25 College Gardens, Belfast

25 College Gardens, Belfast

This is a mid-terrace, three-storey town house over basement with attic, built in 1882. It is constructed of red brick and forms part of a symmetrical block of four properties (Nos. 23–26 College Gardens). The building is located towards the west end of College Gardens, a tree-lined street of similarly scaled townhouses running from Malone Road to Lisburn Road, within the Queens Conservation Area. It faces south and overlooks the grounds of Methodist College. The building is currently used as offices.

The roof is of natural slate with black clay ridge tiles. A large red brick chimney, partly replaced, is centred on the ridge with a simple corbelled brick cap and eight circular red clay pots shared with No. 26. There are two modern roof lights to the front pitch and one to the rear.

The front (south) elevation is Italianate in style with Classical proportions, and is asymmetrical. It features an aedicule at the entrance to the right and a single-storey square bay with three windows and an openwork parapet to the left. The entire ground floor is in painted stucco. Red brick walling above has moulded stucco dressings with continuous projecting cills at first and second floors. Three windows at each upper floor diminish in height, all with segmental arches and roll-edge moulding. First-floor windows have plain stucco surrounds with projecting hoods (pedimented to the middle window, shallow pitched to side windows). Second-floor windows have moulded stucco surrounds with corresponding brackets below the cill course. The square bay has a projecting base plinth with moulded top, cill, head and cornice with plain frieze, and stop-chamfered detail to outer corners. The entrance features a timber-framed four-panelled door with plain fanlight, bolection moulding to fielded and pitched panels, flanked by Corinthian-style pilasters, and topped by a deep moulded pediment with foliated tympanum bearing the date '1882'.

Projecting moulded stucco eaves and fluted corbel brackets on a plain frieze band decorate the front elevation.

The rear (north) elevation overlooks Elmwood Mews and is asymmetrical. It comprises a full-height projection abutted by a double return consisting of a three-storey hipped-roofed section and a two-storey flat-roofed section, all offset to the left and built over the basement. A single window at each floor appears to the right side (1/1 pane at ground floor). The detailing is plain compared to the front, with red brick walling, soldier courses above flat-arched windows, alternating angled headers at projecting eaves, and simple stone cills. The chimney at the hipped roof return is slated over, with a single window at second-floor level centred on the ridge. The flat-roofed return is informally arranged, with a margin-paned window offset to the left and a diminutive metal-framed fixed light to the right at first floor. Two uPVC casement windows appear at ground floor, and two blocked segmental arched openings remain at basement level. Sandstone steps, repaired in part with concrete, sit to the right of the blocked openings, with a curved brick reveal to a segmental arched recessed opening.

The east and west elevations abut the neighbouring properties No. 24 and No. 26 respectively. The west elevation of the full-height projection has a single opening at each level with margin panes to first and second floors (the ground-floor opening is now bricked up). The west elevation of the return includes two windows each at ground and first floors within the hipped-roofed part, and a sliding sash window with 6/6 panes and historic glass at ground floor and a single window at second floor within the flat-roofed part.

Windows throughout are single-glazed double hung sliding sash, with 1/1 panes on the front and 2/2 panes to the rear and return, except where otherwise described.

The roof gutters and downpipes comprise cast iron ogee profile gutter and square section aluminium downpipe to the south; cast iron half-round gutter and circular section downpipes to the north and return, with some uPVC replacements. The wall materials include red brick in Flemish bond with painted moulded stucco dressings to the front (south), and red brick in English Garden Wall bond to the rear (north) and return.

The building is set back from the tree-lined street by a tarmacked car park on the south side of College Gardens. A dwarf wall, rendered and curved on plan, terminates in circular pillars with conical caps on either side of the entrance door. Mature hedging aligns the boundary with adjacent front gardens to Nos. 24 and 26.

The rear overlooks Elmwood Mews, a shared alley running the full length of College Gardens and connected to Elmwood Avenue. A red brick wall in English Garden Wall bond with a canted brick cap and simple metal railings divides the yard from No. 24. The same wall, with a rounded terracotta cap, aligns the south boundary, where a sheeted timber ledged and braced door exits onto Elmwood Mews via a short flight of steps. A lean-to outbuilding sits to the reverse side.

The rear is arranged on two levels, with a lower yard surfaced in square paving flags and further steps within the return leading to a recessed back door. A flat-roofed garage to the right of the yard adjoins a substantial rear extension to No. 26, constructed of red brick walling with a PVC roof membrane and painted metal up-and-over door opening onto the alley.