10 College Gardens, Belfast

10 College Gardens is an end-of-terrace, three-storey, double-fronted red brick late Victorian townhouse, built in 1877 to designs by the architect William Batt. It forms the eastern end of a symmetrical block of four large townhouses — numbers 7 to 10 — in which number 7 mirrors number 10 at the opposite gable end, with the narrower numbers 8 and 9 between them. The building sits within College Gardens (originally College Gardens Avenue), a tree-lined street of similarly scaled townhouses running between Malone Road and Lisburn Road, within the Queens Conservation Area. The houses face south and overlook the grounds of Methodist College.

Historical Background

College Gardens was laid out on land that, prior to the early 19th century, had formed part of a series of strip farms running from what is now the Malone and University Roads to the Bog Meadows. These farms were probably established in the early 17th century. Their character was progressively altered by the cutting of the Lisburn Road between 1816 and 1819 and the construction of the Ulster Railway between 1837 and 1839. Around the same period, greater security of tenure from the Donegall estate encouraged the gentrification of the remaining farmland, with the construction of small country villas and the laying out of modest demesnes. The land immediately north and south of College Gardens had belonged to one such villa, "Vermont", a house dating from before 1770, possibly rebuilt or enlarged around 1815 and enlarged again in the 1840s by John Riddell, a Belfast ironmonger. The construction of Queen's College a short distance to the north-east in 1845 triggered the suburbanisation of the wider area. Vermont itself was sold in 1865 for the construction of Methodist College, which was completed in 1868, after which a new private avenue was laid out on the lower ground immediately to its north, with building plots provided along the northern side. Development proceeded from the eastern end: the present numbers 1 to 6 were built in 1871, numbers 7 to 18 in 1877, numbers 33 and 34 in 1879, numbers 19 to 22 in 1881, numbers 23 to 26 in 1882, and numbers 27 to 32 in 1883.

Number 10 was built in 1877 for the merchant John H. Atkinson, on one of the building plots advertised early that year as suitable for high-class residences in a healthy and fashionable locality. The original occupant may have been R.K. Knox, then director of the Northern Banking Company. He was succeeded by David A. Maxwell (from around 1889 to 1909), who in the 1901 census was recorded as living there with his wife Elizabeth, their five largely grown-up children, and three domestic servants. By the 1911 census the property had passed to Charles Cunningham Connor J.P., a flax spinner, who lived there with a governess, Alice Emma Woods, and two domestic servants. He was followed around 1914 by R.R. Leathem (until around 1928), and subsequently by Dr. Ivan H. McCaw. Around 1957 the property was converted to a nurses' home for Belfast City Hospital, a use it retained until around 1968 and possibly into the 1980s, though the 1986 street directory refers to it simply as containing flats. The building was listed in September 1979. Planning approval was granted in 1988 to convert it to an adolescent psychiatric unit with residential accommodation, and by 1996 it had become a Young People's Centre run by what was then the Eastern Health Board. It is currently used as a health centre.

Exterior

The building is symmetrical and well proportioned, with polychromatic brick detailing and sandstone embellishment to the front façade, making it a good example of late Victorian domestic architecture. A two-storey gabled return projects to the rear (north) at half-landing level. The main building has a natural slate roof in Bangor Blue with black clay ridge tiles; the return has an artificial slate roof. Rainwater goods are cast iron to the south elevation and uPVC to the north and return. The principal walls are in red brick laid in Flemish bond, with blue brick string courses and alternating soldier courses; the return is in red brick laid in English Garden Wall bond.

There are three chimney stacks. A large red brick chimney is centred on the gable of the main roof, with a corbelled cap in brick specials and eight circular red clay pots. A similar chimney at the opposite side has sixteen pots and is shared with number 9. A smaller red brick chimney is centred on the gable of the return, with two octagonal yellow clay pots. The eaves are formed by a projecting stone course with corbelled brick specials in the form of roll-edged dentils on cogging and stretcher courses; this detail is returned at the gable end, where it meets a similar corbelled brick verge treatment that is carried across the base of the chimney.

Front Elevation (South)

The front elevation faces south, with a central entrance flanked by two projecting bays. The right-hand (east) bay is squared, rises the full height of the building, has two windows per floor, is shouldered at second-floor level, and terminates in a hipped roof with a decorative cast iron rail and finials to the platform ridge. The left-hand (west) bay is canted, two storeys in height, and has a lead roof. The base of the façade has a projecting rubble-stone plinth with a chamfered blue brick top. Masonry cills — likely sandstone, with some concrete repairs — and lintels, mainly sandstone with some concrete replacements, are continued as two string courses of blue brick with a red course between them. Reveals are stop-chamfered throughout.

