Historic Building Details

HB Ref No:
HB26/28/017 A

Address :
7 COLLEGE GARDENS BELFAST BT9 6BQ

Townland:
Malone Lower

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Survey 2:
B1

Date of Listing:
27/09/1979 00:00:00

Date of De-listing:

Current Use:
House - Terrace

Former Use
House - Terrace

Conservation Area:
Yes

Industrial Archaeology:
No

Vernacular:
No

Thatched:
No

Monument:
No

Derelict:
No

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OS Map No:
147/1SE

IG Ref:
J3336 7256

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Owner Category

Exterior Description And Setting

End of terrace three-storey double fronted red brick late Victorian town house, built 1877 to designs by William Batt, architect. Part of a block of four, including No.8, 9 and 10 College Gardens (HB26.28.017B, C & D), symmetrical on plan and elevation with No.7 mirrored by No.10, both at gable ends with narrower properties No.8 & 9 between. No. 7 is first house from east end of College Gardens, a tree-lined street of similarly scaled townhouses running from Malone Road to Lisburn Road and within Queens Conservation Area; the buildings face south and overlook the grounds of Methodist College. Two-storey gabled return built at half-landing level to rear (N); flat roofed three-storey stair enclosure (raised from two-storey) at re-entrant angle of return; and separate single storey building to rear yard, c.1960s. Building currently used as student accommodation. Natural slate roof (Bangor Blue) with black clay ridge tiles. Large red brick chimney centred on gable of main roof with corbelled cap in brick specials and eight circular red clay pots; similar chimney at opposite side with sixteen pots (shared with No.8); smaller red brick chimney centred on gable of return with two octagonal yellow clay pots. Projecting stone eaves and corbelled brick specials (roll edged dentils on cogging and stretcher courses); similar corbelled brick verge detail, carried across base of chimney. Materials ROOF: Natural slate RWG: Cast iron (S); uPVC (N & return). WALLS: Red brick walling in Flemish bond with blue brick string and alternating soldier courses. WINDOWS: Single glazed double hung single glazed sliding sash with 1/1 panes (main building) and 2/2 panes (return), unless otherwise described. Front Elevation (S): Facing south, with central entrance flanked by projecting bays: that to left (W) squared and full-height with two windows per floor, shouldered at second floor and terminating in hipped roof with decorative cast iron rail and finials to platform ridge; and that to right (E) canted and two-storey with lead roof. Projecting rubble-stone (type?) base plinth with chamfered blue brick top; dressed sandstone cills and lintels continued as two string courses of blue brick with red course between; stop-chamfered reveals. Round-arched central entrance formed in red and blue soldier courses alternating in threes with dressed sandstone hood mould and label stops; plain fanlight over square headed panelled timber double doors, flanked by grey marble colonnettes with dressed sandstone capitals, collar and base on toothed quoins. Carved foliage detail to label stops, base and capitals. Alternating blue and red brick soldier course repeated as segmental relieving arches to windows above door and at ground and first floor to squared bay; hoods formed in angled blue bricks. Ground floor window to middle of bay has leaded glass to lower sash. Rear Elevation (N): North elevation overlooks Elmwood Mews; largely symmetrical with two-storey gabled return, centrally placed; flat roofed stair enclosure to left; one window with 2/2 panes at each ground and first floor to main building either side of return; and three windows at second floor with 1/1 panes. Plainly detailed compared to main building: shallower stone cills; red brick soldier coursed above windows, and projecting headers at eaves. Brick chimney to gable end of return; clipped eaves and single window offset to right at first floor; otherwise blank. Flat roofed projection has one casement window at each floor above ground: metal framed to first and timber framed to second. East Elevation: Comprised of three parts: gable end to main building, flat-roofed stair enclosure and side elevation to return. Gable: less formal than front elevation, but detailed similarly, including blue brick string courses and hood moulds and sandstone cills and lintels; three openings each to ground and first floor (that to middle bricked up on ground floor) and two windows at second floor; tall red brick chimney with two-stage stack and corbelled eaves on scrolled brackets (brick specials) centred on ridge. Bricked up opening to middle of ground floor probably led to original glass conservatory - shown on Batt's Illustration of 1978 published in Irish Builder; footprint of same appears on Ordinance Survey maps up to the 1920s. Ground floor window to left (S) has leaded glass to lower sash and that to right has obscured glass. Timber casement windows to second floor centred on gable with that to right offset from its original position; otherwise windows as described above. Stair enclosure has one opening per floor (not aligned) all with concrete lintels and cills: flush painted door to ground; small timber framed single glazed casement window with top hung night vent to first floor and same to second floor with metal frame; lighter brick to uppermost level suggests later addition; uPVC gutter on rise-and-fall brackets discharges to uPVC downpipe. Return: plainly detailed as rear elevation with three windows at ground and two at first floor, informally arranged. West elevation: No.8 abuts west elevation of main building; west face of return detailed as east face. Two windows at ground floor (2/2 panes) with flush modern door between and two windows at first floor (1/1 panes); all offset to right (S) and informally arranged. Evidence of former door bricked up to left – soldier coursed header remains. Set back from tree-lined street by front lawn and mature hedging on south side of College Gardens, building forms end of terrace to block of similar town houses, rectangular on plan and aligned E-W parallel to road. Gate opens to College Gardens with tarmac surfaced path to side of house. Gable end overlooks access to Elmwood Mews, shared alley running full length of College Gardens and connected to Elmwood Avenue. Hedging returns E and joins red brick wall with rubble-stone base; taller to N end and divided into five equal segmental arches formed in three alternating soldier courses of each red and blue brick with angled blue brick hood and precast concrete coping. Red brick walling in English Garden Wall bond and rounded terracotta cap (missing in part) divides yard from No.8 and along S boundary; small section replaced with smooth modern brick toward SE corner. Square brick enclosure within yard at reverse side of modern brick; roofless. Lean-to outhouses with artificial slate roof, red brick walling and sheeted timber doors (painted) to reverse side of S boundary wall, in line with return.

