21 Wellington Park, Belfast, BT9 6DJ

21 Wellington Park is a two-storey, double-fronted Victorian villa in a domestic gothic revival style, built in 1889/90 as one of a matching pair with its neighbour, number 19. Both were constructed by the builder Andrew Dempter Gibson, whose premises were in Camden Street, and the architect remains unknown. The house forms part of a disparate terrace on the north side of Wellington Park, within the Malone Conservation Area in Belfast, and first appears on the Ordnance Survey map of 1902.

ARCHITECTURE AND EXTERIOR

The building is constructed in red brick laid in stretcher bond, is south-facing, and is T-shaped in plan, with a full-height central rear projection. The natural slate roof has black clay ridge tiles to the return and is flanked on either side by tall, plain brick chimney stacks with a plain corbelled capping course and four circular chimney pots each. Black-coloured replacement metal guttering with circular downpipes sits above a projecting brick eaves detail with a dog-tooth course below.

The symmetrical front elevation features a central arched doorway flanked by projecting two-storey bay windows on each side. These bay windows are topped with pyramidal natural slate roofs edged with lead flashings and capped with ornamental metal finials. Each bay has a central one-over-one painted sliding sash window with side lights, the sections separated by brick piers. Above each window grouping is polychrome charcoal and red soldier coursing, and painted window cills are linked across the elevation by a single course of horizontal charcoal brick banding. The ground floor bay windows also feature a centrally positioned horizontal projecting corbelled band at the level between floors.

The front doorway has an elliptical arch above a door fanlight, framed with polychrome charcoal and red soldier coursing. The doorway is flanked by painted circular stone columns with square plinths, the shaft heads adorned with Corinthian scrolls. A painted render plinth runs across the entire frontage, and the front door is approached via two contemporary bull-nosed granite steps. Replacement double gates and piers were added to the front in 2011.

The rear elevation shares the same roof finish, eaves detailing, and guttering as the front. Brickwork is used throughout, with a masonry paint finish applied to the ground floor only. On the left-hand side of the rear, two windows are vertically stacked, each a two-over-two painted timber sliding sash with two horizontal transoms. At right angles on the left-hand side, there is a pair of windows on the first and second floors — a single-pane opening in uPVC and a pair of vertically stacked one-over-one top-hung uPVC windows respectively. The ground floor section of this wall is blank brickwork. The gable of the central rear projection is also blank except for a centrally positioned aluminium sliding patio door giving access to the ground floor room. On the right-hand side of the rear elevation there is a painted timber sliding sash window with two horizontal transoms at first floor level, and mahogany-framed outward-opening doors at ground floor level.

INTERIOR

Much of the original interior fabric and ornamental detailing survives, and the plan form of the house remains largely intact. The principal rooms at the front of the house have notably high ceilings — 11 feet 6 inches — which were expressly cited as a selling point when the houses were advertised for sale in January 1890. A minor alteration is the removal, around 1965, of the single-storey return at the far rear, which formerly contained a store and an outside WC, as confirmed by comparison of large-scale Ordnance Survey maps from 1958/59 and 1970.

The ground floor accommodation comprises an entrance hall, three reception rooms, a kitchen, a scullery, and a pantry. The first floor has four double bedrooms, a bathroom, a separate WC, and a single bedroom in the return. The second-floor return contains a single bedroom and a boxroom. This arrangement is documented in the 1934 revaluation and corresponds closely to the layout shown on the plan accompanying the 1900 Belfast Revaluation, which recorded the house as having three reception rooms and four bedrooms in the main block with a further four bedrooms in the rear return, along with good kitchen and pantries, and fittings for both gas and a bathroom.

MATERIALS

The roof is finished in natural slate. Walls are red brick throughout, painted at ground level to the rear. Windows to the front and principal elevations are painted timber double-hung sliding sash. To the rear there are also aluminium and mahogany patio doors, and several small uPVC windows at upper levels. Rainwater goods are cast iron and cast aluminium.

