Historic Building Details

HB Ref No:
HB26/27/015 T

Address :
20 University Square Belfast BT7 1NN

Townland:
Malone Lower

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Survey 2:
B2

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

Date of De-listing:

Current Use:
University/ College Building - 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:
147/1NE

IG Ref:
J3362 7284

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Owner Category

Exterior Description And Setting

Three storey with attic, four bay, red brick, mid terraced former townhouse, now altered on ground floor level and extended at the rear to accommodate Queen’s Film Theatre (QFT). Part of the ground floor and all of the upper floors are now integrated into No 21 University Square (HB26/27/015U), and are used as university offices for the School of Creative Arts at Queen’s University and are only accessible via No 21. However, this report describes No 20 as it was originally designed. The terrace was built in stages between 1848-1853 with No 20 constructed in 1848-49. While University Square was laid out by Charles Lanyon, the architect of the actual terrace is unconfirmed. Fronting onto University Square in South Belfast, which links University Road on the west and Botanic Avenue on the east, the terrace faces south and overlooks the Old Library (now QUB Student Graduate Centre – HB26/27/002) and the grounds of the northern end of The Lanyon Building (HB26/27/005). No 20 is located towards the east end of the street, one of a row of 30 former houses and is flanked by No 19 (HB26/27/021S) on the west and No 21 (HB26/27/021U) on the east. No 20 is abutted at the rear by a four storey return built at half landing height which is in turn abutted by a single storey return. Single storey flat-roofed extensions wrap around these returns and along with further modern buildings to the rear, form external courtyards and alleyways between the buildings. Materials: Roof: Natural Welsh slate (replacement) Walls: Red brick in Flemish bond Windows: Front (S) - Timber sliding sash, single-glazed, horns to GF & FF only (likely replacement) Rear (N) & returns - timber sliding sash, single-glazed Dormer window to rear – timber sliding sash, single-glazed RWGs: Hidden parapet gutter to roof, painted metal (S) / Painted metal to rear Front Elevation (S): Three storey with attic, four bay, mid terraced, red brick facade built in Flemish bond with the entrance on left side of ground floor. Single window opening to right side of door and a single storey bay window to right side of latter on ground floor level. Bay window is painted render with arched window openings to the canted sides and a wider shouldered arched window opening to the central section. Window surrounds have stucco detailing, decorative stucco keystones and engaged foliated capitals at shoulder height with plaster panelling below. Moulded cornice above windows below plain parapet with painted stone coping. Flat roof to bay. Four regularly spaced window openings above on both first and second floor levels beneath plain rendered plinth and corbelled painted stone cornice with lead to parapet edges. Pitched natural Welsh slate roof with red clay ridge tiles, brick chimney (rebuilt) with corbel detailing and seven yellow clay pots to left side, no chimney on right side. Pitched roof dormer windows to both left and right sides of roof with lead cheeks and natural slate roofs with red clay ridge tiles, paired 1/1 timber sliding sash windows to each. On ground floor level the doorway has an elliptical arched head with brick voussoirs and moulded plaster reveal, deeply recessed with fluted columns with Doric-type capitals to each side. The columns support a plain painted rendered entablature with moulded cornice, “QUEEN’S FILM THEATRE” written across entablature. Spoked fanlight (likely painted timber) with plain glass panes. Panelled painted timber door, possibly replacement. Replacement ironmongery. Low plinth walls either side of front door are replacement brick with reconstituted stone coping stones. Doorway appears to have been relocated from centre of façade to left hand side as the brickwork above the window the left side of the bay window has been patched. All windows to front are timber sliding sash, single glazed, have splayed brick heads (possibly replacement); single window opening to ground floor is 1/1, windows to bay are 1/1, separate painted stone cills; four 1/1 windows to FF over continuous painted stone cill course; four 6/6 windows to SF (some historic glass apparent) with separate painted stone cills. Hidden parapet gutter to roof, likely to be formed in lead. Painted metal downpipe with metal hopper to LHS of front door and same from left side of bay window. Five replacement reconstituted stone steps from street level leading to landing of reconstituted stone paving slabs. Modern metal railings either side of steps. Small garden to front with shrubs. Flemish bond low brick boundary wall to street (not original) with reconstituted stone coping beneath replacement painted metal railings. Side elevation (W): Fully abutted by No 19 (HB26/27/021S) on the west side. Side elevation (E): Fully abutted by No 21 (HB26/27/021U) on the east side. Rear Elevation (N): Main rear elevation is painted render and three storeys high with attic. It is abutted at approximate centre by a four storey return with hipped roof built at half landing height, and further abutted by a single storey return with hipped roof. Both returns have natural Welsh slate hipped roof with red clay ridge tiles. Single storey flat-roofed extensions wrap around these returns and along with further modern buildings to the rear, form external courtyards and alleyways to the rear of Nos 20 – 24 University Square. The main rear elevation is exposed to first and second floors only on either side of the rear return; on left side (between the rear returns of No 20 & 21) is a single window opening on each level; same openings on right side of rear return. Pitched roof dormer to attic level on left side only. The side and rear elevations of the four storey rear return are exposed to first, second and third floors only; East (side) face has two openings on first floor, both with 6/6 windows, a single opening with a 2/2 window to second floor and a single opening with a 1/1 window to third floor; North (rear) face is blank with an advanced vertical chimney to centre; West (side) face has a single window opening to right side on first floor with a 3/6 window, two window openings to second floor, both with 2/2 windows, and two window openings to third floor – 1/1 on left side and 2/2 on right. Single door opening in rear (north) wall of single storey flat roof extension (between the rear returns of No 20 & 21) with modern metal louvered door. All walls to rear are painted render, with a painted rendered plinth. All windows to rear are timber sliding sash, likely replacement. All windows to the rear have plain reveals and appear to have painted stone cills. Rainwater goods are painted metal, guttering supported on metal rise & fall brackets. Soil vent pipe is plastic. A rear alleyway is located at the North end, enclosed on the north side by modern buildings (also part of QFT and School of Creative Arts at QUB) which back onto University Square Mews.

