10 Lower Crescent, Belfast, Co Antrim, BT7 1NR

10 Lower Crescent, Belfast

This is a relatively large and fine three-storey rendered town house, built in 1852 as part of a Regency-style terrace of eleven similar, though not identical, properties now known as Lower Crescent. The building is situated close to the east end of the terrace and is one of a pair of the more ornate houses in the group. It has since been converted and is in commercial use. The terrace sits to the east of University Road and faces, across a small public park, Upper Crescent — a similar development of 1846 which, unlike Lower Crescent, is arranged in a true crescent form.

Front Elevation

The front elevation is asymmetrical and faces roughly south. At ground floor level to the right is the entrance, comprising a recessed timber sheeted door with a rectangular fanlight, approached by two stone steps. To the left of the doorway are two tall plain sash windows with frosted glazing. The ground floor is finished in rusticated render, with a decorative moulded keystone to the doorway.

At first floor level, three larger windows are set on a sill course. These have moulded surrounds and sash frames with Regency-style panes in a 4-over-8 arrangement. At second floor level, three semicircular-headed sash windows rest on a more pronounced, cornice-like sill course with dentillations. Two of these upper windows have plain frames; one has a vertical glazing bar to the upper sash in a 2-over-1 arrangement. The upper floors are finished in plain render.

Four large, evenly spaced Corinthian pilasters of giant order span the ground and first floor heights, supporting a slightly projecting frieze below second floor sill course level. At second floor level, corresponding with these pilasters are four panelled pilasters which rise to form parapet piers, with a pierced, balustrade-like parapet between them.

Rear Elevation and Roof

The rear elevation is partly rendered and partly in brick. To the left-hand (east) side is a two-storey gabled return, the gable of which is not visible as it is abutted by a large two-storey corrugated shed. To the right, the return merges with a two-storey projection with a monopitched roof. The rear (north) face of this projection is in brick and contains a sash window with Georgian panes in an 8-over-8 arrangement at first floor level and a plain sheeted door at ground floor. The inner faces of the projection and return could not be observed.

On the rear facade of the main body of the building, the second floor has a sash window to the right with Georgian panes in a 3-over-6 arrangement, and a much smaller single-pane window to the left. At first floor level there appear to be two windows to the right, though these could not be seen clearly. Between the first and second floors to the left is a half-landing window with a Georgian-paned sash in a 6-over-6 arrangement. The second floor window appears to serve as a fire escape, with a platform beneath it and a ladder to the right.

The main roof is gabled and slated. There is a tall rendered chimneystack to the west, with a projecting coping and uniform pots. To the front there is a relatively large and relatively recent flat-roofed dormer; to the rear there are two small Velux windows. The return roof is also slated and has a cone-shaped rooflight at its south end. Rainwater goods are a mix of cast iron and PVC.

Historical Context

The development of Lower Crescent and its surroundings arose from the selling off of much of Lord Donegall's Belfast estate in the early to mid 19th century, which opened up large areas of land around the town for development. The lands to the south, along the Malone Ridge, were particularly attractive to developers and led to the construction of many fine late Georgian-style terraces from the mid-1830s onwards — a trend accelerated by the establishment of the prestigious Queen's College in the area in the later 1840s. These grand terraces were occupied by Belfast's professional and business classes, who vacated their older residences in the town centre, which were gradually converted to shops and offices.

Upper Crescent was perhaps the grandest of these terrace developments, an elegantly curving row of three-storey dwellings in a late Regency style, built in 1846 by timber and shipping merchant Robert Corry. Its authorship is uncertain, though Dr Paul Larmour has suggested the hand of architect Charles Lanyon may have been involved. Corry himself undertook the building work and took up residence at the east end of the row; for the first few years of its existence the terrace was known as "Corry's Crescent". To the immediate south of the Crescent, where a church and small park now stand, Corry maintained a large lawn as a garden. Shortly after it was laid out, however, he had it ploughed up and used for growing vegetables to relieve local workers suffering as a result of the Great Famine.

To the north of this garden ran an old watercourse flowing northwards into the Basin, a reservoir east of the Dublin Road. To the east lay smaller gardens belonging to other occupants of the Crescent, and further to the east and north-east ran Albion Lane, a narrow semi-rural laneway stretching from the north end of Bradbury Place to the east end of the present University Terrace.

In 1852, Corry built a further terrace to the north of his garden, just south of the old watercourse. This new development — the erroneously named Lower "Crescent" — was built in much the same style as the earlier terrace to the south, and was occupied by a similar mix of professionals and businessmen, though by as early as 1860 the ground floors of some properties were in use as offices. In the later 1860s a railway line was cut immediately to the north of Lower Crescent, following the line of the old watercourse. In 1873 a large sandstone building — originally the Ladies Collegiate, later Victoria College — was added to the west end of the terrace. By the close of that decade two further houses had been added to the east end, the most easterly of which, Rivoli House, was designed by William Hastings and originally contained a dance academy run by a Frederick Brouneau. The new railway line cut across Albion Lane and preceded the laying out of a new and broader thoroughfare, Botanic Avenue.

Upper Crescent also saw further building in the 1860s and 1870s. Two large properties designed by William Hastings were erected to the west end in 1869, one of which — Crescent House, now the Bank of Ireland — also fronted onto University Road. In 1878–79 two further houses were inserted between those of 1869. Between 1885 and 1887 the large Presbyterian church now known as Crescent Church was erected to plans by Glasgow architect John Bennie Wilson on the west side of Corry's former garden, and in 1898 a two-storey terrace — the present Crescent Gardens — was built on the site of smaller garden plots at the east end.

During the first half of the 20th century most properties in Upper and Lower Crescent and Crescent Gardens remained private dwellings, but by 1960 many had passed into business use or been divided into flats, with the former Rivoli House (by then known as Dreenagh House) becoming the Regency Hotel. This trend continued, and by the beginning of the 21st century none of the properties remained in private residential use. In the mid-1990s three of the 1860s–70s houses at the west end of Upper Crescent were demolished and replaced by a modern office block. In 2000, the railway cutting to the south of Lower Crescent was built over in preparation for a new development.

History of No. 10

No. 10 is one of the eleven houses forming the original 1852 section of Lower Crescent. In 1858 it and its eastern neighbour, No. 11, were used as offices for the Ordnance Survey, but by 1860 No. 10 had returned to private residential use, occupied by a Robert W. Corry — undoubtedly a relative of the Robert Corry who built both crescents. Corry was followed in 1862 by a John Arnold, who remained in residence until at least the mid-1880s. By 1899 a Mrs McKnight is listed as resident, followed by a Miss Warner in 1910, and T. Kernaghan, described as a linen merchant, in 1920. By 1940 the property appears to have been divided into two flats, though a single occupant is recorded in the 1951 directory. Three flats are recorded in 1960 and four in 1970. These divisions appear to have changed again in the later 1970s, when the first floor was amalgamated with the first floors of Nos. 8 and 9 to form a large office suite.