6 Fitzwilliam Street, Belfast, Co. Antrim, BT9 6AW

6 Fitzwilliam Street is a three-storey, late Georgian-style terraced house of around 1849–50, forming part of a short, matching block of four properties (Nos. 2–8) situated at the eastern end of the south side of Fitzwilliam Street. The Queen's University Students' Union lies to the south, and University Road — with Lanyon's original university building — to the west. The front façade faces north. The listing covers the main building and its rear return.

EXTERIOR — FRONT FAÇADE

On the ground floor, to the right, is a four-panel timber door with a rectangular fanlight with margin panes. The doorway has a thin pilaster jamb to the left and a considerably thicker pilaster to the right, the latter acting as a pier shared with the doorway of No. 8. Above the doorway is a hood on simple, somewhat functional-looking metal brackets; this hood merges with that of No. 8 and is finished with a timber-clad edge and a simple cornice. There are two steps up to the door. To the left of the doorway are two windows with sash frames glazed in Georgian panes (six over six) and moulded surrounds. The ground floor level is finished in rusticated render, painted, with a chamfered base and a cill band that marks the first-floor window line.

At first-floor level are two similar sash windows, also with six-over-six Georgian glazing, but without moulded surrounds. These windows are more widely spaced than those below and are not vertically aligned with the ground-floor windows; the cill band runs across the full terrace at this level. The second floor has two windows similar to those on the first floor, slightly shorter, and aligned with them. Above the rusticated render, the remainder of the front façade is in brick, topped with a dentilled cornice.

EXTERIOR — REAR

The rear façade of the entire terrace is finished in plain, unpainted cement render. Nos. 2 and 4 share a low, two-storey gabled return, as do Nos. 6 and 8. On the east face of No. 6's return, the ground floor has a plain sheeted doorway at the centre, with two small windows to its left and one to its right; these have modern timber frames and security bars. On the first floor, to the far right, is a small plain sash window, also with security bars.

On the south-facing gable end of the return there is a single canted first-floor oriel window to the right (belonging to No. 6) and a single sash window to the left (belonging to No. 8). The oriel is constructed in timber with plain sash windows to each cant, fitted with security bars, and has hipped, lead-sheeted roofs; the whole oriel is supported on metal brackets.

On the main rear façade of No. 6, there is a sash window to the right at each floor level, all in line with one another, with the second-floor window slightly shorter. The ground-floor frame has Georgian panes (six over six); the other two are plain. The ground- and first-floor windows have security bars. To the left of these windows, and above the return, are two stairwell landing windows with sash frames. The lower of the two is plain; the upper is much shorter, sited close to the eaves, and glazed three panes over three.

ROOF

The main roof of the terrace is gabled and finished in Bangor blue slate, with rendered parapets to each gable. There are chimney stacks serving the full terrace: the eastern stack (belonging to No. 2) is rendered with tall, uniform cream clay pots; the broader central stack (shared by Nos. 4–6) is partly rendered and carries a variety of pots; the western stack (No. 8) is in brick and has no pots. Each property has a small Velux window to the rear slope.

The roof of the return is in fact two gabled roofs with a valley between them, though these are concealed behind an all-encompassing end gable. Both are covered in Bangor blue slate and have a brick-built stack to the end gable carrying one original-looking octagonal pot. No. 6's return roof has a Velux window to its inner side. The main house retains cast iron rainwater goods; the return has mainly PVC rainwater goods.

HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT

Fitzwilliam Street was laid out in the 1840s as one of several new thoroughfares connecting what was then the Malone Road (now University Road) to the New Lisburn Road (now Lisburn Road), the latter having been cut in 1817 as a replacement for the Malone Road as the principal southward route from Belfast. The land on which the street was built had been leased from the Donegall estate since 1711 by the ancestors of a John Alexander, who renewed his title in 1823. In 1849 Alexander leased part of this land to William Magill Collins, a solicitor with offices in Arthur Street; following the break-up of the Donegall Estate, Collins obtained full title to the property in 1866. Shortly after securing his initial lease, Collins built the present terrace of Nos. 2–8.

Like other terraces then springing up around the newly built Queen's College, the block was designed to attract Belfast's middling professional and merchant classes, though the houses were a cut well below the grander dwellings of University Square. Among Collins's earliest tenants in 1854 were Henry Hugh Boyd, described as an agent and accountant; Robert Leadbetter, a linen manufacturer; James Benn, a wine merchant; and a Mrs. Wardle. Subsequent directories record later tenants in a similar mould well into the 20th century — wine merchants, accountants, dentists, clergymen, company directors, and academics most likely attached to Queen's. William Magill Collins died in 1880 and the properties passed to his daughters and their descendants. In 1932 the terrace was conveyed to Queen's University, which appears to have rented the houses to individuals, probably university staff and their families. By the late 1960s, with the expansion of Queen's, the properties were given over to various university departments, including Italian, Geography, Extra-Mural Studies, and the QUB Photographic Society. By 1986 the terrace was largely occupied by the Institute of Irish Studies, with the Faculty of Theology in No. 2. That same year, significant internal renovation of the whole block was carried out, with doors inserted at first- and second-floor level to link the former individual dwellings, and certain rooms amalgamated. The group is currently used by the Institute of Irish Studies.

HISTORY OF NO. 6 SPECIFICALLY

No. 6 appears to have been first rented to Robert Leadbetter, a linen manufacturer. It subsequently became the home of a Mrs. Carroll, who remained until 1887 but shared the house during the final years of her tenure with a Dr. L. Kerbusch, listed in directories as a Music Professor. The building then appears to have been largely vacant until 1892, when a Mrs. E. Brown was in residence, followed by a Miss Muntz from 1895 to around 1902, listed as belonging to the School of Music. From around 1903 until the late 1920s No. 6 was rented by Edward Donaghey, a dental surgeon. Following the University's acquisition of the terrace in 1932, the house was used as a staff residence, first by a Mrs. Barr and then, from the early 1940s, by a Miss Hunter. The property ceased to serve as a dwelling at some point in the late 1960s and by 1970 was occupied by the Department of Geography. By 1986, along with Nos. 4 and 8, it had been given over to the Institute of Irish Studies, and in that year internal alterations connected it to the other former dwellings in the terrace.