92 Malone Road, Belfast, Co Antrim, BT9 5HP

92 Malone Road is a substantial two-storey suburban residence built in 1875-76 in high Victorian free Italianate style. It forms the larger half of a non-identical semi-detached pair, with the properties attached by their rear returns in such a way that each presents the appearance of a freestanding building when viewed from the front.

The house sits on the east side of Malone Road, approached via a gateway on the south side of Cleaver Avenue, and is sheltered by dense shrubbery. The front elevation faces west and is asymmetrical in composition. At its centre is the principal entrance, a panelled timber door flanked by two-light sidelights with panelled aprons and topped with a large rectangular three-light fanlight, all featuring small leaded panes. This entrance is surrounded by a flat-roofed portico with Corinthian columns and respondents set on tall conjoined plinths, with a cornice and gabled blocking course or parapet above (elements that appear to have been rebuilt in recent times). To the left of the entrance stands a large but shallow single-storey square bay containing a plain tripartite sash window, with matching cornice and flat blocking course roof. To the right is a large single-storey canted bay with plain sash windows separated by pilaster-like piers and a cornice course with plain parapet above concealing a flat roof. This bay sits within a projecting full-height gabled bay. The first floor features three unevenly-spaced segmental-headed sash windows with simple lugged and heeled moulded surrounds and keystones, resting on a cill course. The upper level of the projecting bay contains two similar windows and is crowned with a gabled end where bracketed eaves and verge form a tympanum topped with a finial. The lower half of the front elevation, outside the bays, is finished in rusticated render, while the upper half is lined render. Some areas have been repaired in recent times.

The north and south elevations follow similar treatment. The north elevation is longer than the front as it incorporates the almost flush north face of the large full-height return (which extends three levels). To the ground floor of this return are two small sash windows to the right; tree growth obscures the left end and upper levels. The first floor of the return has a larger sash window on a cill course to the right, and the second floor contains a much squatter window in the style of the first-floor front. The ground floor of the main section of the north façade, to the right of the return, has two sash windows to the left and a canted bay (as on the front) to the right. The first floor shows four windows arranged in two pairs, as on the front elevation. The south elevation includes the south face of a low two-storey return to the right. The ground floor of the main section features a shallow bay (as on the front left) to the left, with two sash windows to the right, the far right window having horizontal glazing bars (2/2). The first floor centre and right show two windows in front-elevation style. Originally there appears to have been another window to the far left, now blocked up. The return section's ground floor left has a window opening with circa 1950s steel frame, with a smaller sash window to the far right. The first floor left of the return contains a sash window with horizontal glazing bars (2/2). This face is finished in plain render. The rear elevation could not be examined.

The hipped roof has an overhang supported on brackets in typical Italianate fashion and is slated. Two tall centrally-placed rendered chimneystacks to the main section each feature a cornice course and six matching octagonal clay pots. A narrower stack to the north return is in similar style. Cast-iron rainwater goods are present. The property is surrounded on its west, north, and south sides by a large garden with a short curving gravel drive to the northwest end.

The house was built in 1875-76, possibly named Carlton House (either this property alone or together with its neighbour at no. 94). The site formerly belonged to Montpellier (now no. 100), a house erected around 1840 by Belfast merchant Thomas Gilmore, who acquired the land from Reverend George MacCartney-Black in 1836. After Gilmore's death in 1870, the lot was sold to Samuel Gibson, a Belfast druggist and grocer, who developed the property in 1875-76 by building Carlton House and another dwelling to the immediate west (present no. 96), and later in 1878 erected a large villa to the south where he himself resided (now demolished). In the process, Gibson demolished a gate lodge called Montpellier Cottage, which had served the original 1840s house and was situated roughly at the entrance to the present drive of no. 92.

The original resident of no. 92 was Moritz Portheim, a German who settled in Belfast around 1862 and became a founding member of the town's Jewish congregation, listed in contemporary directories as a linen merchant. Portheim remained at the property until the late 1890s, when he was followed by Mrs Jane McKeown. The property remains a private dwelling.