12 St. Johns Avenue, BELFAST, BT7 3JE

12 St John's Avenue is a three-storey semi-detached house dating from 1908, built in the Arts and Crafts style and forming a mirror-image pair with its neighbour, no. 40 St John's Park. The two houses occupy a prominent corner site at the junction of St John's Avenue and St John's Park, near the Ormeau Road, approximately 3 kilometres from Belfast city centre. They are the oldest houses in the St John's area and represent an unusual house type for the period. The surrounding neighbourhood consists mainly of early-to-mid 20th century semi-detached red-brick housing with double canted bay fronts.

The house is square on plan with a double-pitched roof, a side entrance porch, a single-storey return to the rear, and an enclosed yard. The listing covers the house and yard wall.

Materials and General Fabric

The roof is covered in replacement red concrete roof tiles with matching ridge tiles. Rainwater goods are painted cast iron. The walls are red brick at ground floor level, laid in Flemish bond, rising to painted rough-cast render at first floor level. Windows are generally single-glazed painted timber sliding sash in a 6/1 configuration.

Front Elevation (facing east)

The front elevation features a gabled three-storey projecting bay to the right-hand side and a projecting bay at ground level to the left, flush with the right gable. The right-hand projecting bay at ground floor level has a canted front with three windows, plain brick piers, a high parapet roof with scallop detailing, and slim concrete copings. The left-hand projecting bay has a pair of windows under a mono-pitch roof with red concrete tiles. All window openings at ground level are square-headed with plain painted concrete lintels and concrete sills. The walls here are finished in smooth red-clay brick in Flemish bond.

At first floor level, there are two segmental-arch-headed Wyatt-style windows centrally positioned above each bay. Each consists of a central 6/1 window flanked by two 2/1 side lights, set in red-brick surrounds with reveals finished in the manner of quoins. On the right-hand projecting gable at second floor level is a centrally placed oval window opening with a red-brick surround, fitted with a painted timber oval window that opens on a central pivot. Above the left-hand projecting bay is a single square flat-roofed dormer with lead covering and a painted timber square window.

At first floor and above, the walls are finished in slap-dash render painted off-white. There are deep overhanging eaves with exposed painted timber rafter ends, a moulded fascia, and cast-iron guttering. A slim red-brick chimney with a slim moulded concrete cap and red-clay pots rises to the left.

Rear Elevation (facing west)

The rear elevation has a gabled three-storey projecting bay to the left-hand side. To the right at ground floor level is a 6/1 sliding sash window in an opening with a flat segmental arched head and painted concrete sill, with a similar window at first floor level. To the left at ground floor level is a smaller window with a flat segmental arched head and a 1/1 sliding sash window. A single-storey return is attached to the left of this opening.

On the left-hand projecting gable at first floor level are three stairwell window openings with sliding sash windows, the lower sections glazed in stained glass — one 4/1 and two 6/1. At second floor level, to the right, is a round-headed arched window with an arched overlight and a 4/1 sliding sash window, again with a stained glass lower section. To the left is a segmental-headed arched window with a 6/2 sliding sash.

Walls to the right are red brick in Flemish bond; to the left they are slap-dash render painted off-white. Concrete sills are painted. The deep overhanging eaves have a painted timber moulded fascia, exposed rafter ends, a boarded timber soffit, and cast-iron guttering. The roof is double-pitched with replacement red concrete tiles and ridge tiles. A tall moulded ventilation pipe rises from the apex of the gable. A red-brick chimney with a slim moulded concrete cap and red-clay pots stands to the right.

North Side Elevation

The north side elevation features a slightly projecting entrance porch positioned almost centrally, with a pair of narrow windows to the right. These windows have flat segmental arched heads, concrete sills, and 4/2 single-glazed sliding sash windows with obscure glass.

The projecting porch has a door opening to the right and a window opening to the left. The window is a bi-partite painted timber stained glass casement with fixed top lights. The door is original varnished timber with a two-panel lower section and three upper glazed panels with stained glass. A painted timber canopy with carved painted timber brackets and a boarded painted timber soffit covers both openings. The openings have segmental-arch heads with a painted concrete tympanum featuring a circular indent. Painted concrete courses run at impost and sill level, with an ogee moulding at sill level in the doorway. A metal lamp is fixed to the wall to the left of the door. To the right of the porch is a large cast-iron downpipe with an original hopper.

