523 Antrim Road, Belfast, Co.Antrim, BT15 3BS

523 Antrim Road is a three-storey with attic, mid-terrace house in Georgian Revival style, dating from 1878. It was built for local builder and contractor John Smith, possibly to designs by Belfast-based engineer and architect Redfern Kelly (1845–1928). The listing covers the house and its yard walling.

The building forms part of a terrace of nine houses on the east side of Antrim Road, between Glandore Gardens and Glandore Avenue, five of which — formerly known as Castleton Terrace and comprising Nos. 519–527 — are very similar to one another and were developed simultaneously as the first phase of the terrace. All nine buildings were constructed on the former grounds of Ashfield House, the residence of solicitor Thomas McClelland, which was demolished at the turn of the 20th century, though most of its grounds had already been built over during the 1870s and 1880s. The terrace as a whole is depicted in full on the third-edition Ordnance Survey map of 1901–02. The attribution to Redfern Kelly rests on the striking resemblance of this terrace to Nos. 416–428 on the opposite side of Antrim Road, a closely comparable three-storey, two-bay terrace with ground-floor bay windows and entablatured doorways supported by Ionic columns with fanlights over, which Kelly built in the year following the erection of Nos. 519–527. Kelly was primarily an engineer who carried out major contracts for 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.

The townland of Skegoneill had become one of the most affluent areas in Belfast by the mid-19th century, driven by the growth of shipbuilding, rope-making and textile industries in the city. The Antrim Road itself was originally laid out in 1830, and the second-edition Ordnance Survey map of 1858 records that land to the north of the Belfast Waterworks and the Limestone Road remained predominantly rural in character until development accelerated through the 1870s and 1880s.

No. 523 was initially valued at £36 and first occupied by a Mr. William J. Clarke. By 1901 it had passed to Joseph Carr, a local solicitor. The 1911 Census of Ireland records the house in the ownership of a Ms. Martha Holden and describes it as a first-class dwelling with 13 rooms and a coal house as its sole out-office. Ownership remained with the Smith family until 1947, when a Mr. Henry Solomon purchased the building and converted it into self-contained apartments. The valuation was raised to £38 under the First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936–57) and further increased to £83 by the end of the Second Revaluation (1956–72). The apartments have since been converted into office premises and the building was occupied by a solicitors' firm at the time of the Second Survey.

The building is rectilinear on plan with a three-storey return to the rear. The roof is pitched natural slate with angled black-clay ridge tiles, projecting eaves on block modillions, half-round metal guttering discharging to circular downpipes, a painted moulded cornice with plain frieze, and a rectangular-section red-brick chimney stack with corbelled coping and clay chimney pots. There is a modern rooflight to the front elevation.

The two-bay principal elevation faces west. The ground floor has smooth rendered walls, while the upper floors are red brick laid to English bond. Window openings are square-headed throughout, fitted with 1/1 double-hung timber sash windows with ogee horns. The upper-floor window openings have painted and moulded architraves, with flat moulded hoods to the first-floor windows and a painted moulded string course at second-floor cill level. The entrance, positioned in the north bay at ground floor, is a square-headed door opening with an entablature supported on columns with fluted Ionic capitals, an elliptical fanlight above with the gold numbers '523' etched into it, and a panelled timber door opening onto three concrete steps. A three-sided canted bay window at ground floor has a raised parapet and moulded cornice, with square-headed window openings, and a uPVC hopper discharging to a circular downpipe. The north and south elevations adjoin Nos. 525 and 521 Antrim Road respectively.

The rear elevation is red brick laid to English garden wall bond and comprises the back of the main house and the projecting return. Window openings are square-headed with flat arches above and projecting cills. The return has a square-headed door opening fitted with a modern metal door with square glazed panels, giving access to the rear yard.

To the front, a tarmacked parking area shared with Nos. 525 and 527 is enclosed by a modern dwarf brick wall and painted metal railings, with a plain metal gate on metal upright posts. The rear yard is paved and enclosed by red brick walling, with a square-headed door opening fitted with a sheeted timber door leading to an alley accessible from Glandore Gardens.

Although the building has been converted to office use and the original internal doors have been replaced, some original historic interior detailing survives. Externally, the principal elevation, the less formal gabled rear return, the original brick yard walls and many other external features survive in good order. The building has group value with the other listed buildings in the terrace.