70 North Road, Cyprus Avenue, Belfast, Co.Antrim, BT5 5NJ

70 North Road, Cyprus Avenue, Belfast

This is a late Victorian two-storey red-brick dwelling with attic level, built around 1897 to designs by an unknown architect. It stands on an irregular plan facing east onto North Road, on the west side of the street, within the Cyprus Avenue Conservation Area — an area recognised for its high quality townscape character and its many Victorian and Edwardian period properties. The building was originally known as 'The Laurels' and served as a private day school for girls, operated by a Ms. Susanna Corry. It was constructed on land owned by a Mr. John M. Jones and was first recorded in 1897, when it was valued at £39 and 10 shillings. It is now used as a private dwelling.

The building is characterised by its projecting bays, prominent chimneys, and moulded and raised brick detailing throughout. Construction is in English Garden Wall bond red brick. The roof is finished in pitched and gabled red clay tiles with red clay roll-top ridge tiles. Moulded red brick corbels sit on raised and dentilated red brick courses at the projecting eaves, with replacement uPVC ogee guttering discharging to circular section uPVC downpipes.

The plan comprises a two-storey with attic gabled projecting block oriented east–west, with a two-storey projecting three-sided canted bay to its eastern end. Abutting this to the south is a two-storey hipped roof projection with a single-storey three-sided canted bay to its southern end. A separate flat-roofed side entry porch is attached to the south-east of the front blocks. To the rear, a two-storey L-shaped return projects from the centre of the west facade, with a recent single-storey extension to the northern end of the return.

There are three chimneys of note. A prominent rectangular section chimney to the north elevation carries eight buff clay pots. A single square section chimney with two tall buff clay pots sits at the south-west end of the rear return. A single rectangular section chimney rises from the west wall of the hipped roofed block to the south. All chimneys are red brick with bevelled edges to the shaft, a dentilated course, a ball flower course, and a moulded projecting cornice to the caps.

Windows throughout are replacement uPVC top-opening casements set in square-headed bevelled-edge openings. To the front blocks on the east and south elevations, these have painted stone heads; to the north and west elevations, red brick heads are used unless otherwise noted. Some windows retain stained leaded glazing within the uPVC casements.

The principal east-facing elevation features a two-storey with attic level projecting block to the north-east end and a two-storey hipped roof block at 90 degrees with a single-storey canted bay to the south end. A single-storey flat-roofed side entry porch abuts the junction of both blocks. Steps and a dwarf red brick wall, including a section of red clay balustrading to the south, lead to the south side of a two-bay entrance porch. The porch doorcase has a square-headed fanlight with a replacement six-panel painted timber door with brass furniture. The porch parapet is flat-roofed and carries ornate cast iron pierced quatrefoil cresting; the porch windows are replacement uPVC with leaded and coloured glazing. The facade generally has corbelled eaves, a ball flower stringcourse, a continuous raised band cill course to first floor and ground floor windows, and a continuous painted smooth plaster band at ground floor window head level. These features continue to the south facade of the projecting hipped roof block and are absent from the rear return. The hipped roof block at the south-east has a central moulded terracotta tile to the first floor flanked by single square-headed windows, with a single window to the ground floor south of the two-bay porch. The north-east two-storey with attic level block has a decorative panel of brickwork with projecting headers to the apex of a broken pediment gable, moulded ball flower bricks on an egg-and-dart eaves course, a terracotta scroll to the gable apex, and a single side-opening uPVC casement window at attic level.

The south elevation shows a two-bay two-storey hipped roof block — with the flat-roofed porch attached to the east — projecting from the two-storey with attic level block at the north-east. The hipped roof block has a replacement mono-pitch roof to the single-storey bay window at the south. The rear return to the west forms the south-west site boundary, abutted by outbuildings of neighbouring dwellings. Decoration is generally reduced to the rear block, with a plain eaves course and mostly red brick heads to the windows.

The west elevation has two bays to the first floor — one square-headed window now blocked with red brick — and a later rectangular window to the ground floor with a painted concrete head, along with two tall buff clay chimney pots to the square section chimney at the south-west corner. A recent pitched roof extension to the north-west has a square section chimney to the north gable and glazed three-section patio doors opening onto two concrete steps to the west. Timber and block garden buildings abut the south-western edge of the facade and extend westward.

The north elevation shows the main two-storey with attic level block to the east, with a prominent chimney set on a narrowly projecting raised brick two-storey gable. The projecting limb of the L-shaped rear return to the west is set back from the main block and has a later central square-headed doorway with a painted concrete head, square fanlight and sidelights, and a single off-centre window to the first floor. An angled wall with square-headed window openings at ground and first floor connects the return to the perpendicular block to the west, which has a window at the first floor gable end and a three-bay single-storey extension to the north. The eastern facade of the main block has single windows at each level, with a large horizontal window with a painted concrete head to the first floor. The eastern facade of the western block has a single narrow window to the ground floor and three windows to the single-storey extension.

The building is screened from the street by mature trees and timber boundary fencing, with modern timber gates set between square section red brick piers to the north-east. A blocked entrance with original red brick piers and walling survives to the south-east. The area to the east and south-east of the house has raised areas set to lawn with a gravel and hardcore drive to the east and north. A red brick wall to the south separates the front garden from the private gardens of neighbouring dwellings.

Internally, the building retains some original features including the staircase and some joinery.

Historically, the 1901 Census of Ireland records that Susanna Corry resided at the address with Isabella Browne, who was also employed as a school mistress. The school operated as a day school only and does not appear to have admitted boarders. By 1911, the census building return described The Laurels as a first-class dwelling and school consisting of 13 rooms. Susanna Corry continued to reside at the school until her death in 1922, at which point the building passed to her relative Joseph Corry. By the time of the First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936–57), it was no longer used as a school and was occupied as a private dwelling by John McLachlan Dunn, a manager at a local insurance firm. The value of the house was raised to £54 in the 1930s and further to £64 by the end of the Second General Revaluation (1956–72). The Jones family continued to be recorded as owners of the site until at least the 1970s.

Although the building retains local significance as a former school, its character has been compromised by the replacement of windows with uPVC casements and the substitution of original rainwater goods. It is recorded on the heritage register for its group value as part of the Cyprus Avenue Conservation Area, designated in 2000, rather than for any special architectural or historical interest of its own.