Architects

Historical Information

As its name suggests, University Square was one of a number of streets created as a direct consequence of the construction of Queen’s College in 1845-49. Set immediately north of the College’s grounds, the street (originally intended to be named ‘Victoria Square’) was laid out in c.1847 under the direction of the designer of the college itself, Charles Lanyon, on land set aside for development by then owner, Jane Gregg. The rear (northern) ends of the house plots followed an already established boundary of a garden belonging to a pre-1832 residence whose integrity had begun to be broken up by the building of present nos.2-6 Mount Charles in 1842, nos.42-48 University Road in 1846-48, and, around the same time, the creation of what was to become University Street. The new thoroughfare was mainly populated by large, generally similar but not entirely uniform, three-storey late-Georgian style brick-built terraced dwellings, nos.18-25 dating from 1848-49, 26-27 built in 1849-51, 4-17 in 1852, 28-30 in 1852-53, with the High Victorian nos.1-3 (on the site of three pre-1837 dwellings) following in 1871. Although Lanyon determined the layout, there is no indication that he was actually involved in the design of the houses themselves. Building agreements dating from 1847 state that the frontages were to be based on Glenfield Place, a terrace then being built on Ormeau Road (present nos.121-35 - HB26/27/007A-H). The architect behind the latter is not known, but Paul Larmour has suggested that the University Square properties derived from it were the work of the prolific Belfast-based architect Thomas Jackson. So far no documentary evidence has surfaced to confirm this, but both the style of the buildings, and the fact that Jackson was later to be responsible for nos.1-3, suggest he may well have been involved with whole terrace. That said, many of the interiors have odd layout quirks (for example most of the entrances are awkwardly off-centre when viewed from their respective hallways), which seems uncharacteristic of Jackson. The broad unity of nos.4-30 was broken in 1865 when the single-storey canted bay was added to no.19, with a two-storey version built on no.23 before 1873, similar projections appearing on nos.20 and 22 by 1883, and several others following suit in the early 1900s - some canted (nos.7 and 11) and some rounded (nos.12, 14 and 30); most of the dormers appear to be of the early 1900s also, as does the pebbledash to no.20. The mid to later 20th century witnessed changes to the rears of many of the properties, with extensions of various sizes added to many, in particular Queen’s Film Theatre at the rear of no.20, which started out in 1968 in a lecture hall addition but which, following several rebuilds (the most recent and most extensive in c.2004), has spread into what were the formerly the back gardens of a significant number of its neighbours to either side. The whole terrace underwent a major renovation in c.1990-94, with the small front gardens landscaped and adapted for disabled access c.2004. The street was populated in its early years by a mixture of Queen’s academics and those well-off Belfast merchants and professionals wishing to escape the confines of the rapidly commercialising town centre for more sedate surrounds. By c.1920 the terrace was largely occupied by medical men and their families, but with the opening up of ‘education for all’ in the late 1940s, the properties were gradually acquired by Queen’s for use by their growing range of departments. By 1960 the University had taken possession of around two-thirds of the buildings, was occupying all bar one by 1974, with all coming into QUB use by the mid-1980s. To the rear of the terrace two mews houses are noted from c.1880 onwards, one of which remained occupied as a private dwelling up until the 1960s. Both have since demolished to make way for QUB extensions. No.20 was one of University Square’s original eight houses, being built in 1848-49 along with the present nos.18-19 and 21-25, with this property along with neighbouring no.19 originally sharing a long stable block at the far end of their respective rear gardens. Rev. W.D. Killen, is noted as the occupant in the 1850 street directory remaining there until c.1868 with James Thomson (‘Professor, Queen’s College’) named as householder in the 1870 street directory. The property is noted as vacant by the valuers in 1873, but by 1877 John A. Arnold, ‘Merchant clothier’ was in residence, with Mrs. Arnold named as the occupant from 1880. Mrs. Workman succeeded her in c.1888, with architect J.J. Philips moving in c.1895 and remaining until 1898. At some point between 1873 and 1883 the canted bay was added, and the dormers may have been added around the same date. Unfortunately no mention of these changes is made in the valuations. Surgeon Brice Smyth became resident in 1900 and is recorded in the 1901 census as living there with his wife, Elizabeth, and three domestic servants, with the building itself a ‘first class’ dwelling with 15 rooms in use. In 1924 Malcolm B. Smyth, a doctor (and relation of Brice Smyth?) is named as the householder, remaining until c.1938. The property appears to have been left vacant from some years afterwards, but was ‘occupied’ by 1947. By 1951 it had been acquired by Queen’s for use by the University’s Departs of German and of Mathematics. By 1955 both it and neighbouring no.21 had become the ‘Women Students’ Hall’, with both becoming part of the Faculty of Law in c.1972. They were still in use as such in 1980, but are not recorded in the directories from at least 1986 onwards. The building was listed in 1979. The early to mid 1990s refurbishment of the whole terrace witnessed the renewal of no.19’s roof covering and chimney and the building of a single-storey rear extension. In c.2003-04 the existing rear extension was demolished to make way for the enlarged Queen’s Film Theatre, with the interior adapted as the new entrance foyer to the cinema, with part now incorporated into neighbouring no.21. In consequence the existing entrance and window to the left of the canted bay were switched, with the entrance reconstructed as the first opening from the left. Around the same time the front garden adapted for disabled access. References – Primary sources 1 ‘Northern Whig’, 17 March 1849 2 ‘Belfast and Province of Ulster Street Directory’, (Belfast News-Letter, Belfast), various dates from 1852 to 1996 3 PRONI VAL12B/43A/4 annual valuation revision book, c.1861-81 4 PRONI VAL12B/43A/14 annual valuation revision book, 1882-97 5 PRONI OS8/30/3/49 OS town plan of Belfast, 1883-84 6 PRONI OS8/30/4/49 OS town plan of Belfast, 1896 8 PRONI VAL12B/43A/36 annual valuation revision book, 1897-1905 7 Census of Ireland, 1901, 1911 [online - http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/] 8 PRONI OS8/30/5/49 OS town plan of Belfast, 1903 9 PRONI VAL12B/43P/3 valuation book, 1906-15 13 PRONI VAL12B/43P/6 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) 3 David Evans and Paul Larmour, ‘Queen’s an Architectural legacy’, (Belfast, 1995), pp.51-53

