Historic Building Details

HB Ref No:
HB26/27/028 J

Address :
16 Upper Crescent Belfast Co Antrim BT7 1NT

Townland:
Malone Lower

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Survey 2:
B+

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:
Yes

Vernacular:
No

Thatched:
No

Monument:
No

Derelict:
Partially

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OS Map No:
147/1

IG Ref:
J3364 7294

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Owner Category

Private

Exterior Description And Setting

Relatively large three storey rendered town house, one of regency style crescent of ten similar, (but not identical) properties built in 1846 and now converted to offices and flats. The grouping, ‘Upper Crescent’, is set to the E of University Road and faces, over a small public park, Lower Crescent- a similar styled development of 1852 which unlike its counterpart is arranged in straight terrace rather than crescent form. This property is set to the east end of the row and is one of the more ornate buildings of the grouping, having large two storey Corinthian columns to front. The front elevation is asymmetrical and faces roughly N. To the left on the ground floor is the entrance, which consists of a recessed timber panelled door with panelled pilaster jambs and rectangular fanlight. Three stone steps to door. To the right of the doorway are two tall plain sash windows, with lower lights boarded up. To the first floor are three larger windows set on a cill course. These have regency style sash frames (horizontally orientated panes- 4/8). To the second floor are three pairs of narrow, semicircular headed sash windows (horizontal glazing bars- 1/2) . These windows rest on a more pronounced (cornice-like) cill course projection with dentillations. The ground floor level is finished in rusticated render, with the upper floors in plain render. Four large, evenly spaced Corinthian ¾ columns span the ground and first floor heights and support a projecting frieze below second floor cill course level. The outer columns are square. Corresponding with these pilasters to the second floor are four panelled pilasters which rise to form parapet piers with a pierced, balustrade-like, parapet between them. The front elevation is painted. The E elevation of the property consists of the gable of the main portion of the house and the face of a two storey return. To the second floor right of the gable is a pair of windows as corresponding floor to front. There is a sash window to right on the first floor of the return (3/3- the upper panes have arched heads). The whole elevation is finished in painted lined render. The rear elevation could not be seen in its entirety. To the right hand (E) side is the two storey gabled return, which is blank. To the left the return merges with another two storey projection, (which has a mono-pitched roof). There is a recent looking broad doorway to the ground floor of the projection, with a Georgian-paned sash window (6/6), to the first floor. Both the gable and the S face of the projection are finished in plain render. The rest of the rear elevation could not be seen. However internal evidence shows that there is one window to left on the rear façade of the main portion of the building, and another to the left on the first floor and to left on the second floor, all with Georgian-paned sash frames. There is another (stairwell) window to left between first and second floors, with a similar frame. The rear façade of the main portion of the building appears to be wholly in brick. To the inner (W) face of the return there is a Georgian-paned sash window to left on the first floor, with two open doorways to the ground floor of the inner (N) face of the projection. Both these faces appear to be largely finished in plain render. The gabled roof is slated. There are two small skylights to rear. There is a tall rendered chimneystack, with projecting coping and uniform pots, to W. The return has a small rendered chimneystack to its gable. Cast iron rw goods.

