Historic Building Details

HB Ref No:
HB26/28/023

Address :
33 COLLEGE GARDENS BELFAST BT9 6BT

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:
Office

Former Use
Rectories/ Manses etc

Conservation Area:
Yes

Industrial Archaeology:
No

Vernacular:
No

Thatched:
No

Monument:
No

Derelict:
No

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OS Map No:
147/1SW

IG Ref:
J3313 7267

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Owner Category

Exterior Description And Setting

Detached three-storey former Victorian manse, built 1879 with double hipped roof, heavy eaves, painted rendered walling and sliding sash windows. Located at corner of Lisburn Road and College Gardens, a tree-lined street of terraced townhouses within Queens Conservation Area. Although not as tall as these terraced houses, No.33 reads as a bookend with fenestration to both College Gardens and Lisburn Road sides. Former porter’s lodge to Methodist College (HB26 28 024) sits immediately to SW. Substantial extension to north added c.2006, which almost doubles the footprint of the building. Extension comprised of three storeys with attic and designed by Hugh Morrison to match the original building in height and detailing- it is not included in the description below. Architect unknown (original building). Currently used as offices. Natural slate roof with red clay tiled hips and ridge. Large rectangular plan rendered chimney, centred on ridge with moulded cornice and string course and moulded panelling below; no pots remain as chimney is capped with lead flashing. Conservation roof light to west-facing roof pitch at shallow recess between new and old. Projecting moulded eaves and on plain frieze band with moulded string courses above and below to south and west elevations, painted. MATERIALS ROOF: Natural slate; flat roofs to canted bays not seen as concealed by parapets RWG: Replacement ogee profiled gutter, likely aluminium; and circular section RWPs with some original cast iron fixings; uPVC hopper and downpipes from flat roofs WALLS: Smooth rendered masonry with moulded stucco or stone dressings, painted in contrasting colour to walls WINDOWS: Timber framed single glazed double hung with 1/1 sliding sashes and margin panes, unless otherwise stated below. Note: All sliding sash windows have double-glazed secondary windows fitted to inner reveals. Front Elevation (S): Facing south on to College Gardens with vertical emphasis and formally arranged openings. Asymmetrical with entrance to right and single-storey canted bay with raised parapet to left. Two windows each to first and second floors align with ground floor openings and diminish in height. Heavy overhanging eaves as described above. Timber framed four panelled entrance door is replaced but made to resemble double doors with central vertical bead; square headed door frame with plain glass fanlight and ornamental doorcase with stop chamfered reveals flanked by plain pilasters and having deep moulded surround above with keystone and elaborate carved spandrels. Canted bay has continuous projecting plinth with moulded top, projecting moulded cill and cornice. Additional moulded band below cornice appears to be added recently (formed in timber and does not appear on the first survey slides). Windows to canted bay have impost block with moulded surrounds and exaggerated keystones above, all topped by continuous moulded string course – unlike elsewhere, these windows do not have margin panes. Projecting stucco band runs between ground floor openings at impost level (springing point to arches) and features ‘wave’ moulding. Segmental arched first floor windows with plain keystone and moulded and lugged surrounds on projecting moulded cill with corresponding brackets; ‘wave’ moulding to projecting band between windows, as ground floor. Second floor flat-arched windows have matching surrounds, also lugged, with continuous projecting cill course and simpler moulded string course above surrounds. Latter forms base to plain frieze. Cills flashed with lead. West Elevation: Facing onto Lisburn Road and almost equal in prominence to the south facade. Original composition of three bays wide expanded by large extension to left (N) side, which doubles the building’s width from this aspect. Original building (right half) only surveyed. Projecting eaves and cornice, and dressings such as ground and second floor projecting cills and all string courses and moulded bands continue from south elevation, terminating at junction with new extension. Single storey canted bay more or less centrally placed, with single window aligned at each first and second floor above – all matching south elevation. Some historic glass noted to canted bay windows. To left, recessed bay has sliding sash window at ground floor (possibly in place of original door), small square double glazed top hung casement window at each first and second floors with moulded frame and further square frame belowfeaturing blank rendered plaque. To right, walling is plain save for ‘1879’ date plaque in moulded square frame with pediment on scrolled corbels, all supported on projecting moulded sill with corresponding brackets. Rear Elevation (N): Abutted by 2006 extension. East elevation: Blank, rendered smooth and painted with raised parapet to hipped roof. Abutted by single-storey (over basement) red brick flat roofed appendage to No 32 College Gardens (HB26 28 022F). Set back from tree-lined street by dark grey concrete paving blocks along boundary; same blocks used to form shallow step at front entrance and to mark divisions between off-street parking bays in resin bonded gravel. Tarmacadam driveway to left side leads past mature hedging to former porter’s lodge to Lisburn Road side. Dwarf timber posts, stained black, with stainless steel light bollards at regular intervals to boundary with front garden of No32 College Gardens. North and west (Lisburn Road) boundaries have modern galvanised steel railings, enclosing gravel beds and further off-street parking spaces behind. Some remaining sandstone kerbs in front of modern railings, with holes presumably left by original railings now filled in. Sandstone pillars remain at NW and NE corners of site appear to be original; one nearest to Lisburn Road is much eroded; other retains moulded cap. Boundary to Elmwood Mews marked by metal palisade fencing that encloses yard also shared by No30, 31 & 32 College Gardens.

