Historic Building Details

HB Ref No:
HB26/28/043 A

Address :
86 Lisburn Rd Belfast BT9 6AF

Townland:
Malone Lower

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Survey 2:
B2

Date of Listing:
20/01/2025 00:00:00

Date of De-listing:

Current Use:
Office

Former Use
House - Terrace

Conservation Area:
No

Industrial Archaeology:
No

Vernacular:
No

Thatched:
No

Monument:
No

Derelict:
No

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OS Map No:
147/1SW

IG Ref:
J3319 7276

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Owner Category

Exterior Description And Setting

End of terrace house, three storey with attic over basement located on the southern side of the Lisburn Road at the junction with Elmwood Avenue. Mid Victorian, built circa 1860, it has group value with No.88 Lisburn Road (HB26/28/043/B and HB26/28/043/C which faces onto Elmwood Ave. Located on the approach to Queens Conservation Area and is close to HB26/28/044 – All Souls Church (grade B+). Natural slate roof with black clay ridge tiles and barrel-vaulted roofed dormer to front with modern roof lights positioned either side. Bank of plain, render finished chimney stacks either side of ridge which project from northeast gable and with raised rendered parapet wall connecting both. Projecting timber eaves with metal guttering set above projecting string course of light grey brick with continuous band of pointed dentils, below which is positioned a decorative, raised, four course mercantile band of light grey brickwork in diaper pattern. Cast iron down pipe to left extends full height of building. Exterior wall finish is red brick in Flemish bond with chamfered brick edgings around all fenestration and having shallow segmented arches above with soldier course profile and painted stone cills. Windows are painted timber framed single glazed sliding sash with horns with 1/1 panes – top floor windows with two over one. Projecting chamfered string course divides the upper floors from entrance level. Vertically aligned with outer edge of windows above, ground floor windows consist of pair of one over one painted timber framed single glazed sliding sash windows with horns. Recessed entrance doorway (Painted porthole door a recent intervention) to right coupled with entrance to no 88 (HB26/28/043/B) mirrored on circular stone column with square plinth to base and column adorned with floriated capital to communal stone step approach with No 88. Railings adorned with gold painted fleur-de-lis topped vertical rails and feature circular rings on mid-point to painted basement lightwell below, accessed by metal open thread steps. External basement wall with two six over three painted single glazed sliding sash windows with painted stone cills. Rear elevation with roof as described above with cat slide roof over small, full height rear return, built at half landing level and with modern rooflight on bottom right-hand side of main roof, adjacent to rear rendered chimney stack. Exterior finish red brick walling in common bond. Fenestration to main block consists of six over six painted timber, sliding sash windows with shallow flush brick arches above and diminish in height from ground to second level with the ground floor having a pair of replaced three paned windows with horizontal transoms and with central top hung opening. Basement level with single six over three painted single glazed sliding sash windows with painted stone cills. Rear extension as above with top floor having three over three painted timber sliding sash window. Painted flush timber door with small top hung timber window to left hand side with exposed concrete lintol above. White painted walls to basement with replacement concrete steps and railings providing access. Northeast elevation consist of a blank, rendered gable with two projecting chimney stacks, positioned either side of the ridge and having, on each level the formation of fireplace openings, suggesting that the original concept was to extend the terrace along the Lisburn Road. SETTING Number 86 forms end of terrace and has group value with HB26/28/043/B & HB26/28/043/C, two other similar town houses, rectangular on plan and aligned parallel to Lisburn Road. Together with the original boundary walling, with railings, defining the lightwells, the
setting forms the approach to the edge of the Queen's Conservation Area. Erstwhile noted on the earlier maps as 'Elmwood Terrace' this group is a rare surviving example of a three storey over basement construction – albeit of an unfinished terrace block. As part of the collective building group, it helps to maintain a visual coherence of the streetscape and forms an important surviving remnant of a coherent ensemble on this stretch of the Lisburn Road. MATERIALS Roof; Natural slate Walls: Brickwork Windows: Single glazed, painted, timber, sliding sash. RWG: Cast iron

