605 Antrim Road, Belfast

605 Antrim Road is a well-proportioned and finely detailed two-storey High Victorian semi-detached red-brick house, built alongside its pair No. 607 between 1874 and 1875 in the style of John Lanyon of Belfast. Together the two houses form a symmetrical pair within the Somerton Road Conservation Area, designated in 2000 in recognition of the area's high standard of Victorian and Edwardian suburban townscape character.

The pair share a rectangular plan facing south, with projecting gabled blocks to the east and west, single-storey gabled porches with main entrance doors to the south, and a prominent shared chimney to the centre of the roof ridge dividing the two houses. Both houses have narrowly projecting gables with two-storey projecting semi-circular bays to the south and separate rear returns to the north. No. 605 has a rectangular rear return to the north elevation of two distinct phases, with recent alterations evident.

The roofs are hipped and gabled natural slate with black clay roll-top ridge tiles and three prominent red-brick chimneys — one shared centrally with No. 607 — each with battered brick capping set above a dentilated brick course and a mixture of original buff clay and replacement red clay pots. The double eaves course is composed of a dentilated red-brick cornice below a bevelled edge course. Rainwater goods are a mixture of original cast-iron ogee guttering with some replacement metal and uPVC, discharging to cast-iron polygonal hoppers and circular-section cast-iron downpipes. The walling throughout is Flemish bond red brick with horizontal bands of blue brick, a stringcourse composed of raised red brick above a header course, and stepped brick kneelers to the gables. Smooth dressed red sandstone cills are used throughout, with leaded sandstone coping to the gables and hexagonal blocks to each gable apex. Windows are generally square-headed double-hung single-glazed sashes with horns, set in segmental-arch bevelled-edge red-brick surrounds with blue-brick segmental-arch drip moulds supported on single nail-head buff-brick corbels, except where noted otherwise below.

South (principal) elevation

The front south elevation of No. 605 is a mirror image of No. 607, sharing the central prominent chimney. No. 605 has two bays to the south-west and a two-storey semi-circular bay with a half-cone slated roof, projecting from a narrowly projecting gabled block to the south. The semi-circular bay has three square-headed windows with continuous red sandstone cills and moulded sandstone heads to both floors. At each floor level the semi-circular bay has two pairs of painted cast-iron colonettes with High Victorian foliated capitals dividing the windows, those at first-floor level being of reduced height. The sashes within the semi-circular bay have straight frames and glazing. The gabled two-storey block with attic level to the south-west is set back from the main façade and has a two-storey hipped-roof bay narrowly projecting to the west, and a single-storey gabled porch to the south housing a six-panelled painted timber door with original brass furniture. At first-floor level there are three blue-brick bands to window level; at ground-floor level there are four blue-brick bands, with a double course near the ground-floor window head level.

West elevation

The west elevation has a projecting two-storey gabled block with one central bay to the gable at attic level, containing a square-headed 2/2 sash window surmounted by a narrowly recessed blind semi-circular arch with a buff-brick cross to its centre. This block has a two-storey bay window with a hipped natural slate roof, a double window at first-floor level without a drip mould, and a double window at ground-floor level with a continuous drip mould and cill. To the northern end of the house there is a single-storey extension of unknown date, recently altered, with a hipped natural slate roof and a stepped parapet to the corners only. The extension is of two clear phases: the later phase has stretcher-bond red-brick walling with two blue-brick bands to the north and west elevations, while the earlier phase has English garden bond brickwork and three triangular-arch windows with no drip moulds. The two-storey projecting gabled block has a gabled projecting porch attached to its south side, with two small square-headed windows without drip moulds at first-floor level above either side of the porch roof apex and no other windows to the main façade. There is a rectangular-section red-brick chimney to the south-west wall with two pots. The porch has projecting eaves and an ornate moulded timber bargeboard with detailed timber fretwork, supported on moulded timber brackets and stepped buff-brick corbels. The porch has a single window to the west with a central moulded timber colonette-style mullion dividing two fixed lights, and timber tracery lights above.