Architects

Batt, William

Historical Information

Background - College Gardens (originally ‘College Gardens Avenue’) is located on land which prior to the early 19th century had been one of the series of strip farms running from what is now the Malone and University Roads to the Bog Meadows. Probably laid out in early 1600s, the integrity of these was broken up by the cutting of the Lisburn Road in 1816-19 and the construction of the Ulster Railway in 1837-39. Around the same time, greater security of tenure from the Donegall estate lead to the gentrification of what remained of these farms with the building of small country villas (many of which were simply older houses upgraded) and the laying out of small demesnes within the plots formerly farmed. The land to the immediate north and south of College Gardens belonged to such a villa, ‘Vermont’, a pre-1770 house, possibly rebuilt or enlarged c.1815 and enlarged again c.1840s – on this occasion by John Riddell, a Belfast ironmonger. The building of Queen’s College a short distance to the north-east in 1845 sparked the suburbanisation of the area, and in 1865 Vermont itself was sold for the building of another educational establishment, Methodist College. The latter was completed in 1868 and a new private avenue laid out the lower ground to the immediate north, with building plots on the northern side. Beginning at the eastern end, present nos.1-6 were constructed in 1871, nos.7-18 in 1877, no.33 and 34 in 1879, 19-22 in 1881, 23-26 in 1882 and 27-32 in 1883. No.7 This property forms part of a symmetrical terrace of four large townhouses (now largely student accommodation), built in 1877 to designs by William Batt for merchant John H. Atkinson, on one of the ‘building sites’ in this ‘healthy and fashionable locality’ advertised early in that year as suitable for ‘high-class’ residences. Atkinson himself was the original occupant of no.7, and in the 1901 census his household is noted as consisting of his wife, Hannah, their three grown-up children, three domestic servants, a boarder and two ‘visitors’ (i.e. House guests), the house itself a 1st class dwelling with 16 rooms in use by the family. The Atkinsons were followed c.1915 by E.A. Boas, ‘of Loopbridge Weaving Co.’, who in turn was succeeded by Prof. P.T. Crymble, a surgeon, (c.1927-c.90). At some point after this (possibly early 1980s) the property was converted to its present use as a students’ residence. No.7 College Gardens was listed in Sept 1979. An LBC application was submitted in June 2006 to replace the roof and RWGs and to replace sash windows to the rear. Grant aid was awarded for repair works to front windows, stone, brickwork, and RWGs in 2011. References – Primary sources 1 PRONI VAL12B/43D/7 annual valuation revision book, 1862-82 2 ‘Belfast News-Letter’, 3, January 1877, 23 March 1878 3 ‘Irish Builder’, [?] June 1878 [Illustration of nos.7-10 College Gardens] 4 ‘Belfast and Province of Ulster Street Directory’, (Belfast News-Letter, Belfast), various dates from 1880 to 1996 5 PRONI VAL12B/43D/14 annual valuation revision book, 1882-96 6 PRONI OS8/30/3/49 OS town plan of Belfast, 1883-84 7 PRONI OS8/30/4/49 OS town plan of Belfast, 1896 8 PRONI VAL12B/43A/36 annual valuation revision book, 1897-1905 9 PRONI VAL7B/14/15 valuation of Belfast, c.1900-01 10 Census of Ireland, 1901, 1911 [online - http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/] 11 PRONI OS8/30/5/49 OS town plan of Belfast, 1903 12 PRONI VAL12B/43P/3 valuation book, 1906-15 13 PRONI VAL12B/43P/7 valuation book, 1916-30 14 OS maps, 1958, 1970 (online - http://www.centremapslive.co.uk/) Secondary sources 1 Carleton, S.T., ‘The growth of South Belfast’, (unpublished QUB MA thesis), 1967 2 Rowan, A.J. And Brett, C.E.B., Historic Buildings…Queens University of Belfast, (Belfast, UAHS, revised ed. 1980)

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 V. Authorship X. Local Interest

Evaluation

End of terrace three-storey double fronted red brick late Victorian town house with gabled return, built 1877 to designs by William Batt, architect. The first in a tree-lined street of similarly scaled townhouses running from Malone Road to Lisburn Road; the buildings face south and overlook the grounds of Methodist College. Part of the earliest block of four, No.7 has group value No.8, 9 and 10 College Gardens (HB26.28.017B, C & D). Symmetrical and well proportioned with polychromatic brick detailing and sandstone embellishment to the front façade and gable end, it is a good example of late Victorian domestic architecture. Now subdivided for student accommodation, the plan form is altered slightly but much original interior fabric remains. Stone entrance steps, dwarf walling and lawned garden to the front and brick-arched walls and out-houses to the rear add significant character to its setting within the Queens Conservation Area.

General Comments

Date of Survey

13 December 2016