded in the Belfast Street Directory for that year; however by 1900 the property had passed to a Dr. James Lindsay. The Belfast Revaluation recorded that by 1900 ownership of the terrace had passed to a Ms. Sarah White, who thereafter was noted as lessor; the valuer noted that No. 15 College Square East consisted of eight rooms (including sitting rooms and bedrooms but excluding the kitchen) and was installed with gas; under the revaluation the value of the Georgian townhouse was increased to £62 and the annual rent paid by Dr. Lindsay was set at over £75. The 1901 Census records that Lindsay (44, Methodist) was employed as a Medical Doctor and gained his qualification from Queen’s College, he resided at No. 15 College Square East with his mother Ellen (72) and two servants; the census building return described Lindsay’s property as a 1st class dwelling that consisted of 10 inhabited rooms.

Dr. Lindsay still resided at No. 15 in 1907, however in the following year a Mr. J. Maguire, a Dental Surgeon, established a practise at the address; Maguire did not reside at the site as the building was uninhabited during the 1911 census and as a result no information was recorded in the census building return. Maguire operated his dental surgery until at least 1918 when his business was recorded in the Belfast Street Directories; however in 1926 the site was converted into an evangelical bookshop (that continues to occupy the site). Nos 14-16 College Square East were purchased by a Mr. Frederick H. Stringer in c. 1928 and the entire property was converted into commercial premises with a shop on the ground floor and private office rooms above. The Evangelical Bookshop was originally administered by the Presbyterian Bible Study League and occupied the ground floor which was valued at £29; the upper offices were valued between £9 and £32, the total value of the building can be calculated to approximately £106 at which level it remained by the cancellation of the Annual Revisions in 1930.

In 1935 the First General Revaluation of property in Northern Ireland in 1935 increased the value of the evangelical bookshop, and its offices, to approximately £123 10s; the building survived the destruction of Belfast city centre during the 1941 Blitz and in the aftermath of the Second World War was included in the second general revaluation which commenced in 1956. By the 1950s ownership of the Evangelical Bookshop had passed to M. Crymble Ltd. (Crymble’s Music Shop occupied No. 58 Wellington Place (HB26/50/022A) and also possessed a warehouse at No. 14 College Square East (HB26/50/022C)); the ground floor shop had been increased in value to £139 since 1935 whilst the upper offices were valued between £4 15s. and £44, the total approximate value of the entire building stood at £215 10s. by the end of the revaluation in 1972.

Patton states that College Square was laid out in the early-19th century and was originally intended as a residential area, a Georgian square surrounded by handsome townhouses. No. 15 College Square East was constructed in c. 1830 and was originally a redbrick structure, the red-brick has been hidden under a stucco render; Patton states that, although much of the original façade of the terrace has been altered, ‘early pots survive on the chimneys, some [possessing] beaded or dropped bead type, [and some with] dragon’s teeth type’ (Patton, p. 72).

Beckett states that the terrace was constructed in the early-19th century and was originally intended as new housing for Belfast’s professional classes; the two doctors and a dentist recorded amongst the occupants of No. 15 College Square East attest to the class of the past residents of the area and Patton states that in 1890 ‘no less than six surgeons lived in the terrace nos 11-25’ whilst the Mathematical Physicist and Engineer William Thomson, known as Lord Kelvin, is believed to have been born on the row as early as 1824 (although Kelvin was born at the now demolished terrace 17-25 which was constructed. 1820-25) . A photograph of College Square North dated c. 1880 contained in J. C. Beckett’s Belfast: The making of the city depicts the terrace prior to its conversion into commercial premises; the ground floor of the row lacking shopfronts possessed ornate doorcases with fanlights above. The commercialisation of the terrace took place in the early 20th century when the construction of Municipal Technical Building undermined the aesthetic quality of the square and resulted in the exodus of the professional classes to South Belfast and the newly formed terraces on University Square beside Queen’s University Patton (Beckett, p. 155; Patton, p. 74).

No. 15 College Square East, along with the rest of the terrace, was listed in 1976 and since that time has continued to be utilised as commercial premises; the building remarkably continues to be occupied by the Evangelical Bookshop which first traded from the site in 1926 and has remained in business for over 85 years.

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/1/B/75A+B – Townland Valuation c. 1837
7. PRONI VAL/2/B/7/4B – Griffith’s Valuation 1860
8. PRONI VAL/12/B/43/D/1-18 – Annual Revisions 1862-1930
9. PRONI VAL/12/B/43/E/1-24 – Annual Revisions 1862-1930
10. PRONI VAL/7/B/9/49 – Belfast Revaluation 1900
11. PRONI VAL/3/B/3/14 – First General Revaluation of Northern Ireland 1935
12. PRONI VAL/4/B/7/38 – Second General Revaluation of Northern Ireland 1956-72
13. George Benn’s The History of the town of Belfast (1823)
14. Census of Ireland (1901; 1911)
15. Belfast Street Directories (1861-1918)
16. First Survey Record – HB26/50/022 (1971)
17. First Survey Image – HB26/50/022 (1975-78)
18. Ordnance Survey map – 130-13SE (1959)

Secondary Sources
1. Beckett, J. C., ‘Belfast: The making of the city’ Belfast: The Appletree Press, 1983.
2. Patton, M., ‘Central Belfast: An historical gazetteer’ Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1993

Online Resources
1. Evangelic Bookshop website - http://www.evangelicalbookshop.co.uk
2. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography website –
http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/36507?docPos=1

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
H-. Alterations detracting from building
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, with replacement shopfront to the ground floor. Built as one of a terrace of houses at the junction of Great Victoria Street and Wellington Place. Although compromised by modern alterations, much historic fabric and detailing survive. The building and its neighbours represent a rare building typology in the heart of the City. The row is a rare surviving Georgian terrace of a type once commonly found throughout the centre of Belfast; similar examples include a four-storey terrace on Chichester Street and two three-storey terraces on Joy and Hamilton Street.

General comments

Renumbered to rationalise group. Previously HB26/50/022H.