11 College Place North, Belfast, County Antrim, BT1 6BE

No. 11 College Place North is a terraced two-storey red brick house built around 1840, constructed as one of a pair of similar houses (the other being No. 13, its immediate neighbour to the west). It sits on an irregular plan, faces south, and is located in a cul-de-sac to the north of College Square North. Although the pair has been somewhat compromised by recent alterations, it forms part of a 19th-century terrace and retains enough of its original character to stand as a near-textbook example of second- and third-rate housing of a type that is becoming increasingly rare in Belfast city centre.

The roof is covered in natural slate with black clay ridge tiles. A profiled brick chimneystack with terracotta pots rises from the west party wall, which is shared with No. 13. UPVC guttering on iron brackets runs along the brick eaves course. The walls are of red brick laid in Flemish bond, with a painted rendered plinth course at the base. Window openings have gauged brick flat arches, painted sandstone sills, and rendered reveals; the windows themselves are replacement 2-over-2 timber sash units, with a fixed-pane window at ground floor level. The front elevation is two windows wide. To the left is a square-headed door opening with a rendered surround, a replacement flush timber door, and a rectangular overlight; the door opens directly onto the pavement. The west side elevation abuts No. 13, and the east side elevation abuts No. 9. The rear elevation was not inspected.

In terms of setting, No. 11 forms part of a terrace of two similar houses that returns onto the principal section of College Place North, which itself is lined on its northwest side by a further terrace of four houses at the entrance to an industrial yard.

The history of the building and its terrace is well documented. The row does not appear on the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1832–33, which shows the area as vacant land, but it had been constructed by the time of the second edition in 1858. This places its construction firmly in the period around 1840–50, during the Victorian expansion of the neighbourhood surrounding College Square. The opening of the Royal Belfast Academical Institution in 1814 and the rapid population growth of the Victorian period together drove the development of terraced streets to the west of Belfast's centre. One account compiled by the Historic Buildings Branch in 1992 describes College Place North as having been erected as mews housing for servants working in the larger houses fronting College Square itself. The terrace is thought to have originally been closed off at the Killen Street end by a brick wall, and an opposing terrace on the southwest side — now demolished — once stood facing it. The row was and remains in the shadow of Neill's factory, originally constructed during the Famine period and remodelled in the 1880s by James Neill.

Griffith's Valuation of 1860 records that Nos. 3–13 College Place North were all owned by Thomas McCammon, a tanner, leather merchant, and flour miller who operated from a tannery on King Street directly to the north, and who was also the lessor of a number of other dwellings in the area. In 1860, No. 11 was occupied by a John Murphy and valued at £5 — notably lower than the adjoining properties in the terrace. Murphy had left by the following year, when a Mrs. Gray was recorded as sole occupant; she in turn was replaced by Mrs. Boyd, an upholsterer, by 1880. Despite these changes of occupant, the Annual Revisions continued to record Murphy as tenant until the 1900 Belfast Revaluation. By that date, ownership of the terrace had passed to Samuel Gibson, a druggist and general merchant with properties on King Street.

The 1900 Revaluation report described No. 11 as a two-storey dwelling of approximately 50 years old, fitted with gas installations and containing three inhabited rooms — including sitting rooms and bedrooms, but excluding the kitchen. Its rateable value was slightly increased to £6. The occupant at that time was Jervis Lockard, who paid a weekly rent of four shillings. The 1901 Census records Lockard (aged 49, Church of Ireland) as a coach driver living at No. 11 with his wife Annie (aged 48) and their two daughters; the census building return classified the property as a second-class dwelling with five rooms in total. Lockard remained at College Place North until at least 1907; from 1908 the site was occupied by William Cathcart, a horseshoer. By 1918, Cathcart had been replaced by Sarah McElney, although the Annual Revisions continued to list Lockard as tenant until the valuation was cancelled in 1930.

Occupancy continued to change frequently through the 20th century. By the First General Revaluation of property in Northern Ireland in 1935, the occupant was Charles Courtney, and the property's value was increased to £9 15s. The terrace survived the 1941 Blitz intact. The Second General Revaluation, which ran from 1956 to 1972, recorded a Mr. or Mrs. M. Shaw as occupant, and the value was slightly reduced to £9 5s.

The terrace was listed in 1977 on the grounds that it represented a rare surviving example of early 19th-century two-storey housing in the area. However, in the period following listing, the dwellings fell into disrepair through neglect and vandalism, and by the 1990s more than half of the houses on the terrace lay vacant. In 1986–87, James Neill's original Victorian mill was demolished and replaced with the current structure; Neill's Mill subsequently applied in 1992 for the delisting of College Place North with the intention of demolishing the terrace and incorporating the site into the factory. That request was refused, and a renovation project was subsequently carried out on Nos. 3–13, restoring much of the terrace's original character.

The architectural writer C. E. B. Brett, writing in 1985, described Nos. 3–13 College Place North as "enchanting little two-storey mid-Georgian houses [which] cannot be earlier than 1832 … they are real jewels with glazing bars all intact." However, as noted above, the Georgian attribution is too early: the terrace was most likely constructed around 1840–50 and had certainly not been built by the time of the 1832–33 Ordnance Survey. Writing at the time of the 1993 restoration, Patton described Nos. 3–9 as an "obtuse-angled terrace of two-storey red-brick houses with some surviving three-lobe fanlights over four-panel doors in simple doorcases," and characterised Nos. 11–13 as very similar but of slightly lower storey height — a distinction evident in the building today.

No. 11 College Place North lies within a conservation area, and its architectural interest encompasses its style, proportions, plan form, and group value as part of the wider terrace, though its setting and certain alterations are noted as detracting factors. It is of local historical interest and is the former and current use of which is residential. The property was previously listed as HB26/50/105 before being renumbered.