39 Malone Road, Belfast

39 Malone Road is a mid-terraced, four-storey, two-bay red brick late Victorian townhouse, built in 1886–87 to designs by the Belfast architect William Eaton, whose practice was then based on Botanic Avenue. It forms part of a terrace of nine similar houses running between Malone Avenue and Eglantine Avenue on the west side of Malone Road, the group being rectangular on plan, aligned on a north–south axis with gabled ends. Originally named Windsor Gardens, this terrace is one of the most impressive in the Malone Road Conservation Area, directly opposite Fisherwick Presbyterian Church, and is seen to particularly striking effect from the corner of Chlorine Gardens. The whole terrace was constructed on the former grounds of Eglantine Hill, a pre-1832 house, and was built for a James Johnston, believed to be the insurance agent of that name recorded in contemporary directories as operating from Waring Street. All nine properties were occupied by 1890 according to the earliest available street directory.

Architectural Character and External Appearance

The front elevation faces east and is particularly striking, with the rhythm of the terrace created by each house having a full-height bowed bay rising beyond the main eaves, topped by a conical slate roof. At No. 39, this bowed bay is offset to the right, with the entrance to the left. The natural slate roof incorporates bands of fish-scale slates to the bowed bay, with red terracotta saw-tooth ridge tiles and finials to the main building and black clay ridge tiles to the rear return. A large red brick chimney, centred on the gable end of the main roof, has simple corbelled brick coursing to its cap and eight circular yellow clay pots; a smaller red brick chimney on the gable end of the return carries two octagonal and one circular yellow clay pot.

The walls are laid in red brick to Flemish bond with painted stucco dressings; the return is built in English Garden Wall bond. The front elevation is richly ornamented: projecting moulded cill and string courses and painted stucco plat bands run across all floors, and the bowed bay is finished largely in painted stucco, with some exposed brick courses between floor levels. The bay windows and segmental arched door opening all have incised stuccowork decoration above them with edge roll moulding. The doorcase is particularly notable, with a moulded stucco hood and label stops above a painted stucco plat band, carried on pink marble colonnettes with moulded stucco foliated capitals; above the door is a plain fanlight, with a square-headed five-panelled replacement timber door below, toothed stucco quoins below the plat band, and a decorative terracotta panel above the door head. The colonnettes and terracotta panel are repeated on the first and second floor windows above the door. Cast iron guttering is supported on scrolled terracotta brackets, with a projecting eaves course to the front, and below the gutter to the bowed bay runs a cornice of classical ornamentation in stuccowork. The uPVC downpipe to the rear return is a later replacement.

Rear and Side Elevations

A three-storey gabled return projects to the rear (west) on the right side of the building, built at half-landing level, with clipped eaves and a chimney as described on its gable end. Abutting this return is a single-storey duo-pitched brick appendage of little architectural interest that extends almost the full length of the rear yard. A flat-roofed shed fills the space between this appendage and the brick boundary wall to the alley. The return walls are in English Garden Wall bond; the single-storey extension and shed walls are in stretcher bond, suggesting a later date of construction, and are painted.

The north flank elevation of the return has informally arranged fenestration with simple detailing: brick soldier-coursed window heads, projecting brick headers to the eaves supporting an ogee cast iron gutter discharging to a uPVC downpipe. Windows to the return on this elevation include 2/2 sliding sashes at first and second floor, replacement top-hung timber casement windows at ground floor, further top-hung uPVC and timber casement windows at first floor, and a steel-framed multi-paned window with translucent glass, concrete head, and painted cill at second floor. The south flank elevation mirrors the detailing of the north, with sliding sash windows with margin panes overlooking the yard of No. 41 at both first and second floor half-landings.

The west elevation, facing the shared alley, is largely blank to the return gable. To the left of the return, the main building has fire exit doors at each level in place of original windows, opening onto an external galvanised steel escape stair; above the return junction there is one sliding sash window with 2/2 panes and one top-hung timber casement with concrete head and cill. Fire exit doors are timber except at first floor, where the door is uPVC, each with a plain glass overlight at ground, first and second floor. Soldier-coursed window heads and a projecting brick header course run to the eaves on this elevation.

Windows throughout the main building are single-glazed double-hung painted timber sliding sash with 1/1 panes; those to the return have 2/2 panes, unless noted otherwise.

Setting

The building is set back from the tree-lined street by a paved front garden bounded by low walling with replacement railings. The rear yard is enclosed by red brick walling painted white with a curved terracotta cap, with a ledged and braced sheeted timber gate to the alley. A narrow strip of original quarry tiles survives in the yard, contained by a low red brick wall, possibly originally constructed for coal storage.

Interior

The original domestic scale of the building remains legible internally, and some fine historic detailing survives that adds significantly to its character, despite modifications to the internal layout and some replacement windows that detract from its overall quality. The original three-storey gabled return is complete, including its chimney.

Historical Associations and Subsequent Use

The first recorded occupant of No. 39 was Henry J. Nicholson of the Greenmount Spinning Company. Around 1895 the tenancy passed to T. Matthews, described in directories as a wholesale director. By early 1898 the building had become the premises of Oriel Ladies College, a school apparently formerly based in University Square, run by Mrs Elizabeth R. Miles and her daughters Elizabeth, Jane and Isabella. The 1901 census records the property as a first-class dwelling containing fifteen rooms, occupied by the Miles family, three other teachers, six pupils, and two domestic servants; notably, despite the school's name, one of the pupils was an eight-year-old boy. The school had vacated by 1907.

A Miss A. Johnston is recorded as householder in the 1910 and 1915 street directories, although the 1911 census lists the occupants as James A. Drean, a brewer's agent and magistrate, and his wife Bessie. By 1920 Alexander M. Adams, a linen merchant later described as a linen manufacturer, had taken up the lease, remaining until around 1927. The building was largely vacant through much of the 1930s. By 1940 it had become the dressmaking department and a girls' hostel for the Incorporated Cripples' Institute, and by 1945 a nursing home, continuing as such until the early 1970s. By 1974 it had been divided into four flats, which were subsequently converted to office use by the end of the following decade. The building is currently in use as commercial offices, a dental surgery on the first floor (a change dating from around 1995), and a self-contained attic flat. The building was listed in November 1991.