Historic Building Details

HB Ref No:
HB26/50/104 B

Address :
5 College Place North Belfast Co Antrim BT1 6BE

Townland:
Town Parks

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Survey 2:
B2

Date of Listing:
19/04/1977 00:00:00

Date of De-listing:

Current Use:
House

Former Use
House

Conservation Area:
Yes

Industrial Archaeology:
No

Vernacular:
No

Thatched:
No

Monument:
No

Derelict:
No

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OS Map No:
130-13

IG Ref:
J3341 7419

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Owner Category

Exterior Description And Setting

Terraced two-storey red brick house, built c.1840, as one of four similar houses. Rectangular on plan facing southeast and located in a cul-de-sac to the north of College Square North. Pitched natural slate roof with black clay ridge tiles, replacement brick chimneystack with clay pots to the north party wall (shared with No.3 HB26/50/004A) and cast-iron guttering on iron brackets to brick eaves course. Red brick walling laid in Flemish bond with cement pointing. Gauged brick flat-arched window openings with painted sandstone sills, rendered reveals and replacement 6/6 timber sash windows. Front elevation is two windows wide with a square-headed door opening to the right having four-panelled timber door with bolection mouldings and rectangular overlight flanked by large plain console brackets supporting a hood cornice. Door opens onto two stone steps to the front pavement with the remains of a plinth wall to the former railed front area. South side elevation abutted by adjoining house No.7 (HB26/50/104C). Rear elevation not seen. North side elevation abutted by adjoining house No.3 (HB26/50/104A). Setting Forming part of a terrace of four similar houses lining the northwest side of College Place North at the entrance to an industrial yard and located to the north of College Square North. Roof: Natural slate RWG: Cast-iron Walling: Red brick Windows : timber

