Historic Building Details

HB Ref No:
HB26/01/019 C

Address :
551 Ormeau Road BELFAST BT7 3JA

Townland:
Ballynafoy

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Survey 2:
B1

Date of Listing:
19/08/1986 00:00:00

Date of De-listing:

Current Use:
House - Terrace

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:
147/6NW

IG Ref:
J3494 7110

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Owner Category

Exterior Description And Setting

Two storey with attic, red brick and render, late Victorian house located on the Ormeau Road a busy arterial road on the south side of Belfast. The area is residential with mainly semi detached red brick houses and some terraces built at the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth. One of a terrace of 9. Materials Roof: Natural slate Walls: Render to ground floor and red brick above RWG: uPVC Windows: Replacement double glazed painted timber with horns The front elevation faces East and has the entrance door to the right with a single storey, flat roofed, canted bay to the left. The door is replacement painted timber with two upper glazed panels - it has plain architraves and a bracketed flat hood. It has the number 3 painted on the over light - this is a reference to the terraces original name, Rosetta Terrace and numbering system. The ground floor is painted smooth render and the upper floor is red clay brick,built in Flemish Bond. Windows are double glazed replacement painted timber - 1/1. The first floor has two 1/1 windows and above there are two bands of glazed blue bricks below a brick cornice comprised of several rows of alternating projecting brickwork. Roof is double pitched natural slate and there is a single pitched roof dormer, with a timber finial, and a round headed 1/1 window. There are two tall red brick chimneys stacks on either side with a single blue brick course below a simplified cornice. As an internal building in the terrace the side walls are party walls with No’s 549 and 553 Ormeau Road. The rear elevation comprises a double return, both two storey with double pitched natural slate roofs and a red clay brick chimney at the gable of each. The rear of the main block has a 1/1 window on the ground floor and a 2/2 window above. Both set in the unpainted lined rendered wall with a pitched roof dormer similar to the front elevation. The main return has a red brick wall facing the narrow yard with a timber door with glazed upper panel and a 2/2 painted timber sliding sash window either side. There are two similar windows to the first floor. This return steps back to join a narrower additional return which originally contained outhouses on the ground floor but which is now part of the internal accommodation. This return has a small top hung window on the ground floor and a full sized 1/1 window above. The end gable of the main return and the whole of the smaller return are finished with unpainted render. The yard covering is historic clay quarry tiles. The internal yard wall has been rebuilt with new clay bricks and has a large opening. Beyond that is a parking space separated from the the rear laneway by a modern timber fence and gate. Setting One of a row of 9 terraced houses set on the West side of Ormeau Road, a main arterial road on the south side of Belfast, 2.5 miles from the centre. No 551, along with the other houses in the terrace has a small front garden the width of the house. It has a straight path built with alternating blue and red clay tiles set in a diamond pattern. The two gate pillars, low boundary walling and railings are modern replacements. Directly opposite is Knockbreda Park and Knockbreda Presbyterian Church.

Architects

Historical Information

Nos.547-63 Ormeau Road - This row, originally known as ‘Rosetta Terrace’ appears in the valuation book in two stages, the four southernmost dwellings (present nos.557-63) completed in 1886 and nos.547-55 the following year. The developer appears to have been one H. Scott, who occupied what is now no.557 and who is noted in the earliest valuations as the immediate lessor. He is listed in contemporary directories as a pawnbroker with premises at 117 Shankill Road, and is presumably the Hugh Scott (or a close relation thereof) who developed much of the south-eastern end of Sunnyside Street in the early 1900s [see HB26.01.009A-U]. The identity of the architect is not known. A letting advert of October 1886 describes one of the properties finished in that year as a ‘large house’ with ‘three reception, five bedrooms, hot and cold water, with all modern improvements; warm, healthy situation, with gardens; trams pass door’, with a subsequent advert of July 1887, relating to the five dwellings finished in that year referring to, ‘those new houses; well finished; two reception rooms on ground floor [and] six bedrooms’. No.551 From the evidence provided by the annual Belfast and Province of Ulster Directories and the valuation books, the original resident appears to have been Benjamin Lindsay (‘chief clerk GPO, Belfast’). In the 1901 census Mr Lindsay, a native of Scotland, is recorded as occupying the property with his wife, Elizabeth, two grown-up daughters and a granddaughter, with a further grandchild and Mrs. Lindsay’s mother, Eliza Gowdy, also noted in that of 1911 and the house itself recorded as a second class dwelling containing nine rooms. The Lindsay family appear to have retained no.551 until c.1963 after which George Brown (‘clerk’) is noted as the householder, with Alan G. Trudgett following him c.1985. The building was listed in 1986. References – Primary sources 1 PRONI OS8/30/2/OS town plan of Belfast, 1871-73 2 Marcus Ward’s ‘Shilling Map of Belfast’, 1879 3 PRONI VAL12B/43A/18, annual valuation revision book, 1882-96 4 PRONI OS8/30/3/59 1883-84 5 Belfast Telegraph, 16 October 1886, 29 July 1887 6 ‘Belfast and Province of Ulster Street Directory’, (Belfast News-Letter, Belfast), various dates from 1890 to 96 7 PRONI OS8/30/4/59 1896 8 PRONI VAL12B/43A/34, annual valuation revision book, 1897-1905 9 Census of Ireland, 1901, 1911 [online] 10 PRONI OS8/30/5/59 1903 11 HED File relating to HB26.01.019A (c.1986- )

Criteria for Listing

Architectural Interest

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

Historic Interest

R. Age S. Authenticity X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Built in 1887 this two storey with attic, late Victorian terraced house, one of a terrace of 9, is situated on the upper Ormeau Road, approximately 2.5 miles from the centre of Belfast. It is well proportioned and detailed with a projecting bay to the front and a decorative brick cornice. The interior layout is intact and contains a wealth of good quality Victorian detailing and was built at a time when Belfast was expanding rapidly from the city centre southwards along the main thoroughfares of the Ormeau, Lisburn and Malone Roads. It has group value with the other houses in this listed brick and rendered terrace - 547 to 563 Ormeau Road – HB26 01 019 A to I..

General Comments

Date of Survey

10 October 2016