Historic Building Details

HB Ref No:
HB26/43/002 C

Address :
36 Cliftonville Road Belfast Co Antrim BT14 6JY

Townland:
Town Parks

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Survey 2:
B2

Date of Listing:
28/04/1982 00:00:00

Date of De-listing:

Current Use:
House

Former Use
House

Conservation Area:
No

Industrial Archaeology:
No

Vernacular:
No

Thatched:
No

Monument:
No

Derelict:
Yes

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OS Map No:
130-09 SW

IG Ref:

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Owner Category

Exterior Description And Setting

Derelict semi-detached two-storey-over-basement villa with attic, built c.1830 to designs by architect Thomas Jackson. Rectangular-on-plan facing north with central entrance at west. Continuous walkway around basement appears to be filled in. Located on the south side of Cliftonville Road, Belfast. Hipped roof with temporary roof covering, single brick chimney stack with clay pots at centre of building, adjoining No. 34 (HB26/43/002B). Ogee profile cast-iron rainwater goods (some removed) supported on broad overhanging painted eaves decorated with guttae. Walling is ruled-and-lined render, fallen away in places to expose red brick. Windows are square-headed 6/6 timber sashes (most removed with openings blocked at ground floor and boarded at first floor) contained within rendered reveals and painted stone sills (unless otherwise stated). Attic level openings (boarded) have continuous sill course and deep rendered panels. Principal west elevation is symmetrical and contains central opening (boarded) with gate screen over. Entrance surmounted by one window at first floor; at left and right, one window at each floor (three two-storey elliptical-headed recesses containing a window at each floor). Three diminished openings at attic level with continuous sill course and deep rendered panels. North elevation contains two openings at each floor detailed as west. Two diminished openings at attic level. East elevation is abutted by No.34 (HB26/43/002B). South elevation as north. Setting Set on an urban site, slightly set back from the street, located to the south side of the Cliftonville Road, Belfast. Enclosed at north by temporary hoarding. Drive at east provides access to large garden at south. Roof Temporary RWG Ogee profile cast-iron Walling Ruled-and-lined render Windows Timber sashes