Architects

Historical Information

Originally built as ‘Elmwood Terrace’, the terrace of three dwelling houses for the mercantile classes was constructed c1865. The architect is unknown. Although nearby terraces of an earlier date, ‘Royal Terrace’ (1848) and ‘Queen’s Elms’ (1859) (both now gone) were designed by Thomas Jackson (Dublin Builder, Dixon), there are no definitive stylistic indications or other surviving evidence that this terrace is also a Jackson design. Articles published in the Builder and Irish Builder that have been cited as supporting evidence for Jackson as the architect of the terrace, in fact relate to Queen’s Elms (www.dia.ie). The terrace was constructed on the edge of the grounds of ‘Elmwood’, a mansion owned by Edward Harris Clarke, a Director of the Belfast Bank. The dwellings are shown on the large-scale map of 1873 as a terrace of three, each with a return and small yard. Two of the houses face onto the Lisburn Road and the third faces onto what is now Elmwood Avenue. The lands surrounding the mansion of ‘Elmwood’ were gradually developed from the mid-19th century, the first edition OS map of 1832-3 showing a small house within landscaped grounds, planted with trees and with a curving driveway opening at one end onto University Road and at the other onto the Lisburn Road. According to Carleton, this early house dated from c1790 and it was Edward Harris Clarke who rebuilt this dwelling in 1856-8, his classical mansion, named ‘Elmwood’ surviving until the mid-20th century. E H Clarke was a barrister and a JP for county Antrim who had trained at Trinity College Dublin and was called to the bar in 1834. Clarke retired from the bar in 1841, and initially became an industrialist, entering into partnership with Narcissus Batt of Purdysburn and his nephew Samuel Batt in chemical works in Ballymacarett. In 1851 Clarke moved into banking and became a co-director, with his fellow barrister, Arthur Sharman Crawford, of the Belfast Banking Company, retiring in 1880 due to failing eyesight. The Belfast Bank suffered a partial ‘run’ in the closing months of 1857, following a ‘terrible crash’ in Scottish banking and subsequent to these events (although it is unclear if there is a connection), E H Clarke leased a portion of his land facing University Road to Thomas Gaffikin, linen merchant. Gaffikin built a terrace of seven dwellings, known as Queen’s Elms (completed in 1859), cutting off the direct access from ‘Elmwood’ to University Road. There is a hint at reluctance surrounding the deal, in the stipulation made by Clarke that the ‘row of fine old elms shall be allowed to remain’ (Dublin Builder) and indeed there was a row of trees in front of the terrace in the 1960s when Queen’s Elms was demolished. Elmwood Terrace was the second terrace to be built within the grounds of ‘Elmwood’. Valuation records indicate that the terrace was built on land leased from Edward H Clarke, and the terrace was most likely built by Clarke himself but was then acquired by James Jenkins. Jenkins, the proprietor of a ‘loan office’ or pawnbrokers in Mill Street and Marquis Street until his retirement c1870, and the owner of several houses in Belfast, is noted as the ‘immediate lessor’ of Elmwood Terrace in valuation records at an early stage. Following his retirement from pawnbroking, Jenkins became a member of Belfast Corporation, (chairman of the Sanitary Committee), a Water Commissioner, JP and a Poor Law Guardian. James Jenkins’ son William Alexander Jenkins went on to live in the end terrace (7 Elmwood Avenue) for over 40 years. Early records are undated, but Carleton gives a date of 1865 for the completion of the terrace and the first mention of Elmwood Terrace in the newspapers is in 1866, which is consistent with Carleton’s date. The terrace is unfinished as can be seen from the ‘hanging’ fireplaces to the NE elevation of Number 86. It is possible that the original intention was to build across the width of the Elmwood estate to form a terrace similar in width to Queen’s Elms. Nineteenth century maps show that building across the full width of the plot would have entailed blocking the access driveway from the Lisburn Road leading to the rear stableyard of ‘Elmwood’. The driveway featured a gate lodge, surrounded by trees, and Clarke may have decided to retain the rear access driveway and lodge, having lost the driveway to the front of the house when Queen’s Elms was built in 1859. The gate lodge was demolished and the driveway and most of the trees removed between 1884 and 1902, and it was perhaps not until Clarke’s death in 1889 that these changes were made, long after the impetus to complete Elmwood Terrace had faded. However, the reasons for not completing the terrace are not made explicit in any available records. Numbers 86-88 were initially valued at £43 and number 7 at £56. The valuations were reduced to £40, £40 and £50 in 1881, then raised again and lowered to £45 and £50 following an appeal. Two houses are listed as Elmwood Terrace in the 1865 street directory, one vacant and one occupied by Colonel Campbell, suggesting that the row was only partially complete at this time. As befitted a building on a main thoroughfare the newly-built terrace was decorated with flags for the visit of Prince Arthur, third son of Queen Victoria in 1869, as reported in the Northern Whig of the 3rd May. The first resident listed (Street Directories and Valuation Records) at number 86 was Edward Wakefield Pim, a Quaker tea and wine merchant with premises at 27-29 High Street, Belfast (images of E & W Pim shop are held by NMNI Hogg Collection). Pim was a JP, a Water Commissioner for 33 years (during which time he played a leading part in the development of the Mourne water scheme and published a book on the history of the water supply in Belfast), the Honorary Secretary of the Belfast Charitable Society based at Clifton House and Honorary Treasurer of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. It was his foresight in 1907 that led to the recording of inscriptions on extant headstones in Clifton Street Cemetery, records which have proved invaluable as the headstones have deteriorated over time. At the time of the 1901 census, Pim was resident at the nine-room house with his wife Hannah and two servants - a parlour maid and a cook. Pim lived at the house for over 40 years before moving to ‘Ivy Lodge’ in Knockbreda Park for the last decade of his life. The house was advertised to let in 1908, a selling point being its ‘outlook over the grounds of the Deaf and Dumb Institution’, a Lanyon -designed building constructed in 1845 (demolished 1963). At this time the house was said to contain three receptions and five bedrooms, ‘with every necessary accommodation’ and was deemed ‘very suitable for a professional man’. The next resident to be noted (from 1915 to 1929) was Baptist Gamble, a goods manager with the Great Northern Railway. Gamble’s son, Baptist William Gamble also worked on the railway before being commissioned in the Ulster Division at the rank of 2nd Lieutenant. Gamble was wounded at the front in July 1916 but survived through the war. The next resident was Jane Bell (1932-1943) and the 1934 revaluation records the building as having been a ‘girls’ hostel’, perhaps for the nearby university. The plan of the building shows a 3½ storey main block with basement and a small four-storey with basement return, with an attached single storey outbuilding/coal house (now gone). By 1945, the house had been converted into furnished flats by the owner Mrs Thomas, with a succession of tenants, many of them female and/or students. Each tenant occupied a floor comprising a sitting room, bedroom and kitchen with a share of the bathroom. As the character of the Lisburn Road began to change, the former dwelling was converted into offices, occupied from 1970 by Harold Winter & Co chartered accountants and various other accountancy and architectural firms. As the centre of Belfast continued to be affected by the ongoing disruption of the Troubles, the next phase of the building from c1990 was as the home of various voluntary organisations, namely, the Spirit of Enniskillen, the Royal Jubilee Trust, Youth Exchange, the Princes Trust and NI Youth Forum. Today the building provides premises for several businesses and voluntary organisations. A photograph of 1985 shows that the front door had been replaced, by this time, with an inappropriate modern door. The boundary wall to the terrace has been partially removed to the Elmwood Avenue side but otherwise remains in its original position, with openings as depicted on the 1873 large-scale map. A traditional tiled Belfast street sign for Elmwood Avenue (likely dating to c1910) is mounted on the boundary wall. A row of trees is shown on the 1884 map in front of the terrace and trees are maintained in a similar position within the property boundary today. This mid-Victorian terrace, home to the mercantile classes for decades, and latterly converted to commercial premises as the demographic of the Lisburn Road has changed, has survived in an area where several terraces of a similar age have not (e.g. Queen’s Elms, Royal Terrace, Cranbrook Terrace, Wilmont Terrace (north)). The terrace is of a style characteristic of its date, the decorative details in the cornices, doorways, and ironwork and the segmental window heads and barrel-roofed dormers distinguishing it from the terraces of an earlier era, while the overall composition is nonetheless restrained when compared to later Victorian designs. The fact that the terrace was never completed speaks to the history of the ‘Elmwood’ estate on which it was built and perhaps also to the vicissitudes of Victorian banking in Belfast. Although the terrace has lost some original features, (notably front doors and some internal features) the windows, ironwork and much internal detailing have survived. The state of preservation of the terrace is overall unusually good, particularly when compared to other non-listed terraces in this part of the Lisburn Road. The building contributes significantly to the local streetscape, standing out among the surviving Victorian terraces which characterise this part of South Belfast. References: Primary Sources: 1. PRONI OS/6/1/61/1 – First Edition Ordnance Survey Map (1832-3) 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 (1901-2) 4. PRONI OS/6/1/61/4 – Fourth Edition Ordnance Survey Map (1938) 5. Large-scale OS maps, 1858, 1873, 1884, 1902/3 (https://shop.centremapslive.co.uk) 6. The Builder, 11th September 1858, p.615 7. Dublin Builder, 1st May 1859, p.55 8. The Builder, 4th June 1859, p.374 9. Dublin Builder, 1st October 1859, p.129 10. PRONI VAL/12/B/43/D/7 – Annual Revisions (1862-1882) 11. PRONI VAL/12/B/43/D/14 – Annual Revisions (1882-1896) 12. PRONI VAL/12/B/43/A/36 – Annual Revisions (1897-1905) 13. PRONI VAL/12/B/43/P/3– Annual Revisions (1906-1915) 14. PRONI VAL/12/B/43/P/6– Annual Revisions (1916-1930) 15. PRONI VAL/12/B/43/P/7– Annual Revisions (1916-1930) 16. PRONI VAL/3/D/3/1/P/59 First NI General Revaluation Binder 1933-57 17. PRONI Street Directories 1863-1995 18. Newry Telegraph, 10th April 1866 19. Northern Whig, 16th May 1868 20. Northern Whig, 3rd May 1869 21. Belfast Newsletter, 1st March 1870 22. Belfast Telegraph, 15th November 1873 23. Belfast Telegraph, 26th October 1875 24. Freeman’s Journal, 5th February 1880 25. Belfast Newsletter, 5th February 1880 26. Belfast Newsletter, 9th February 1880 27. PRONI Wills, Richard Bell, died 5th February 1880 28. Belfast Newsletter, 4th March 1881 29. PRONI Wills, Richard Bell, died 30th July 1885 30. Armagh Standard, 18th June 1886 31. Northern Whig, 20th August 1886 32. Belfast Weekly News, 9th June 1888 33. Newry Telegraph, 5th January 1889 34. Lisburn Standard, 19th January 1889 35. PRONI Wills Edward Harris Clarke, died 14th January 1889 36. Newry Telegraph, 3rd April 1890 37. Newry Telegraph, 8th July 1890 38. Ulster Echo, 30th April 1895 39. Northern Whig, 27th June 1896 40. PRONI Wills, Jean Baptiste Gustave Lefevre, died 1st September 1897 41. Northern Whig, 30th September 1898 42. PRONI Wills, Lucy Lefevre, died 4th February 1899 43. Northern Whig, 7th February 1908 44. Belfast Newsletter, 4th July 1913 45. Belfast Weekly Telegraph, 20th September 1913 46. Strabane Weekly News, 31st July 1915 47. NMNI Hogg Collection, BELUM.Y2401 and 2402, dated 1916, images of E & W Pim shop 48. Belfast Telegraph, 13th July 1916 49. PRONI Wills, Edward Wakefield Pim, died 11th April 1919 50. Larne Times, 19th April 1919 (obituary with photo of E W Pim) 51. Larne Times, 25th December 1926 52. Belfast Newsletter, 19th October 1928 53. PRONI Wills, William Baptist Gamble, died 10th December 1928 54. Northern Whig, 13th June 1930 55. Northern Whig, 6th September 1952 Secondary Sources: 56. Carleton, Samuel Trevor (1967) The Growth of South Belfast. Unpublished MPhil thesis, Queen’s University Belfast 57. Dictionary of Irish Architects (www.dia.ie) 58. Dixon, Hugh (1978). Honouring Thomas Jackson, 1807-1890. Belfast Natural History and Philosophical Society. Proceedings and Reports. 2nd Series. Vol 9, pp.23-31 59. Pim, Edward Wakefield. (1895) Sketch of the rise and progress of the water supply to Belfast: with some extracts relative to the origin of the Charitable Society. Belfast: Belfast City and District Water Commissioners. 60. Simpson Noel (1975). The Belfast Bank 1817-1970. Belfast: Blackstaff Press Ltd on behalf of Northern Bank Ltd.