Architects

Not Known

Historical Information

No. 5 College Place North, a two-storey terraced dwelling, dates from c. 1840 and is an example of late-Georgian / early-Victorian housing to survive intact in Belfast city centre. Together with the adjoining nos 3-9 (HB26/50/104A-D) and nos 11-13 (HB26/50/105A-B), No. 5 College Place North was constructed by the second edition of the Belfast Ordnance Survey map in 1858. The terrace was not depicted on the first edition (1832-33) which shows that the area lay vacant; at that time Belfast’s development was focused to the north and south-east, however with the opening of the Royal Belfast Academical Institution (HB 26/50/023) in 1814 and the increase in population with the Victorian period, the construction of terraced streets to the west of Belfast’s centre accelerated. Griffith’s Valuation (1860) records that nos 3-13 College Place North were owned by a Mr. Thomas McCammon. A tanner, leather merchant and flour miller, McCammon operated his business from a tannery factory on 23 King Street (directly to the north of College Place North) and was also the lessor of a number of other dwellings in the area (Belfast Street Directories). Griffith’s Valuation records that McCammon leased No. 5 College Place North to a Mr. John Ireland and that the property he occupied was valued at £9. Ireland was employed in the textile industry and manufactured sewed muslim, a popular fabric in the mid-19th century. The Annual Revisions continued to record John Ireland as occupant of No. 5 College Place North until at least 1868 when he was last recorded in the Belfast Street Directories. In 1877 and 1880 the address was occupied by Samuel Saunders, a local foreman and copper worker, however the Annual Revisions continued to record Ireland as tenant throughout this period. In 1900 the Belfast Revaluation recorded that the terrace had come into the ownership of a Mr. Samuel Gibson, a druggist and general merchant who owned properties on King Street (Belfast Street Directories); the terrace was revalued and No. 5 College Place North was increased in value to £10 10s. And let at an annual rent of £17. The revaluation did not include any specific details concerning No. 5 College Place North, however it was undoubtedly similar to the adjoining nos 7 and 9 which were described as two-storey dwellings of approximately 50 years in age, heated by gas and contained five rooms (excluding a kitchen). By 1901 No. 5 College Place North was occupied by a Mr. James Boyd whom the Census records was employed as a Master horse shoer. Boyd (53, Presbyterian) resided at the property with his wife Jane (50) and their son Charles (15); the census building return described Boyd’s house as a 2nd class private dwelling that consisted of six inhabited rooms. Boyd and his family vacated No. 5 College Place North by the 1911 Census which recorded a Mr. John Brady as occupant. Brady (66, Church of Ireland) was a retired Boiler Maker and lived with his wife Margaret Jane (64). John Brady died in 1911 at which time the property passed to new tenants (Belfast Burial Records); by 1918 No. 5 College Place North was occupied by a Mr. J. W. Stilling, a reed maker; however the Annual Revisions continued to record John Brady as occupant after his death until their cancellation in 1930. By the First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1935) No. 5 College Place North had been adjusted in value to £14 10s. By that time the two-storey dwelling had come into the possession of a Mr. John Hall whose family continued to reside at the address by the Second General Revaluation which commenced in 1956; by the end of the revaluation in 1972 the house was slightly decreased in value to £14 and was occupied by a Mr. Or Mrs. E. Hall. Brett, writing in 1985, described nos 3-13 College Place North as ‘enchanting little two-storey mid-Georgian houses [which] cannot be earlier than 1832 … they are real jewels with glazing bars all intact, 3 and 5 with their original fanlights;’ however this Georgian date is too early as the terrace was most likely constructed c. 1840-50 during the Victorian development of the area surrounding College Square and most certainly had not been constructed by the 1832-33 Ordnance Survey map (Brett, p. 20). It is clear that College Place North was constructed as part of the development of the increasingly fashionable residential area surrounding the Royal Belfast Academical Institution; a report compiled by the Historic Buildings Branch in 1992 stated that College Place North was erected as ‘mews houses for the servants working in the great houses fronting onto [College] Square.’ Patton states that the terrace was once blocked off with a brick wall at the Killen Street end whilst an opposing terrace once stood opposite on the south-west side (now demolished). The terrace remains in the shadow of Neill’s factory which was originally constructed during the famine but was remodelled in the 1880’s by James Neill (Patton, pp 71-72). The terrace was listed in 1977 on the grounds that they represented rare surviving examples of two-storey early-19th century housing in the area, however in the period immediately after its listing the group of mid-19th century dwellings fell into a state of disrepair due to neglect and the advent of vandalism in the area; by the 1990s over half of the houses on the terrace lay vacant. James Neill’s original Victorian mill was demolished in 1986 87 and replaced with the current structure; subsequently Neill’s Mill requested the delisting of College Place North in 1992 with the intention to demolish the terraces and incorporate the site into the factory. The request was rejected and a renovation project was carried out on nos 3-13 College Place North resulting in the restoration of the original character of the terrace (Ulster Newsletter; HB File). Patton, writing in 1993 at the time of the restoration, described nos 3-9 College Place North as an ‘obtuse-angled terrace of two-storey red-brick houses with some surviving three-lobe fanlights over four-panel doors in simple doorcases;’ the original fanlight for No. 5 has been removed, however the glazing bars noted by Brett have been maintained. References Primary Sources 1. PRONI OS/6/1/61/1 – Second Edition Ordnance Survey Map 1832-33 2. PRONI OS/6/1/61/2 – Second Edition Ordnance Survey Map 1858 3. PRONI OS/6/1/61/3 – Third Edition Ordnance Survey Map 1901-02 4. PRONI OS/6/1/61/4 – Fourth Edition Ordnance Survey Map 1931 5. PRONI OS/6/1/61/5 – Fifth Edition Ordnance Survey Map 1938 6. PRONI VAL/2/B/7/5D – Griffith’s Valuation 1860 7. PRONI VAL/12/B/43/E/1-24 – Annual Revisions 1862-1930 8. PRONI VAL/7/B/12/20 – Belfast Revaluation 1900 9. PRONI VAL/3/B/3/18 – First General Revaluation of Northern Ireland 1935 10. PRONI VAL/4/B/7/36 – Second General Revaluation of Northern Ireland 1956-72 11. Census of Ireland (1901; 1911) 12. Belfast Street Directories (1861-1918) 13. First Survey Record – HB26/50/104 (1970) 14. First Survey Image – HB26/50/104 (1974) 15. Ulster Newsletter (30 Sept 1993) Secondary Sources 1. HB File - HB 26/50/104B 2. Brett, C. E. B., ‘Buildings of Belfast: 1700-1914’ Belfast: Friar’s Bush Press, 1985. 3. Larmour, P., ‘Belfast: An illustrated architectural guide’ Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1987. 4. Patton, M., ‘Central Belfast: An historical gazetteer’ Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1993 Online Resources 1. Belfast Burial Records Website - http://www.belfastcity.gov.uk/burialrecords/

Criteria for Listing

Architectural Interest

A. Style B. Proportion C. Ornamentation J. Setting K. Group value

Historic Interest

X. Local Interest

Evaluation

End of terrace two-storey red brick house, built c.1840, as one of four similar houses. Rectangular on plan facing southeast and located in a cul-de-sac to the north of College Square North. Much historic fabric and detailing and its character survive and the whole group forms a coherent nineteenth-century terrace that is one the few examples of late-Georgian/early-Victorian housing of this scale to survive in Belfast city centre.

General Comments

Date of Survey

18 December 2012