2 St. Judes Avenue, Belfast, County Antrim, BT7 2GZ

A symmetrical three-bay two-storey former rectory, now in office use, built around 1880 to designs by John Lanyon. The building is located at the corner of St Jude's Avenue and the Ormeau Road, south of Belfast city centre, and displays proportions and detailing typical of the late-Victorian period. Much of the original architectural fabric remains intact. The building was sympathetically converted to modern office use in recent years; the internal layout is unchanged and some elements of a typical Victorian interior survive. The setting has been altered by the addition of a parking area to the side and rear, and by the construction of a modern apartment block to the east, which shares an entrance with the property. The building retains group value with St Jude's Parish Church.

The plan is L-shaped, with a two-storey canted bay window to the west and a single-storey extension to the rear. The roof is hipped natural slate with decorative terracotta ridge tiles and finials. Four red-brick chimneystacks are finished with clay pots on masonry plinths. Cast-iron ogee rainwater goods with a hopper are set on a corbelled eaves course. The walling is Flemish-bonded red-brick on a smooth rendered plinth, with a smooth rendered string course to the ground floor and continuous sills to both floors. Decorative black tile detail appears between corbels at the eaves band. Windows are 2/2 timber-framed sliding sash with horizontal glazing bars and painted smooth rendered lintels; windows to the ground floor are segmental-headed with a key-block.

The principal elevation faces south and comprises three openings. The central entrance features a bolection-moulded four-panelled timber door with brass door furniture and transom light, set within a smooth rendered surround with a corbelled canopy decorated with cast-iron brackets. The west elevation has a two-storey canted bay at the left and a window to each floor at the right. The north (rear) elevation has projecting bays to the centre and left of centre—the left bay projects further and wider—with the right bay remaining blank and abutted at ground level by a slated lean-to. The central and left projecting bays each have a window to the first floor and two windows to the ground floor. A small single-storey extension adjoins the basement level central bay, with a further single-storey extension abutting the exposed section of the left bay to a yard wall. The east elevation has two windows to the first and ground floors; a timber casement window is positioned at ground-floor right.

The building is prominently sited at the corner of St Jude's Avenue and Ormeau Road, facing St Jude's Parish Church and opposite Ballynafeigh Methodist Church. Set back from the street, the property has a lawned front with a central pathway and ramped access to the entrance. A tarmacadamed parking area occupies the west and north, with a shared driveway with the neighbouring apartment block to the east. The rear yard is paved and enclosed by a red-brick wall with a timber-sheeted gate. The south and east boundaries are enclosed by a red-brick boundary wall topped with original cast-iron railings supported by red-brick and masonry piers. An original cast-iron latch gate marks the entrance, with a modern metal gate at the vehicular access to the west.

The rectory was constructed in 1880 as a residence for the Rector of St Jude's Parish Church, whose formation was discussed from the mid-1870s. The building was designed by architect John Lanyon, who donated his fee of twenty-one guineas towards the cost. The total construction cost reached £1,500, with £1,000 received as a loan from the Board of Works under the Glebe Loans Act and £390 subscribed by Messrs Fitzpatrick, the builders of St Jude's Church. The house first appears on the third edition Ordnance Survey map of 1901–2 and entered valuation records in 1892 as a 'manse and land', valued at £29 for buildings and £1 for land.

The first rector in residence was Arthur Moore, incumbent from 1879 to 1886. The 1901 census records William Henry Davis as occupant; Canon Davis served as rector from 1886 to 1917 and oversaw two major enlargements of St Jude's Church to accommodate an expanding congregation. He is memorialised in the Canon Davis parochial hall. Canon Davis, Dublin-born, lived with his American wife, sister, and three sons, maintained two domestic servants, and occupied a twelve-room first-class residence.

Subsequent rectors occupied the house until 1925, when Reverend James Quinn found the noise from traffic on the Ormeau Road so detrimental to his health that he relocated to Cherryvale House on the Ravenhill Road, allowing the rectory to be let to tenants. Following £2,800 in repairs and renovations in 1956, the house became home to Rector Alfred McKelvie and his family. In 1971, due to increasing traffic noise on the Ormeau Road, a new rectory was acquired at 11 Bladon Drive, and the former rectory was leased to the Northern Ireland Hospital Authority as a rehabilitation hostel. Since the 1990s, the property has been privately owned and used as offices, with part sub-let to an architect.