Parklands, Holywood Road, Belfast, Co.Antrim, BT4 2PS

Parklands is a six-bay, five-storey apartment block constructed in 1961–2 by Belfast Corporation on Holywood Road in Belfast. Originally known as Knocknagoney Dale, it was built in the International Style as part of a three-block apartment complex with linked stairwell towers (HB26.12.054B and HB26.12.054C).

The building is of red brick with a flat roof featuring overhanging eaves and a painted soffit. A plant room sits on the roof with three stainless steel flues. The west-facing front elevation displays horizontal bands of curtain walling at first and third floor levels, each with a shallow projecting concrete frame forming galleries with plain vertical metal railings. Original aluminium-framed sliding doors with side-lights open onto these galleries. The second and fourth floors each have a pair of square-headed windows with aluminium casements and painted clips. Ground floor openings have smooth rendered raised bands; doors are timber sheeted with flanking side-lights and tiled steps. A stairwell tower projects from the north side in brown brick, with rough-cast rendered upper floors and a projecting flat-roofed canopy at ground level.

The east elevation features a recessed ground floor with red brick piers supporting upper floors. Strip windows at first and third floor levels have blockwork infill panels below. A four-storey stairwell block in rustic red brick projects to the east. The south elevation is of red brick with a window opening at third floor level. The north elevation shows red brick walling with a raised smooth render band at the north-east corner and a first floor string course.

The original open-deck access to the apartments has been infilled with metal casement windows and is not considered of special interest. Windows throughout are replacement uPVC and metal casements in square-headed openings with rendered painted sills, except where otherwise stated. Painted metal downpipes run along east and west elevations. A mono-pitch fibre cement slated canopy supports the ground floor door openings on metal posts.

The building sits within mature parkland with entrance from Knocknagoney Road to the north. A mature tree boundary hedge surrounds the north, west and south boundaries, with a steep grass embankment to the east. Bituminous paved parking and formal lawns lie to the west. The site forms one corner of Knocknagoney Linear Park to the south and west.

The block was constructed on land that had formed the lower end of Richmond Lodge demesne in the nineteenth century. This district of Belfast underwent substantial post-war development. The structure was first recorded in the 1961–2 Second General Revaluation Records, with ground-floor flats valued at £23 each and those on the remaining four floors at £25 each. The building appeared vacant by 1981 but was listed as Parkside Apartments in 1986 under the heading of Knocknagoney Dale. It acquired the name Parklands by 1991. The reasons for these successive name changes are unclear.