366 Beersbridge Road, Belfast, County Antrim, BT5 5DZ

366 Beersbridge Road, Belfast

A semi-detached two-storey stone cottage constructed in 1880 and most likely designed by the prominent Belfast architects Young & Mackenzie. The building is part of a row of three pairs of semi-detached cottages on the north side of Beersbridge Road and has group value with its neighbours at numbers 364, 368, 370, 372, and 374 (all listed as HB26/10/002 A-F).

The cottage is built of un-coursed rock-faced Scrabo sandstone with a cut stone plinth course and continuous cut stone sill to the first floor. The roof is half-hipped, originally in natural slate but now covered with artificial slate, with projecting eaves and exposed rafters. The chimneystacks are of red brick; the eastern stack is a later replacement, while the western stack is original and features a stone base, corbelled coping, and red-clay chimney pots. Cast-iron guttering with ogee profile and circular cast-iron downpipes run throughout.

The front elevation (facing south) is symmetrically composed with two bays. Each bay has a square-headed window at ground floor with a discharging arch over the lintel, fitted with original 1/1 double-hung sash windows having ogee horns and surviving interior shutters. Above each ground floor window is a flat-headed lucarne (dormer built flush with the wall face) with a natural slate roof. The windows to both ground and first floor in the west bay consist of paired sash windows. Stone dressings flank all window openings. The east side elevation features decorative timber barge boards and a projecting entrance canopy with a natural slate hipped roof, supported by timber brackets with half-round cast-iron guttering and downpipes. This canopy shelters a recessed entrance facing east, accessed via a stone step. The replacement timber four-panelled glazed front door has black iron furniture and a fanlight. To the right of the entrance is a small arched recess marking the original location of a cast-iron boot scraper, now removed. The east side elevation is abutted by a stone wall, also in un-coursed rock-faced Scrabo sandstone with cut stone plinth course and capping, containing a square-headed door opening with a plain single-panel door providing access to the rear yard. The west side elevation is attached to the adjoining house at number 364. The single-storey returns to the rear appear to be original, with no significant rear extension evident. Two dormer windows are present on the rear elevation.

The cottage was constructed as part of the expansion of Belfast during the late-Victorian period, when the town's growing population and shift of its commercial centre led to extensive residential development beyond the original urban boundary. Young & Mackenzie, described as the most successful architectural practice in Belfast and the leading architects for the Presbyterian Church in the North East, also designed nearby cottages at numbers 382-400 Beersbridge Road for the Bloomfield Land & Building Co. Ltd. in 1878. The cottages at numbers 364-374, constructed in 1880, are remarkably similar in design but more impressive, with additional dormer windows and Scrabo sandstone facades rather than the red brick used elsewhere.

The building was first recorded in the valuation sources in 1880 with a rateable value of £15. It was known as Woodlee Cottage and leased by the Bloomfield Land & Building Co. Ltd., a company formed by the landowning Boyd family in 1874 to manage building leases in the East Belfast townlands of Ballyhackamore and Ballycloughan. The first recorded occupant was William McCammond. By 1911, the census recorded it as occupied by Robert Dunn, a clerk in a bedding factory, and described it as a second-class dwelling of six rooms. The rateable value decreased slightly to £14 10 shillings by 1930, then rose to £28 under the First Revaluation of 1935, at which level it remained through the Second Revaluation ending in 1972.

The cottage was listed in 1984 and underwent restoration work in 1984-85, when the roof was re-slated, the rainwater goods were replaced, and the chimney was rebuilt. The majority of original external fabric and detailing survives intact, and the exterior has retained its character, style, and proportions. A gravel driveway borders the east side, with a gravel garden to the front enclosed by hedge and timber fencing.