HISTORICAL CONTEXT

The development of Wellington Park took place against the backdrop of Belfast's gradual southward suburban expansion. After 1799 the Marquis of Donegall began granting longer leases to tenants in the townland of Malone Lower, encouraging building and the suburban spread of the town. In 1850, an area later captioned "Wellington Park" on the 1853 Ordnance Survey map was acquired by George Tate, a timber merchant, who built Wellington Park House — most probably named after the Duke of Wellington, who died in 1852 — and parcelled off the remaining land for development. Wellington Park as a road was first laid out in the same decade and, together with Eglantine Avenue and Malone Avenue, forms the southern boundary of terraced development in Belfast. South of Malone Avenue, development was largely in detached and some semi-detached villas. Double-fronted dwellings are particularly characteristic of Wellington Park, where houses are slightly more closely packed than in surrounding streets.

Andrew Dempter Gibson built several other houses in the immediate area, including 17 houses on Wellesley Avenue (approved between 1896 and 1897), two houses on Eglantine Avenue (approved 1882–1888), and 14 houses on Blackstaff Road, now Donegall Road (1891). Numbers 19 and 21 Wellington Park first entered valuation records in 1889 at a valuation of £45 each. In January 1890, Gibson placed a newspaper advertisement offering "two two-storey new double houses, Wellington Park, three large reception and seven bedrooms, 11ft 6in ceilings, ready for occupation; are worthy of inspection to anyone wanting comfortable house to buy," almost certainly referring to these two houses. In March 1890 the Works Committee recorded granting permission for Gibson to take water into two houses in Wellington Park.

After a period of being rented out, both houses were purchased from Gibson by Samuel Hogg, a Shankill Road grocer, who was resident at number 19 from at least 1894. Samuel Hogg was a relative — most likely an uncle — of the photographer Alexander Robert Hogg. Number 21 was let from at least 1895 to the Montgomery family: Charles John Montgomery, who was engaged in the linen and damask trade before his death in 1898; his wife Mary Jane Montgomery; and their son Charles Adam Montgomery, also a linen manufacturer with premises in the White Linenhall (demolished 1896) and subsequently in Linenhall Street. The Montgomerys were likely related through marriage to Samuel Hogg: Hogg's daughter Maggie married Robert Montgomery, secretary, at 19 Wellington Park in 1894, though the precise relationship between Robert and Charles Adam Montgomery is unclear. As Charles John Montgomery had seven siblings, it is possible they were cousins. The Montgomery household recorded in the 1901 census comprised English-born Mary Jane and her 25-year-old son Charles, with a general domestic servant from County Offaly (then known as King's County). Charles Adam Montgomery lived in the house almost until his death in 1951, and in his later life was closely associated with the Mission Hall of the Adult Deaf and Dumb in College Square North, for which he campaigned and raised funds. At the time of the 1934 revaluation, number 21 was still lit by gas and had "not been modernised in any respect." The Montgomery family were followed by Frank Kennedy MB FRCS, a gynaecologist, and his medical brother Joseph Kennedy. From the mid-1980s the occupier was Philip Riley, also a doctor.

In the Belfast Revaluation of 1900 and appeal books of 1901, both 19 and 21 were described as having three reception rooms and four bedrooms with a further four bedrooms in the return, good kitchens and pantries, and fittings for both gas and a bathroom. They were revalued at £58 but reduced to £52 on appeal.

SETTING

The house sits in an urban context as part of a terrace of mature, substantial double-fronted attached dwellings along the north side of Wellington Park. The setting is enhanced by the proliferation of semi-mature trees that define the front boundary with the public footpath, which together with a mature hedgerow soften the setting and conceal the contemporary paving that provides parking behind low-set double gates at the front. To the rear, the property is defined by a high boundary wall to a shared alleyway, with a personnel access door giving entry to a narrow U-shaped garden and yard area that circumvents the rear of the property.

The intact three-dimensional form and massing of number 21, together with its conjoined neighbour number 19, is considered uniquely well preserved as a pair. Their double-height canted bay windows, decorative coloured brickwork, historic windows, ornamental metal finials, and largely original rear returns all contribute to this quality. The group value and level of authenticity shared between the two houses, together with the association of the building with Samuel Hogg and the Montgomery family and their involvement in Belfast's linen trade, add to its special local interest.