Rosemount House, 424 Antrim Road, Belfast, BT15 5GA

Rosemount House is a mid-terrace, two-bay, three-storey with attic former house, built in 1872 in red brick and stucco. It forms part of a row of seven similar houses originally known as Fortwilliam Terrace (Nos 416–428 Antrim Road), designed by Redfern Kelly (1845–1928), a Belfast-based engineer best known for his work on behalf of the Belfast Harbour Commissioners — including the deepening of the Victoria Channel, the reconstruction of the Alexandra Graving Dock following its collapse in 1905, and the construction of the Thompson Graving Dock. Despite his predominantly industrial practice, Kelly also designed a Masonic Hall in Larne and the Murlough Cottages in Dundrum. The terrace currently serves as a residential home.

The terrace sits on the west side of the Antrim Road, slightly elevated and set back behind a low rendered wall and a row of mature trees, with a shared bitmac driveway. The buildings stand on land that once formed the grounds of Hopefield House, a two-storey, six-bay mansion occupied by the Sinclair family. The Antrim Road itself was originally laid out in 1830, and by the 1850s the surrounding area of Skegoneil remained largely rural. As Belfast's population grew rapidly and its shipbuilding, rope-making and textile industries expanded through the mid-19th century, the townland of Skegoneil quickly became one of the most affluent areas of the city, attracting merchants and gentlemen who were leaving the overcrowded inner city. The terrace was leased by Samuel Lawther, manager of Samuel Lawther and Co., local coal importers and ship and insurance brokers with premises on Corporation Square, who was himself resident on Duncairn Street. A similar terrace, also thought to have been designed by Kelly and built in 1878, formerly known as Castleton Terrace, stands almost directly opposite on the east side of the Antrim Road. Fortwilliam Terrace was listed in 1987.

The building is rectangular on plan, facing east. The roof is pitched with artificial slate and sits behind a stucco parapet wall with a deep moulded cornice and plain frieze. The chimney stacks to both party walls are replacement painted rendered dummy stacks with painted pots. Rainwater goods include a replacement metal downpipe breaking through the parapet wall at the north end, with metal rainwater goods to the rear.

The main red brick walling is laid in Flemish bond with cement pointing. Continuous moulded string courses run at first and second floor sill levels. The rear and return walls are in machine-made red brick laid in stretcher bond. Window openings throughout are square-headed with decorative stucco surrounds, moulded sills, and replacement single-pane timber sash windows with ogee horns.

The two-bay, three-storey east front elevation is the principal facade. At ground floor level there is a rendered three-sided canted bay window with a continuous masonry sill, plat band, and shallow cornice to the parapet. The second floor windows have decorative painted lugged architrave surrounds with bracketed sills. The first floor windows are framed by scrolled foliate console brackets supporting a hood cornice, with moulded sills supported on stepped brackets. The door opening to the left bay is round-headed, formed in gauged brick with a projecting bull-nosed surround. It is fitted with a replacement painted timber panelled door flanked by fluted Ionic columns supporting a dentilated lintel cornice, with a plain glazed fanlight above. The door opens onto a concrete paved platform with replacement nosed granite steps set at an angle, alongside a universal access ramp enclosed by a low red brick wall and steel handrail. The south elevation abuts the adjoining No. 422, and the north side elevation abuts No. 426.

No. 424 Antrim Road, together with its immediate neighbour No. 422, suffered fire damage and had fallen into an advanced state of dereliction by around 1995, with substantial original fabric lost as a result. A restoration carried out in 2005 resulted in the loss of all original interior features. The original Victorian facades of both Nos 422 and 424 were retained, but the entire rear of both buildings was demolished and a shared three-storey rear return was constructed across the back of both properties, giving a gabled-ended three-storey red brick return to the rear elevation, all dating from around 2006. The restoration converted the site into a drug abuse rehabilitation hostel. The small enclosed rear yard remains.

The fire damage and subsequent demolition behind the facade significantly undermines the architectural value of the property. Nevertheless, the retention and restoration of the original facade using historically appropriate materials preserves the rhythm and form of the 19th-century terrace as a whole. The building retains group value with the other listed buildings in the terrace, and the terrace as a whole is a notable example of formal Victorian residential architecture, characterised by its vertical emphasis, graduated fenestration, and restrained neoclassical stucco mouldings.