12 College Green, Belfast

12 College Green is a two-storey-with-attic red brick asymmetrical terraced house, built in 1876 and facing south onto College Green, to the north-east of the main quadrangle at Queen's University, Belfast. It forms part of a longer Victorian terrace running from No.2 to No.26 inclusive, which overlooks the Theological College of the Presbyterian Church within the Queen's Conservation Area. The building carries particular group value alongside its immediate neighbours No.10 and No.14 College Green, and its significance lies primarily in that group value and in the integrity of the overall composition of College Green, which is among the most striking terraces in the conservation area.

HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT

College Green was laid out in 1866 on what was then the semi-rural 'Plains' of Malone, the land east of the recently established Queen's College (completed 1849) and around the Union Theological College (completed 1853). The foundation of Queen's prompted several decades of development in the area, with regularly planned streets filled with mainly High Victorian terraced housing for the professional and merchant classes moving southwards from a rapidly commercialising and industrialising Belfast city centre. The present Nos.6–8 were the first to be built along the new thoroughfare in 1866, followed by Nos.2–4, College Green House (originally 'Culfeightrin House', rebuilt around 1882), and Nos.24–26 in 1870–71; then Nos.10–12 and Nos.20–22 in 1876; and Nos.14–18 in 1878. The street was originally conceived as part of Fitzroy Avenue, which stretches eastwards beyond the intersection of what is now Rugby Road, and was treated as such for the first few decades of its existence. The name 'College Green' was applied only to Culfeightrin House and Nos.2–8 on the 1871–73 Ordnance Survey map.

Nos.10–12 were built in 1876 by the estate of the late Robert Corry, the Belfast timber merchant who had developed part of College Green in the mid-1860s, and previously in the 1840s and 1850s had developed Upper and Lower Crescent. The identity of the architect is uncertain, though the listing record associates the building with Lanchester and Lodge. The lease of both houses was obtained by James Watkins, referred to in contemporary directories simply as a 'merchant', who initially lived at No.12 and sublet No.10. Watkins remained until around 1879, with the property recorded as vacant in 1880. By 1884 George B. Coulter, 'secretary [of the] Life Association of Scotland', is recorded as tenant, followed by James White by 1887, a Mrs Adams by 1890, and James Gardener, 'Northern Bank inspector of branches', by 1895. Miss Anne Gardener, who appears to have been the former's sister, is noted as householder in 1899 and recorded in the 1901 census as occupying the house with two domestic servants; the building itself is described in the census as a 'first class' dwelling with ten rooms in use. After a period of vacancy around 1906–08, the solicitor S.G. Crymble became resident and, according to the directories, remained until the later 1940s, although the 1911 census records Frank and Gladys Plunkett and their daughter Doris, together with a nurse named Katherine Miller, as the occupants at that time. By 1951 an Arthur M. Hamilton had moved in, with Bertram Arundel succeeding him around 1972.

The building was listed in 1979. In the late 1970s it was acquired by Queen's University and used as offices for 'Social Studies and Post Qualifying Studies', and around 1991 for the Department of Politics. Along with neighbouring Nos.14–24, it was the subject of a major renovation by Queen's around 2004, when a large extension was added to the rear and the interior integrated with that of Nos.14–24. It is now used as Queen's University's School of Social Science, Education and Social Work, formerly the School of Life Long Learning, encompassing Nos.12–24 inclusive (No.16 is missing from this sequence). The former houses are connected internally by long gabled two-storey extensions added around 2004, built in place of the original rear returns.

EXTERIOR

The roof is natural slate with a duo-pitched form, black clay ridge tiles, and two rectangular red brick chimneys centred on the ridge. Both chimneys have corbelled brick copings and several yellow clay pots; one is shared with No.10 and the other with No.14. There is a wall-head dormer with a hipped roof to the front (south) pitch, and a smaller wall-head dormer to the rear pitch above the modern extension. The leaded roof to the single-storey canted bay is flat. Rainwater drainage to the south front is via a parapet gutter, probably lead-lined, discharging to a cast metal rainwater pipe.

The principal walls are red brick laid in Flemish bond to the south, with painted masonry dressings, and red brick in English Garden Wall bond above the northern extension.

Windows throughout are single-glazed timber-framed double-hung sliding sashes with 1-over-1 panes unless otherwise described.

South Elevation

The south elevation is the principal façade. It is asymmetrical, with the entrance to the left (west) and a single-storey canted bay to the right at ground floor. At first floor there are two equal-sized square-headed windows with a moulded string course forming a cill. A wall-head dormer lights the attic and interrupts the heavy eaves, which are supported on scrolled brackets above a deep plain frieze and moulded string course, all painted.

The ground-floor canted bay and the entrance door both have painted surrounds; like the other painted dressings, these are probably a combination of stucco and dressed stone beneath the paint. A deep, continuous base plinth runs the full width, with sub-floor ventilation grilles and a moulded top. The bay windows have stop-chamfered details to the head and jambs, with the jambs extending down to the plinth; deep bull-nosed stone cills are recessed between the jambs. Above the bay windows, decorative round and diamond-shaped incisions feature abstract cross, thistle, and clover motifs.

The entrance door is a square-headed timber-framed four-panelled replacement with a plain glass fanlight set in a round-arched opening with roll-edge detail, all within a projecting surround with a moulded cornice hood and decorative recessed roundels similar in character to those on the bay. The first-floor windows have moulded surrounds with cornice hoods enriched with a diamond-head moulding projecting over a row of dentils. The paired windows within the attic dormer have canted heads with matching stop-chamfered lintels, a shared projecting cill, and 2-over-2 panes.

North Elevation

The rear elevation faces north and is almost entirely obscured by the two-storey modern extension, which extends the full length of the yard to College Green Mews. On the original building, some brick walling survives above the extension, along with a sliding sash window to the right and a round-arched timber-framed sliding sash window with 2-over-2 panes within a wall-head dormer to the left. The walling at this level is red brick in English Garden Wall bond with soldier-coursed headers. The round-arched window is likely to be original and has a projecting stone cill, painted.

The east and west elevations are abutted by No.10 and No.14 College Green respectively. The two-storey rear extension is fenestrated mainly to the east, is roughly three bays wide, and has alternating vertical bands of red brick walling and smooth render; the rendered bands culminate in flat-roofed dormers. Polyester powder-coated windows are set within the first-floor dormers, with full-height glazed doors at ground floor. The extension has an artificial slate roof with modern rooflights set along the west-facing slope.

INTERIOR

Despite the loss of historic fabric to the rear and internal reconfiguration resulting from the 2004 works, the original plan form of No.12 remains legible to a certain degree. Some historic detailing survives, including the original staircase. The building could, in principle, be separated from the adjoining properties.

SETTING

No.12 is set midway along College Green, which runs between Botanic Avenue to the west and Rugby Road to the east. A concrete dwarf wall and modern metal railings line the southern boundary, matching the pattern of adjacent properties. The small front garden is paved with precast concrete slabs, with a matching entrance step. To the north, the modern extension extends the full width of the property to the boundary with College Green Mews. The rear yard at No.14 provides shared amenity space for both properties, comprising ramped paths to a ground-floor terrace and planted beds with red brick retaining walls topped by a modern painted metal handrail and uprights.