At ground floor level the walls are finished in smooth red-clay brick in Flemish bond. At first floor level, to the right, are two flat segmental-arch-headed windows — one 6/2 and one 4/2 — with red-brick surrounds and reveals in the manner of quoins. Above this the walls are slap-dash render painted off-white. Deep overhanging eaves have exposed painted timber rafter ends, moulded fascia, and cast-iron guttering. Where the main roof gable meets the ridge there is a gablet with a slatted painted timber inset. The roof is double-pitched with replacement red concrete tiles and ridge tiles. A slim red-brick chimney with slim moulded concrete cap and red-clay pots stands centrally. To the west of this elevation is the single-storey return, adjoining the gable of a single-storey garage extension. The return has an original flat segmental-headed door opening with a painted boarded timber yard door. Both the return and garage have double-pitched roofs with replacement red concrete tiles, ridge tiles, and cast metal rainwater goods.

South Side Elevation

The south side elevation abuts no. 40 St John's Park.

Rear Yard

Within the enclosed rear yard there is a single-storey red-brick return to the north, adjoining a modern single-storey red-brick garage to the west. The return has two replacement varnished timber glazed doors — one single and one double. The garage has a replacement varnished timber glazed door with a side light.

Setting and Boundaries

There is a small lawned front garden bounded by hedgerow to St John's Park. On St John's Avenue, to the left, is a small 20th century replacement pedestrian gateway with metal gates mounted on plain square red-brick piers with concrete caps. To the right is a larger vehicular gateway with double gates and piers in a similar style. Concrete paviors lead from the pedestrian gateway to the entrance porch on the north façade, with the concrete surface extending westward toward the single-storey garage.

History

No. 12 St John's Avenue and its mirror-image neighbour, no. 40 St John's Park, first appear in the valuation records in 1908 and were presumably completed in that year or the year immediately before. At that time St John's Avenue extended no further than the two newly built houses themselves; Rosetta Parade was just being laid out; and the land to the south, which for much of the 19th century had formed part of the grounds of either Annadale or Annadale Cottage — two of the small country villas that characterised the Ormeau and Ravenhill area throughout the 1800s — remained undeveloped.

The authorship of the houses is not certain, though the name W.G. or W.J. Gilliland appears as the immediate lessor in the valuation book. If this is W.J., it is highly probable that the designer was William John Gilliland (1855–1929), the Belfast architect known to have worked on buildings in this vicinity, including houses and shops along the Ormeau Road in 1896, an extension to Ormeau Bakery in 1906, and a bakery for the United Co-operative Baking Society in Ravenhill in 1911.

Because of the houses' position at the junction of several streets, their early history is difficult to trace consistently in street directories. In the 1911 census only one of the properties is recorded — occupied by Patrick McGlade, his wife Eleanor, eight of their children, and a domestic servant. The building is described as a first-class dwelling with 12 rooms. McGlade was a Belfast publican who came to own bars in Donegall Street and Castle Street, a café in Queen's Arcade, several hotels including the Grand Metropole Hotel in Donegall and York Streets, a petrol station, and several shops on nearby Ormeau Road. Although the census suggests the family were living at the present no. 12 St John's Avenue, family history and later valuation returns indicate their home was actually no. 40 St John's Park, originally known as Evermore. McGlade also owned the large landholding to the south, much of which by at least 1927 he was renting to several local tennis clubs, with a small section immediately south of Evermore occupied by garages. Most of this land was sold off for the development of St John's Park in the mid-1930s, though the garages remained until the construction of St John's Court around 1990.

The northern property, apparently known as Kingslea, seems to have remained vacant for several years after completion. Around 1916 it was leased by a J. or Harold Tomlinson, who remained there until around 1930. After this, both houses were occupied by members of the McGlade family — Patrick and Eleanor McGlade had 28 children in total. Both semis remained in McGlade family occupation until the late 1960s, when no. 12 was acquired by or leased to T.A. Norrie, described as a company director. He was followed in the later 1970s by R. Lewis and then by Henry H. McConkey by 1986.