2 College Park East, Belfast, BT7 1PS

2 College Park East, Belfast — Former Terrace House, now University Offices

This is a High Victorian, two-and-a-half-storey, red brick, mid-terrace, double-fronted former house, built in 1869 to designs by Young & MacKenzie. It now serves as offices for Queen's University Belfast's School of Sociology, Social Policy and Social Work. The building forms part of a mixed row of six properties at the junction of College Park East and University Avenue, immediately south of Union Theological College and east of the main Queen's University buildings, in the heart of the South Belfast university quarter. The front elevation faces west onto College Park East and overlooks a university car park.

The terrace as a whole has been integrated internally. No. 4, the approximately central house in the row, was the first to be completed in 1864; Nos. 1–3 and 5–6 followed in 1869; and 'Hope House', which directly abuts the rear of No. 6, was added in 1873. Nos. 1–3 appear to have been developed by William Sherrie, a brush manufacturer with premises in North Street; No. 4 by Alexander Holmes; and Nos. 5–6 and Hope House by Matthew Pattison. A tender for making streets in College Park East was advertised by Young & MacKenzie in August 1870, confirming their responsibility for the design of this house and its neighbours.

Materials and Roof The roof is covered in natural Welsh slate with black clay ridge tiles. Walls are red brick laid in Flemish bond throughout. Windows are timber sliding sash with horns, single-glazed, and are likely to be replacements. Rainwater goods are cast iron to the front and cast metal to the rear.

Front Elevation (West) The Flemish bond brickwork is surmounted by deep corbelled brick eaves detailing beneath the slate roof. A stepped brick chimney to the left side has a concrete coping and six pots, likely clay. A decorative brick and terracotta band runs between first and second floor levels, and there is a painted stone plinth with brick below.

The elevation is double-fronted. To the left of the front door are paired window openings at ground and first floor levels. Above these, at attic level, is a timber dormer with paired semicircular-headed windows, timber cladding, a timber roundel above the windows, decorative timber bargeboards, a pointed timber finial, exposed rafter ends, and vertical slate dormer cheeks.

To the right is a two-storey, lead flat-roofed canted bay with a wall-head dormer above at attic level. This dormer also has paired semicircular-headed windows, separated by a candy-twist painted plaster column with a Corinthian-type capital beneath brick voussoirs, along with decorative timber bargeboards, a pointed timber finial, and exposed rafter ends.

At the centre of the first floor is a single window opening aligned with the front door below. The entrance itself is a tall segmental-arched opening with an entirely stone surround, including three-quarter column jambs with tall bases and Corinthian-like foliate capitals, a painted brick reveal, and a recessed panelled timber door with a plain fanlight over.

Ground and first floor windows to the left of and above the front door have bevelled brick relieving arches and chamfered brick reveals. The canted bay windows have painted stone header bands. Ground floor windows to the left of the front door are 12-over-1 lights; all others are 1-over-1. To the front, a small garden has been paved with concrete paving stones; the steps are replacements and modern wheelchair ramps with metal railings have been added. A painted plinth wall to the street has replacement painted metal railings.

Side Elevations The north side elevation is fully abutted by No. 1 and the south side elevation is fully abutted by No. 3.

Rear Elevation (East) The rear elevation of the main block is abutted centrally by an original two-storey return, both roofed in natural Welsh slate. The original yards to either side have been converted to further university offices and classrooms and covered by a modern flat roof, creating single-storey accommodation. Either side of the rear return on the main block's rear elevation is a 2-over-2 window with splayed brick headers sitting above the flat roof sections. Aligned with these, at attic level, are two small timber dormers with 1-over-1 windows under semicircular heads, painted timber cladding to the front, overhanging exposed rafter ends, and slate cheeks.

A single 2-over-2 window sits at second floor half-landing level just to the right of the rear return ridge. The north and south faces of the rear return are exposed at first floor level above the flat roofs. On the north face there are three windows: a 2-over-2 with frosted glass serving toilets, a 1-over-1 with frosted glass to a small store, and a larger landing window. This landing window has rounded corners with brick voussoirs and contains a 3-over-2 window with three arch-shaped plain and coloured leaded panes to the top section and two rectangular panes below, one with coloured leaded lights forming an opening casement and the other plain. On the south face are four window openings, all 2-over-2 with frosted glass.

The rear elevation of the rear return, facing onto the car park, has clipped eaves. At first floor level there is a 1-over-1 window to the left side. At ground floor level are two 1-over-1 windows behind painted metal bars. Either side of the main return, a wider 1-over-1 window behind metal bars sits in the yard walls, which extend one storey tall to form the rear walls of the modern flat-roofed rooms. All windows to the rear have splayed brick heads and are single-glazed timber sliding sash with horns, likely replacements. All rear brickwork is laid in Flemish bond.

Interior The original floor plan has been altered on all levels. The original rear yards are now internal spaces with flat roofs. Rooms on the first and second floor levels have been altered to provide corridor access to the adjoining Nos. 1 and 3. Despite these changes, much interior detailing survives, notably an unusual communal area on the ground floor with decorative timber panelling.

Historical Context and Occupancy College Park East — originally known simply as 'College Park' — was laid out in or shortly before 1864 on what had been the semi-rural 'Plains' of Malone, on the eastern and southern edge of the recently established Queen's College (completed 1849) and Union Theological College (completed 1853). The founding of Queen's in particular prompted several decades of residential development in the area, with regularly planned streets filled largely with High Victorian terraced housing for the professional and merchant classes moving southward from a rapidly commercialising and industrialising Belfast city centre.

The earliest recorded occupant of No. 2 appears to have been John Charley, a coal merchant, listed at this address in an 1870 annotation in the valuation book. He appears to have moved to No. 1 before 1877, though the confused early street numbering — No. 1 College Park East being accessed from University Avenue rather than from College Park East itself — makes it difficult to trace earliest occupants with complete certainty. Charley was succeeded by Reverend H. M. Williamson, who was in turn followed before 1880 by R. McGeagh, probably Robert McGeagh of 'McGeagh & McLaine'. After this point the numbering becomes consistent. Subsequent occupants included W. R. Patterson, a linen merchant, followed around 1882 by Henry McNeill, a solicitor, who appears to have died in 1900. His widow remained briefly before another solicitor, J. C. White, took up the lease around 1902. In the 1911 census, Edith Evelyn White — wife or sister of J. C. White — is recorded as householder, sharing the house with a domestic servant and a waitress; the property was noted as a first-class dwelling with 17 rooms in use. By 1918 Reverend G. A. Stevenson, Rector of St Mary Magdalene Parish, was in residence and appears to have remained until the later 1940s. By 1951 No. 2 had been amalgamated with No. 1 to become a nursing home run by Miss Elizabeth Bradshaw. By around 1962 the combined buildings had become the Queen's District Nurses' Home for the Belfast County Borough Health Committee, noted simply as Community Health Services by 1980. By 1990 both properties had come into the ownership of Queen's University Belfast, serving for a number of years as temporary premises for the university's Department of Modern History before being integrated with the rest of the terrace for use as offices.

Setting and Group Value The building makes a strong contribution to its setting within the Queen's University area. Together with its neighbours — listed as a group — the terrace adds significant character to this part of South Belfast. The listing extends to the offices and wall to the rear.