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

Historic Interest

R. Age S. Authenticity X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Mid Victorian, built circa 1860, no 86 forms the northern part of a group of three buildings which are delineated on the earlier maps as 'Elmwood Terrace'. This group is a fine surviving example of a three storey over basement terrace on one of the main arterial routes into Belfast and on the axial approach to the Queen's Conservation Area. Constructed in brick with decorative diaper pattern to walling below eaves, the terrace is located on the southern side of the Lisburn Road at the junction with Elmwood Avenue. No 86 is of significance for the level of retention of historic fabric, both internally and externally with good brick detailing, historic sash windows, staircase, plasterwork, good joinery, basement arrangement with stone steps and original metal railings and front boundary walling in brick with stone dressings to coping. This mid-Victorian terrace, home to the mercantile classes for decades, and latterly converted to commercial premises as the demographic of the Lisburn Road has changed, has survived in an area where several terraces of a similar age have not (e.g. Queen’s Elms, Royal Terrace, Cranbrook Terrace, Wilmont Terrace (north)). The terrace is of a style characteristic of its date, the decorative details in the cornices, doorways, and ironwork and the segmental window heads and barrel-roofed dormers distinguishing it from the terraces of an earlier era, while the overall composition is nonetheless restrained when compared to later Victorian designs. The fact that the terrace was never completed speaks to the history of the ‘Elmwood’ estate on which it was built and perhaps also to the vicissitudes and hubris of Victorian banking in Belfast with its unfinished gable and 'hanging' fireplaces. The state of preservation of the terrace is otherwise overall unusually good and the building contributes significantly to the local streetscape, standing out among the surviving Victorian terraces which characterise this part of South Belfast. As part of the collective building group, no 86 is an important surviving remnant of a coherent ensemble on this stretch of the Lisburn Road.

General Comments

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Date of Survey

17 April 2024