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

No. 3 Lower Crescent is a relatively large, three-storey rendered town house, built in 1852 as part of a Regency-style terrace of eleven similar, though not identical, properties. It has since been converted and is now in office use. The terrace known as Lower Crescent sits to the east of University Road and faces, across a small public park, Upper Crescent — a similarly styled development of 1846 which, unlike Lower Crescent, is actually arranged in a true crescent form. No. 3 is positioned close to the west end of the terrace and is one of a pair of the more ornate buildings in the group, distinguished by large two-storey Corinthian columns to the front.

EXTERIOR

The front elevation is asymmetrical and faces roughly south. At ground floor level to the left is the entrance, consisting of a recessed timber panelled door with panelled pilaster jambs and a rectangular two-pane fanlight, approached by three stone steps. To the right of the doorway are two tall sash windows with Georgian panes (6/6). At first floor level, three larger windows sit on a continuous sill course; these have moulded surrounds and sash frames with Regency-style panes (2/4). At second floor level are three pairs of narrow, semicircular-headed sash windows with horizontal glazing bars (1/2), resting on a more pronounced, cornice-like projecting sill course decorated with dentillations.

The ground floor is finished in rusticated render, the first floor in a less pronounced rustication, and the uppermost floor in plain render. Four large, evenly spaced Corinthian three-quarter columns span the full height of the ground and first floors, supporting a projecting frieze below the level of the second floor sill course. The column to the far right is square rather than round. Corresponding with these at second floor level are four panelled pilasters, which rise to form parapet piers with a pierced, balustrade-like parapet between them.

The rear elevation is entirely rendered. To the right-hand (west) side is a three-storey gabled return — originally two storeys, but heightened by one storey at some point. On the first floor of the gable there is a window with what appears to be a plain sash frame to the left, and a sash window with Georgian panes (6/6) to the left on the second floor. To the left, the return merges with a two-storey projection with a monopitched roof. On the north face of this projection there is a sash window with Georgian panes to the upper sash (6/1), while at ground floor level there is a flat-arched vehicle entrance with a modern roller shutter. On the inner south face of the projection there is a large flat-arched opening at ground floor level. On the inner east face of the return there is a doorway to the far left, situated within the open arch area of the projection, and to the left of this a window with a modern frame. At first floor level on this face there are three windows of differing sizes, two with modern frames and one to the far right with a plain sash frame. At second floor level are two Georgian-paned sash windows of differing sizes: that to the left is 3/6, that to the right 6/6.

On the rear façade of the main house there is a sash window with Georgian panes (6/6) to the left at ground floor level. At first floor level there is a similar window to the left, but with horizontal glazing bars (2/2). At second floor level to the left is a smaller plain sash window. The gabled roof is slated. There is a tall rendered chimneystack with projecting coping and uniform pots to the east. Rainwater goods are a mixture of cast iron and PVC.

HISTORICAL CONTEXT

The development of Lower Crescent and its surroundings was made possible by 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 building 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 new terraces were occupied by Belfast's professional and business classes, who left their older residences in the town centre behind; those older properties were gradually converted into shops and offices.

Upper Crescent was perhaps the grandest of these southern 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 that the hand of Charles Lanyon may have been involved. Corry undertook the building work himself and took up residence in the house at the east end; for the first few years the row was known as Corry's Crescent. To the immediate south of the Crescent, on the site where a church and small park now stand, Corry held a large lawn as a garden. Shortly after it was laid out, however, he had it ploughed up and used for growing vegetables for the relief of 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 second terrace to the north of his garden and just south of the old watercourse. This new development — the erroneously named Lower Crescent — was much in the same style as Upper Crescent and was occupied by the same 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 the decade, two further houses had been added to the east end, the most easterly of which, Rivoli House (designed by William Hastings), originally contained a dance academy run by a Frederick Brouneau. The new railway line cut across Albion Lane and presaged 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 at 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 added 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 Robert 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, as well as Crescent Gardens, remained private dwellings. By 1960, however, many had been given over to business use or divided into flats, with the former Rivoli House — later renamed 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–1870s 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.

THE HISTORY OF NO. 3

No. 3 Lower Crescent is one of the eleven houses that made up the original 1852 section of the terrace. It is recorded as vacant in 1858, occupied by a Henry Smith in 1860, by a Reverend John H. Moore in 1861, and by a William Moffat in 1877. In the 1890s and early 1900s the house was the residence of Mrs Margaret Byers, founder of the nearby Victoria College. It remained in the possession of Victoria College for some years after Mrs Byers' death in 1912, but had been sold or leased out by the school by 1930, when it was again in use as a private dwelling. It continued as a dwelling house until the 1970s, after which it became a health centre — apparently integrated with the neighbouring No. 2 — then a stationery shop (also integrated with No. 2), and later offices. The property originally had a two-storey return, which was heightened by one storey at some point.