North elevation

The rear north elevation shows a marked lack of decoration compared to the front and sides, with a plain double-stepped eaves course and blue-brick bands only to the single-storey extension. The fenestration pattern is irregular, with square-headed window openings generally containing double-hung sliding sashes divided by horizontal glazing bars and no drip moulds to the heads. There is a prominent red-brick chimney shared between Nos. 605 and 607 to the north-east ridge, with one bay to the main block at the north-east and a single half-dormer window above a paired window to the narrowly projecting block at the north-west. This narrowly projecting block has a prominent rectangular-section chimney with four buff clay pots and is attached to the single-storey extension to the north. The extension has timber glazed doors opening onto a patio and a single roof light to the hipped roof, with a stepped parapet to the corners.

East elevation

The building is attached on the east to No. 607, with both houses being largely symmetrical and sharing the prominent chimney to the centre of the roof. The extension to the north has two square-headed windows to the north-east and a square-headed door to the south-east.

Interior

Both externally and internally many original features have been retained, including sash windows, joinery, ironwork and the original plan form, all of which add to the building's interest.

Setting

Both Nos. 605 and 607 are set back from the Antrim Road on its east side within a mature garden, and are not clearly visible from the public footpath. Access is through a shared entrance with modern replacement timber gates set on square-section replacement red-brick piers. A private lane leads to grounds shared with No. 607, with each house having its own drive from the lane and separate gardens divided by mature hedging to the rear. A later double red-brick garage lies to the west of No. 605. The original gate screen and piers to the Antrim Road have been replaced by modern alternatives.

Historical background

Nos. 605 and 607 Antrim Road were constructed following the break-up of the Fortwilliam Estate in the mid-19th century, a period during which, as Paul Larmour has noted, many grand mansions were erected on the former estate in the 1860s and 1870s, although only a few now survive. The houses were built on land owned by Victor C. Taylor, a machinist and millwright who owned the Atlas Foundry on Townsend Street and resided at Fortwilliam Terrace in the 1870s. The Annual Revisions record that the houses were built between 1874 and 1875, were initially valued at £62 each, and were known as 'Ardeen.'

The architect is not known with certainty, but the First Survey of 1985 suggests the buildings were designed in the style of John Lanyon. John Lanyon (1839–1900), son of Sir Charles Lanyon, began his career in partnership with his father and W. H. Lynn, forming the firm Lanyon, Lynn and Lanyon in 1860. Following the firm's dissolution in 1872 and his father's retirement, John Lanyon established an independent practice in Belfast. His association with the Fortwilliam and Somerton Road developments began in 1870 when he occupied Lisbreen House. The Dictionary of Irish Architects records that he carried out work to a mansion on Fortwilliam Park in 1889, and he is also very likely to have been the architect of No. 71 Somerton House, which neighboured his own dwelling.

No. 605 was initially leased by Victor Taylor to John Cahoon, a local watchmaker, jeweller, optician and steel engraver whose firm, Cahoon Bros, held business premises at No. 16 Castle Place. Cahoon continued to occupy Ardeen until 1887, when Victor Taylor took it as his personal dwelling. Following Taylor's death in 1896, ownership of both houses passed to his children. The 1901 Census records that No. 605 was occupied by Taylor's son Edward, who continued to operate the iron foundry, and his daughters Annie and Clara Taylor. At that date the census building return described No. 605 as a first-class dwelling consisting of ten rooms. The Taylor family continued to occupy Ardeen until 1954. By the First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936–57), ownership had passed to a Mrs. Boal and the value of the building had been raised to £75. In 1954 a Mr. Frederick Arnold occupied the house, and by the end of the Second Revaluation its value stood at £69.

The houses were listed in 1986. Records note that the house was treated for dry rot in 1986 and that an air-raid shelter, which had been located in the yard of No. 605 from the Second World War, was removed in 1995. The original single-storey garage was replaced with the current double garage, which has studio accommodation on the storey above, in approximately 2003. At the time of the Second Survey, No. 605 continued to be used as a private dwelling.