Historic Building Details

HB Ref No:
HB26/01/057

Address :
4 Knockbreda Park BELFAST BT6 0HB

Townland:
Galwally

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Survey 2:
B1

Date of Listing:
02/02/2018 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:
No

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OS Map No:
147/6

IG Ref:
J3503 7098

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Owner Category

Exterior Description And Setting

2 storey, double fronted red brick Late Victorian house built 1900, located just off the Ormeau Road in a suburban
setting approximately 4.5 km from the City centre. The plan is rectangular with two large semi-circular bays at the front and a two storey return. Materials Walls: Red clay brick with sandstone lintels and sills and decorative brick string-courses Windows: Mainly 1/1 painted, single glazed, timber sliding sash Roof: Bangor blue natural slate RWGs: Cast iron Front elevation (S) Front elevation (S) has a central doorway set in a segmental arched opening with polished granite columns raised on sandstone bases and with foliate capitals - also in sandstone. The arch has alternating raised blocks and layered archivolt with a keystone also featuring a foliate carving. The door has double leaves with raised panels and plain glazed side lights and segmental overlight. Either side are unusually large two storey semicircular bays with three 1/1 painted timber windows in each floor. Directly above the door is a 1/1 timber window detailed as the others. Lintels and sills are red sandstone. All of the elevations are characterised by the use of decorative brick string-courses with more significant brick cornices at first floor on the bays and at eaves level. This eaves cornice turns the corners for a short distance. Side elevation (W) Side elevation (W) has a canted single storey bay towards the rear of the main block with two square headed 1/1 timber sliding sash windows on the first floor above the bay. Side elevation (E) Side elevation (E) is blind apart from the many decorative brick string-courses. Rear elevation (N) Rear elevation (N) has a two storey return also in clay brick with a cat-slide roof. The main block has a window on each floor to the left of the return. The return has a large staircase landing window on the first floor and a further single storey return with double pitched roof attached to the North (hips back towards the return). This contains, on the yard side, three small rooms one of which is an outside WC and a further larger store to the West side. The East side of the return has a window and door to the kitchen on the ground floor and a similar window above. The West face has two 1/1 windows on each floor. The front boundary to Knockbreda Park has two rebuilt central gate pillars with their original scalloped sandstone copings but without further sandstone collars that now sit on the ground in the front garden. The remainder of this boundary, on either side of the entry, has its original red clay brick walling with sandstone coping, replacement steel railings, and is terminated with the original ornate brick pillars and sandstone copings. The front garden has an informal mixture of mature shrubs, trees and hedging with concrete paths and grassed areas. This treatment also extends around the East side to the rear forming a private and informal immediate setting. The boundary on the West side is closer.

Architects

Historical Information

Knockbreda Park is located within what were previously the grounds of Knockbreda Rectory, a house built in 1816. In 1885 a section of the western side of these grounds, close to what is now Ormeau Road, was opened to the development and a series of red brick detached and semidetached suburban dwellings were built along the eastern side of the of north-south stretch (most of the present nos.27-41 as well as the south-facing no.25). In the later 1890s, the western side of the plot - fronting on to the main road - was populated with larger similarly-styled detached properties (nos.400-414 Ormeau Road), and present nos.4 and 6 were added to the short northern boundary, the beginnings of the main east-west stretch of Knockbreda Park, a thoroughfare which was further developed eastwards largely in the 1930s. No.4 This house was built in 1900-01 by James Grant and was originally known as ‘Grantville’. The identity of the architect is not known. It appears to have been first leased to James Brown Porter (d.1908), and then in c.1909 to William Waugh, a tea merchant. By 1911 it was being occupied by Edward Barnes, who is listed in the census of that year as an unemployed clerk. William Waugh is noted as resident again by 1916 with James Grant himself living there in by 1924. Mr. Grant died in 1929 and Patrick McGeeney, a publican, is recorded as the householder by 1932, with John D’Arcy there by 1943. Mr D’Arcy appears to have died before 1951, but his widow, Mrs. Margaret (or Margaretta) D’Arcy (b.1918), an actress, seems to have retained the house into the 1980s. References – Primary sources 1 PRONI VAL12B/43K/1, annual valuation revision book, 1897-1906 2 ‘Belfast and Province of Ulster Street Directory’, (Belfast News-Letter, Belfast), various dates from 1890 to 96 3 PRONI OS8/30/4/59, 60 1896, 1901-02 4 PRONI VAL12B/43K/4, annual valuation revision book, 1906-15 5 Census of Ireland, 1901, 1911 [online] Secondary sources 1 http://www.ulsteractors.com/d/ [accessed 2017.08.16] 2 http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0195453/bio [accessed 2017.08.16]

Criteria for Listing

Architectural Interest

A. Style B. Proportion C. Ornamentation D. Plan Form I. Quality and survival of Interior J. Setting

Historic Interest

R. Age S. Authenticity X. Local Interest

Evaluation

2 storey, double-fronted red-brick Late Victorian house built c 1900, located just off the Ormeau Road in a suburban setting approximately 4.5 km from the city centre. This house is one of the finest in Rosetta which has many similar, but not as well detailed, double-fronted detached and semi-detached houses of this period. The building's architectural interest is in the very fine entrance door surround, mainly in carved sandstone, the elaborate brick string courses and cornices that decorate all the facades of the main block and the unusually wide front bays. This high level of quality detailing is continued throughout the interior. Its interest is also enhanced by the mostly intact front boundary walling and pillars and the mature garden setting to the front, side and rear.

General Comments

Date of Survey

24 May 2017