Architects

Jackson, Thomas

Historical Information

The current semi-detached pair were built and designed by the architect Thomas Jackson in the early 1830s as part of a speculative housing development aimed at the rising mercantile and professional classes of Belfast. Jackson had trained in the Clifton area of Bristol and was inspired by his time there to name the estate ‘Cliftonville’. (Larmour) Numbers 34-36 were built as a semi-detached pair in a Greek Revival idiom and together with a terrace of three at 26-30 (HB26/43/002) were the earliest to be built and the only survivors of a development of approximately six structures, some divided into a number of dwellings. The current pair are more abstract and plainer than the terrace to the west, but originally had Regency ironwork porches (now gone). (Larmour) Thomas Jackson himself lived in a house to the left of numbers 26-30 which has unfortunately not survived. The structure is shown on the first edition OS map of 1832-3 together with the terrace further to the east. The buildings were situated very much on the outskirts of Belfast in what would have been a largely rural landscape, dotted with the substantial houses of the well-to-do set back within spacious grounds. ‘Cliftonville’ represented the first suburban development of the area, as a row of terraced and semi-detached villas, facing onto what was then part of the New Lodge Road. The Townland Valuation of 1837 lists the occupier of number 36 as William Herdman of Langtry and Herdman, shipowners and general merchants who brought the first steam ship into Belfast. William Herdman was an uncle of the Herdmans of Sion Mills. (www.sionmills.org) Dimensions are given for the house, basement, privy, stable and shed. The valuation of this house and its neighbour is £18.10s. By 1858 the Cave Hill tramway had made the area more accessible from the centre of Belfast and a total of six structures are shown in the row, which is now captioned ‘Cliftonville’. Griffith’s Valuation (1856-64) lists the occupier as Miss Agnes Herdman, who leases the property, valued at £42, from Catherine Rankin. At the time of the 1901 census, the occupier was Thomas Watts, a corn merchant who lived with his mother, sister and niece. The family kept a general domestic servant and a nursemaid from County Monaghan. A boarder was also accommodated at the house, William Gunning, a travelling salesman. The house had eleven rooms and was designated first class. In 1911 the house was home to Archibald Chapman Husband from Renfrewshire, manager of a linen thread mill. He was the father of ten children, seven of whom were still at home, an elder daughter and a son working as mercantile clerks and a son as a draughtsman. Unusually, for a professional man of his standing, no live-in servants were employed at the house. The house passed to George E Hull builder c1920 but from 1941 until the end of the war it was used as an ARP (Air Raid Precautions) post. The Air Raid Precautions Scheme operated in Belfast from 1938 with the city being divided into 902 sectors each containing roughly 500 people. Over five and a half thousand wardens were needed whose duties included advising the public on risks and precautions against air raids and policing the nightly blackout. Civil Defence headquarters were on the Lisburn Road and ARP posts were set up throughout the city, some purpose built but others, as in the present case, occupying houses or shops. Posts in vulnerable areas were manned 24 hours a day and others only during night-time hours. Some ARP posts were also used for the distribution of Ration Books. (www.secondworldwarni.org) Dr Hugh Shearman (b1915) was resident at the house from 1946. He was a historian and writer of fiction who was also Chief Executive Officer of the Theosophical Society in Northern Ireland and wrote widely on theosophical thought. His published works include A Bomb and a Girl (1948) and Ireland Since the Close of the Middle Ages (1955) (www.ricorso.net). Dr Shearman lived at the house until at least the late 1980s. The buildings suffered severe fire damage c2003 and the current building remains derelict. (HB file) Primary Sources 1. PRONI OS/6/1/61/1 – First Edition OS Map 1832-3 2. PRONI OS/6/1/61/3 – Third Edition OS Map 1858 3. PRONI OS/6/1/61/4 – Fourth Edition OS Map 1901-2 4. PRONI OS/6/1/61/6 – Sixth Edition OS Map 1931 5. PRONI VAL/1/B/719A-B Townland Valuation (1828-40) 6. PRONI VAL/2/B/7/H Griffith’s Valuation (1856-64) 7. PRONI VAL/12/B/43/C/1-31 Annual Revisions (1863-1905) 8. PRONI VAL/12/B/43/F/1-7 Annual Revisions (1905-1930) 9. Street Directories 1839-1995 10. 1901 census 11. 1911 census 12. HB file 26/43/003A-B Secondary Sources 1. Built Heritage at Risk Register 2. Kennedy L and Ollerenshaw P eds “An Economic History of Ulster, 1820-1940, Manchester University Press, 1985) 3. Larmour, P “Belfast, An Illustrated Architectural Guide” Belfast: Friar’s Bush Press, 1987 4. www.dia.ie – Dictionary of Irish Architects online 5. www.ricorso.net 6. www.secondworldwarni.org 7. www.sionmills.org

Criteria for Listing

Architectural Interest

A. Style B. Proportion C. Ornamentation H-. Alterations detracting from building K. Group value

Historic Interest

X. Local Interest V. Authorship Z. Rarity

Evaluation

One of a pair of semi-detached two-storey-over-basement with attic houses designed and built c.1830 by architect Thomas Jackson as part of a wider development of villa style dwellings which gave the area its name, following Jackson's stay in the Regency Clifton area of Bristol. Despite the loss of much historic fabric and detailing the building remains of architectural and historic distinction, bearing the hallmarks of Jackson's style. With adjoining semi-detached house No 36 (HB26/43/003B), this is an elegant building of fine character and by a significant local architect. Few examples of the style survive, especially in a group. It also represents an early phase of speculation aimed at the rising mercantile and professional classes of Belfast.

General Comments

To be renumbered as HB26/43/002C with Nos 26-30 as /002A & No 34 Cliftonville Road as HB26/43/002B Previously numbered HB26/43/003B

Date of Survey

09 August 2012