1 College Park East, Belfast, BT7 1PS

1 College Park East is a High Victorian, two-and-a-half-storey, red brick end-of-terrace former house, designed by Young & MacKenzie and built in 1869. It stands at the junction of University Avenue and College Park East in the Queen's University area of South Belfast, immediately south of Union Theological College, and to the east of the main buildings of Queen's University. The building is now in use as university offices and forms part of a row of six terraced properties (nos. 1–6 College Park East), the whole of which has been integrated internally. The listing covers the offices, the yard wall onto University Avenue, and the wall onto the rear alley.

The roof is covered in natural Welsh slate with black clay ridge tiles, and rainwater goods are cast iron. Walls are red brick laid in Flemish bond. Windows are timber sliding sash with horns and single glazing, likely replacements.

The main block is broadly rectangular on an east–west axis with gabled ends. The narrow west front forms part of the terrace frontage and features a two-storey canted flat-roofed bay. The east (rear) elevation has a lower two-storey gabled projection, which is abutted to the east by an L-shaped row of single-storey lean-to sheds. On the south, yard-facing side of the main block there is a flat-roofed single-storey extension covering part of the yard and linking to the return of no. 2. The yard beyond — shared with the neighbouring properties — now functions as a small car park, open to the entry running along the rear of the terrace.

To the front there is a small garden, now paved with concrete paving slabs, with a painted plinth wall to the street and replacement painted metal railings. The Flemish bond brickwork includes simple brick eaves detailing to part of the north facade. The street-facing windows have bevelled brick relieving arches and reveal detailing, with painted stone header bands to the bay, a decorative brick and terracotta band between floor levels, and a painted stone base course. The long north facade merges to the east with a tall brick wall terminating in a pierced brick and stone parapet with stone coping. Walls facing into the yard have none of this decorative detailing. Window openings have a mixture of shallow segmental, flat, and semicircular heads with painted stone sills and predominantly one-over-one timber sash frames with horns. The overhanging roof has exposed rafter ends to the north and timber bargeboards to the east and west gables, those to the bay and dormer having simple decoration. There are four brick chimneystacks, one of which is shared with no. 2.

The north elevation has four openings on each floor, with a centrally located wall-head dormer at attic level. The entrance — second from the right on the ground floor — consists of a tall semicircular opening with an entirely stone surround, including three-quarter column jambs with tall bases and Corinthian-like foliate capitals, a painted brick reveal, and a recessed panelled timber door. The door sits forward of its original position and is no longer in use; access to no. 1 is now through no. 2. There are two window openings to the left of the entrance and one to the right on the ground floor, with four openings aligned with these on the first floor. The half-dormer has a semicircular-headed opening with a replacement casement frame.

The west elevation has window openings to each facet of the bay on each floor. At attic level there are paired semicircular-headed openings with a central three-quarter colonette with a twisted shaft.

The east elevation's ground level is covered by the lean-to shed, which to the south merges with the extension linking to the return of no. 2. This extension has a small window and a doorway with a recent flat-panel door, with similar doors to the south-facing part of the shed. At upper landing level within the gabled projection there are three windows of similar height but different widths: the far left window, which lights the stairwell, has shouldered corners and a margin-paned sash frame with coloured and patterned glazing, while the others have flat heads and more regular two-over-two sash frames. Above the projection on the main body of the building there is another window to the left at upper landing level, and a smaller one to the right on the uppermost floor.

The south elevation has a first-floor window to the left and another at landing level to the far right, within the projection, similar in character to the corresponding window on the east elevation.

Internally, despite the building's conversion to university offices and its integration with the rest of the terrace, the original staircase survives and much of the original floor plan remains.

College Park East — originally known simply as College Park — was laid out in or shortly before 1864 on land that had until then formed the semi-rural edge of the plains of Malone, just east and south of the recently established Queen's College (completed 1849) and Union Theological College (completed 1853). The founding of Queen's College in particular prompted several decades of residential development in the area, with regularly planned streets filled largely with High Victorian terraced housing for the professional and merchant classes moving southwards away from a rapidly commercialising and industrialising Belfast city centre. No. 4, the approximately central property in the row, was the first to be completed, in 1864, followed by nos. 1–3 and 5–6 in 1869 and Hope House — which directly abuts the rear of no. 6, though is not strictly part of the row — in 1873. Nos. 1–3 appear to have been developed by William Sherrie, a brush manufacturer with premises in North Street; no. 4 by Alexander Holmes; and nos. 5–6 and Hope House by Matthew Pattison. Young & MacKenzie advertised a tender for making streets in College Park East in August 1870, and this firm was responsible for the design of this house and its neighbours.

Because no. 1 faces onto University Avenue while technically forming part of College Park East, the earliest street directories and valuation records of the 1870s and early 1880s are inconsistent in how they assign the property, resulting in discrepancies in street numbering that make it difficult to trace the earliest occupants with certainty. The property is recorded as vacant in an 1870 annotation to the valuation revision book. The earliest street directory to cover the terrace, published in 1877, lists John Charley as living there, noting him as the occupant of no. 2. The 1880 directory begins the terrace at no. 2 with no mention of no. 1, and the 1884 directory similarly omits it, though it refers to a single house on University Avenue in the hands of R. McGeagh. This appears to be no. 1, as Robert McGeagh, flax merchant, is named as occupant when no. 1 College Park East reappears in the 1887 directory. Subsequent occupancy can be traced with greater confidence: James Riddell moved in around 1891, followed by W. W. Brydon around 1896. The building was advertised to let again in 1898, described in the Belfast Telegraph as a well-situated house containing three reception rooms, five bedrooms, a bath, lavatory, and other accommodation, then being refurbished. Martin Lynass, an accountant, had taken up the lease by 1900 and remained until around 1906, when it passed to Alfred Thomson, a yarn and linen agent. The 1911 census records William MacMillan as head of household, residing there with his wife Margaret, their three grown-up children, and a house guest.

During the First World War the property served as a nurses' home in connection with the UVF Hospital. By at least 1923 it had reverted to private use, occupied by an M. Bradshaw. At some point between then and around 1940 it appears to have served as the residence for the Principal of the neighbouring Theological College. In 1941, following the destruction of the RUC headquarters at Chichester Street, the Theological College was requisitioned as a temporary RUC headquarters, and no. 1 College Park East was used to house police trainees. Both buildings were handed back in May 1948. By 1955 no. 1 was operating as a private nursing home run by a Miss Elizabeth Bradshaw, probably a relation of the occupants of the early 1920s and possibly someone with a prior connection to the building's wartime nursing role. It remained a nursing home until around 1962, when both no. 1 and no. 2 had become the Queen's District Nurses' Home for the Belfast County Borough Health Committee. By 1980 both properties were noted simply as Community Health Services. By 1990 both had passed into the ownership of Queen's University Belfast and were used for a number of years as temporary premises for the university's Department of Modern History. No. 1 is now integrated internally with the rest of the terrace, the whole of which serves as offices for the QUB School of Sociology, Social Policy and Social Work.