Architects

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 (or upgrading of existing structures) to create small country villas 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 of this. 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.33 This property was built in 1879 as the manse for University Road Methodist Church. Rev. Joseph McKay was the first occupant, followed in c.1883 by Rev. William Gorman, Rev. John O. Park in c.1886, Rev. Wesley Guard (c.1889), Rev. William Gorman (c.1891), Rev. W. Nicholas (c.1894), Rev. Charles Inwood (c.1896), and Rev. William Gorman once again in c.1898. By 1901 Rev. Charles Inwood was back in residence and in the census of that year he is recorded as living there with his wife, Emma Jane, their four children and a domestic servant, with the house itself a ‘first class’ dwelling with 12 rooms in use by the family. Rev. W.H. Smyth had replaced Rev. Inwood by 1907. He was succeeded c.1909 by Rev. Pierce Martin, who in the 1911 census was occupying the house with his wife. Rose Edith, their three grown-up daughters and a domestic servant. By 1918 Rev. H. McKeag was in residence, but sometime between this date and 1924 the property ceased to act as a manse, with J.M. Johnston, an undertaker, named as the householder in the latter year, V.G.L. Fielden, an ophthalmic surgeon, by 1932, and at some point in the later 1940s became the offices of Rose, Stevenson & Sons, quantity surveyors, who retained the building until c.1990. In 2001 an L-shaped single-storey lean-to return to the rear, (which map evidence suggests was added –either in part or in whole - before 1902), was demolished. In 2006 work commenced on a major refurbishment scheme which included the building of a large full-height extension to the rear, practically doubling the footprint of the building. This work was completed the following year, but a fire in February 2008 entailed additional work, including the installation of a new stair and the replacement of much of the roof. 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 ‘Belfast and Province of Ulster Street Directory’, (Belfast News-Letter, Belfast), various dates from 1880 to 1996 4 PRONI VAL12B/43D/14 annual valuation revision book, 1882-96 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 7 PRONI VAL12B/43A/36 annual valuation revision book, 1897-1905 8 PRONI VAL7B/14/15 valuation of Belfast, c.1900-01 9 Census of Ireland, 1901, 1911 [online - http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/] 10 PRONI OS8/30/5/49 OS town plan of Belfast, 1903 11 PRONI VAL12B/43P/3 valuation book, 1906-15 12 PRONI VAL12B/43P/7 valuation book, 1916-30 13 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 H-. Alterations detracting from building J. Setting

Historic Interest

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

Evaluation

Detached three-storey former Victorian manse, built 1879 with double hipped roof, heavy eaves, painted rendered walling and sliding sash windows with margin panes. Architect unknown (original). Located at corner of Lisburn Road and College Gardens, a tree-lined street of terraced townhouses within Queens Conservation Area, the manse served University Road Methodist Church (HB26.28.006), a short distance away. As such it has social and cultural importance with likely connections to Methodist College (HB26.28.026 & 27), directly opposite. The substantial extension to north added c.2006 almost doubles its footprint - designed by Hugh Morrison to match the height and detailing of the original building. Currently used as offices, the interior fabric was largely replaced following fire damage in 2008. Nonetheless, the exterior remains well proportioned and finely detailed and although not as tall as the rows of terraced houses on College Gardens, No.33 reads as a distinctive bookend. Stone pillars at the NE and NW ends of the site further enhance the character of its setting.

General Comments

Date of Survey

08 August 2017