Criteria for Listing

Architectural Interest

A. Style B. Proportion C. Ornamentation H-. Alterations detracting from building I. Quality and survival of Interior J. Setting K. Group value

Historic Interest

R. Age Y. Social, Cultural or Economic Importance X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Three storey with attic, four bay, red brick, mid terraced former townhouse, now altered on ground floor level and extended at the rear to accommodate Queen’s Film Theatre (QFT). Part of the ground floor and all of the upper floors are now integrated into No 21 University Square (HB26/27/015U), and are used as university offices for the School of Creative Arts at Queen’s University and are only accessible via No 21. The terrace was built in stages between 1848-1853 with No 20 constructed in 1848-49. While University Square was laid out by Charles Lanyon, the architect of the actual terrace is unconfirmed. The terrace faces south onto University Square in South Belfast and overlooks the Old Library (now QUB Student Graduate Centre – HB26/27/002) and the grounds of the northern end of The Lanyon Building (HB26/27/005). No 20 is located towards the east end of the street, one of a row of 30 former houses and is flanked by No 19 (HB26/27/021S) on the west and No 21 (HB26/27/021U) on the east. Internally there have been changes to the original floor plan, such as the moving of the vestibule from its original central position to the left, however some original features survive to upper floors. The exterior retains much original character, proportions and detailing to the front, however the large flat-roofed modern building to the rear detracts from the rear setting. There is coherence to the terrace despite elevational variations such as bay and bow windows which were added to some of the houses during the late 1800s into the early 1900s. The terrace has strong value as a group (Nos 4-30 University Square - HB26/27/015D-DD) and adds significant character to its setting within the Queen’s Conservation Area.

General Comments

Date of Survey

25 August 2016