Architects

Not Known

Historical Information

Upper and Lower Crescent The selling off of much Lord Donegall’s Belfast estate in the early to mid 19th century opened up large areas of land around the town for development. The lands to the south, along the Malone Ridge, were particularly attractive to developers and lead to the building of many the many fine late Georgian style terraces from the mid 1830s onwards, a trend accelerated by the establishment of the prestigious Queen’s College in the area in the later 1840s. These new grand terraces were occupied by Belfast’s professional and business classes, leaving their older residences in the centre of the town, which in turn were gradually turned into shops and offices. Upper Crescent was perhaps the grandest terrace development undertaken to the south of the town, an elegantly curving row of three storey dwellings in a late regency style built in 1846 by timber and shipping merchant Robert Corry. The authorship is uncertain, but Dr Paul Larmour has suggested that the hand of Charles Lanyon may have been involved. Corry himself undertook the building work and took up residence in the house to the east end, and, for the first few years of its existence, the row was known as ‘Corry’s Crescent’. To the immediate south of the Crescent, where the church and small park now is, there was a large lawn which Corry held as a garden. Shortly after this garden was laid out, however, Corry had it ploughed up and used for the cultivation of vegetables for relief of local workers suffering as a result of the Great Famine. To the north of this ran an old water course (which flowed northwards into the ‘Basin’- a reservoir east of the Dublin Road), to the east some smaller gardens (belonging to other occupants of the Crescent) and further to the east and to the north-east, ran Albion Lane, a narrow semi-rural laneway stretching from the north end of Bradbury Place to the east end of the present University Terrace. In 1852 Corry built another terrace to the north of his garden and just south of the old water course. This new development (the erroneously named Lower ‘Crescent’) was much in the same style as that to the south and was occupied by the same mix of professionals and businessmen, though by as early as 1860 the ground floors of some of the properties were used as offices. In the later 1860s a railway line was cut to the immediate north of Lower Crescent (along the line of the old water course), in 1873 the large sandstone building (originally Victoria College for girls) was added to the west end of the terrace, with two houses added to the east end by the close of the decade, the most easterly of which, ‘Rivoli House’, (designed by William Hastings), originally contained a dance academy run by a Frederick Brouneau. The new railway line cut across Albion Lane and presaged the laying out of a new broader thoroughfare, ‘Botanic Avenue’. Upper Crescent also witnessed further building in the 1860s and 70s, with two large William Hastings designed properties erected to the west end in 1869, one of which, Crescent House’ (the present Bank of Ireland) also fronted on to University Road. In 1878-79 two further houses were added to this end, on the ground between those of 1869. In 1885-7 the large Presbyterian church (the present Crescent Church) was erected to plans by Glasgow architect John Bennie Wilson, on the west side of Robert Corry’s former garden, with a two storey terrace, the present ‘Crescent Gardens’, built on the site of smaller garden plots to the to east end in 1898. During the first half of the 20th century most of the properties of Upper and Lower Crescent, as well as Crescent Gardens, remained private dwellings, but by 1960 many were given over to business use others divided into flats, with the former Rivoli House (later named ‘Dreenagh House’) becoming the ‘Regency Hotel’. This trend continued and by the beginning of the 21st century none were occupied as private dwellings. In the mid 1990s three of the 1860s to 70s houses at the west end of Upper Crescent were demolished and a modern office block built in their place, whilst in 2000 the railway cutting to the south of Lower Crescent was built over, in preparation for a new development. No.16 Upper Crescent As stated above, this house was originally occupied by Robert Corry, the man responsible for the building of both Upper and Lower Crescent. Corry’s family remained there until the 1880s at least. In 1899 the house is listed in the directory as vacant, but was occupied by one A.P. Shepard in 1910, who was succeeded a Miss Shepard [presumably his daughter, granddaughter or niece] by 1920. The latter remained in residence until the 1950s. After this [c.1955] the building and its two neighbours to the west (nos.14 and 15) served as the ‘Ulster Nature Cure Clinic’. In the 1960s all three were a acquired by near by Queen’s University and converted to student residences. It was probably at this point that the major internal changes to the buildings were carried out, however, one suspects that the earlier presence of the Ulster Nature Cure Clinic probably entailed some alterations, perhaps the creation of doorways between the formerly separate properties. References- Primary sources 1 ‘Henderson’s Belfast Directory’ [later ‘Belfast & Province of Ulster Directory’], 1849- 2 PRONI VAL/2B/7/1d Second valuation, Belfast, 1860 3 PRONI VAL/2D/7/43a Second valuation town plan of Belfast sh 43a, 1860 4 PRONI VAL/2D/7/43b Annual valuation revision town plan of Belfast, sh 43b, 1860-95 5 PRONI VAL/12B/43a/1-10 Annual valuation revision notebooks, Cromac Ward, Belfast, 1863-82 6 PRONI OS/8/30/2/43 OS town plan of Belfast, sh 43, 1871-73 7 PRONI OS/8/30/2/49 OS town plan of Belfast, sh 49, 1871-73 8 PRONI OS/8/30/3/43 OS town plan of Belfast, sh 43, 1883-84 9 PRONI OS/8/30/3/49 OS town plan of Belfast, sh 49, 1883-84 10 PRONI OS/8/30/3/49 OS town plan of Belfast, sh 49, 1894-95 Secondary sources 1 S.T. Carleton, ‘The growth of south Belfast’ (QUB MA thesis, 1967) 2 John Caughey, ‘Seize then the hour- A history of James P. Corry & Co. Ltd…’ (Belfast, 1974), pp.28-29 3 David Evans, ‘Historic buildings…Queen’s University’ (revised ed., 1980), p.11 4 Alison Jordan, ‘Margaret Byers, pioneer of women’s education…’ (QUB Inst. of Irish Studies, ?1988)

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

X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Relatively large and fine three storey rendered town house, one of regency style crescent of ten similar, (but not identical) properties built in 1846 and now converted to offices and flats; this property is set to the west end of the row and is one of the more ornate buildings of the grouping, having large two storey Corinthian columns to front.

General Comments

Date of Survey

31 January 2002