The central entrance is formed in alternating red and blue soldier courses in groups of three, with a dressed sandstone hood mould and label stops carved with foliage detail. The entrance has a plain fanlight over square-headed panelled timber double doors, flanked by grey marble colonnettes with dressed sandstone capitals, collar and base, set on toothed quoins; the capitals and base also carry carved foliage detail. Alternating blue and red brick soldier courses are repeated as segmental relieving arches to the windows above the door and at ground and first floor level in the squared bay; the hoods are formed in angled blue bricks. The second-floor windows are replacement timber-framed 1/1 sliding sashes with double-glazed units. All other windows are single-glazed double-hung sliding sashes with 1/1 panes unless otherwise described.

Rear Elevation (North)

The rear elevation overlooks Elmwood Mews and was originally symmetrical, with the two-storey gabled return placed centrally. It is now altered: a flat-roofed extension fills part of the yard on the left (east) side, and a glazed link connects to a two-storey addition set at ninety degrees to the return on the right (west) side; the latter was added around 1998 and encloses the rear boundary to form a small courtyard. The rear is plainly detailed compared to the front, with shallower masonry cills, red brick soldier coursing above the windows, and projecting headers at the eaves. To the left of the return, there is one window at each of the first and second floors of the main building; the corresponding openings on the right side now contain modern fire doors that exit onto an external mesh-clad spiral stair. Two modern side-hung casement windows with concrete cills and lintels are positioned above the return at second-floor level, with a further leaded glass double-glazed window placed centrally at half-landing level. The return gable carries a brick chimney, has clipped eaves, and has one sliding sash window with 2/2 panes offset to the right at first-floor level; it is otherwise blank. The flat-roofed extension has an asphalt roof membrane, a painted timber eaves board, and one timber-framed casement window and door. The two-storey addition has an artificial slate roof, smooth red brick walls, and timber casement windows; its elevation facing Elmwood Mews has rendered ground-floor walling.

West Elevation

The west elevation is comprised of two distinct parts: the gable end of the main building and the side elevation of the return. The gable is less formal than the front elevation but largely symmetrical and detailed similarly, including blue brick string courses, hood moulds, and sandstone cills and lintels. There are two windows centred on the chimney at each floor level, flanked by a further window at each far end at ground and first floor. Of the ten openings, only four retain their original sandstone lintels: the ground-floor openings at the far left and far right, the first-floor opening at the far right only, and the second-floor opening on the left — which is now bricked up. The remaining six windows have concrete lintels. The first-floor central window on the left is fitted with a top-hung uPVC double-glazed casement. The return is plainly detailed, in keeping with the rear elevation. It has a full-height lean-to at the re-entrant angle with the main building, two windows at first-floor level, and a single-storey glazed link with an artificial slate mono-pitched roof leading to the two-storey addition. The original window to the right (south) at first-floor level survives; all other windows in the return are modern casements.

East Elevation

Number 9 College Gardens abuts the east elevation of the main building. The east face of the return is detailed in the same manner as the rear elevation. The ground floor is largely obscured by the flat-roofed extension, with one timber casement window to the right (north) end. There are two windows offset to the left at first-floor level, both replacement timber sliding sashes with 1/1 panes. The gable end of the two-storey duo-pitched addition is in red brick, blank, with clipped eaves, abutted by a lean-to and outbuildings aligned along the north boundary wall within the yard.

Setting and Boundaries

The building is set back from the tree-lined street by a tarmacked car park. Mature hedging aligns the boundary with the fronts of numbers 9 and 11. A modern disabled access ramp leads from the car park to the front door, built in smooth red brick with tubular steel uprights and handrails. An external spiral stair connects to fire exits at the rear near the gable end.

The yard boundaries are defined by red brick walls laid in English Garden Wall bond with rounded terracotta caps. The wall dividing the yard from number 9 — raised in part along the line of the flat-roofed extension — returns along the north boundary with a chamfered blue brick course on a rubble-stone base, eventually joining the two-storey extension. A lean-to red brick outbuilding abuts the reverse side of the north boundary wall within the yard, in line with the return. A similar red brick wall with terracotta cap defines the west boundary with number 11 at the rear yard.

Interior

Some historic interior features of note survive, though the original plan form has been subdivided as a result of conversion. The original return survives intact, along with its chimney and the yard boundary walls.

Condition and Alterations

The building retains considerable architectural and historic interest but has been affected by a number of alterations. Replacement windows are present in various locations. A two-storey extension to the rear, added around 1998 and facing onto Elmwood Mews, is of little historic interest. A flat-roofed single-storey extension abuts the east side of the return. Several original sandstone lintels have been replaced in concrete, particularly on the west elevation. These alterations collectively detract from the building's character, though the overall composition, the quality of the original brickwork, polychromatic detailing, and sandstone embellishment remain clearly legible. The building has group value with numbers 7, 8, and 9 College Gardens.