Quarry House, 42 Quarry Road, Belfast, Co. Antrim, BT4 2NP

Quarry House is a two-storey ten-bay house of irregular plan, constructed in 1912 to designs by the architects Watt, Tulloch & Fitzsimmons. Later additions were also designed by the practice, subsequently named Tulloch & Fitzsimmons. The house stands on a large plot on the south side of Quarry Road, with vehicular entrances to the west and north, extensive terraced gardens to the south, and a separate two-storey garage to the east.

The building is characterized by roughcast rendered walls with canted and round bays, a projecting staircase bay, a single-storey porch, and a glazed garden room. The roof is hipped natural slate with dormers, hipped gables to the south and north with rolled lead ridges and hips, and finials to the apex. Four tall rendered two-stage chimney stacks feature simple cornices and terracotta pots. Flat-roofed dormers to the south and east elevations have skylights to the south. Deep overhanging eaves are supported by timber brackets and carry timber fascias with ogee gutters and cast-iron rainwater pipes.

The north entrance elevation comprises a single-storey yard wall of roughcast render with tiled coping to the east, set back behind a blank wall. The two-storey house has roughcast rendered walls with a smooth rendered string course at first floor cill level. Windows are square-headed with 6/6 timber sliding sash windows and stone cills—three to the ground floor and two to the first floor. A projecting staircase bay features a tri-partite window with ornate circular coloured glass set in a stone surround at ground floor level, and a large square-headed timber-framed leaded light window divided into nine panes at landing level. The single-storey porch projects to the west of the staircase bay beneath a pitched natural slate roof with timber bargeboards and swept eaves. A sandstone surround with shouldered detail frames the opening, which has timber open-work tympanum. Small angled wing walls with sandstone coping flank the entrance with a shallow step. The porch interior has roughcast rendered walls with a square-headed door opening containing a timber panelled and beaded door. A square-headed window opening with sandstone cill faces west.

The west section of the north elevation has two square-headed window openings to the ground floor and one to the first floor. The east elevation mirrors the north with a single-storey yard wall, square-headed window and door opening, and a timber sheeted stable-style half door. A small flat-roofed bay with a 6/6 timber sliding sash window abuts the blank wall at first floor level, with one further 6/6 timber sliding sash window to the north. A flat-roofed dormer window with a tiled gablet adjoins the chimneystack to the east, containing one 3/3 sliding sash window. One small square-headed window serves the main wall at ground floor level.

The south elevation comprises four distinct sections. A flat-roofed dormer window to the west end has lead cheeks and two timber casement windows. The wall section to the east has one window to the ground floor and two irregularly placed to the first floor. The section immediately west of this steps forward and features a large square-headed door and window screen with small square panes to the overlight, a pair of timber and glazed doors with glazed side lights, and two windows to the first floor. The section to the far west projects forward of the main line with a timber and glazed bay window to the ground floor in tri-partite arrangement—a larger square-headed 6/9 timber sliding sash window flanked by 4/6 timber sliding sash windows either side. The first floor has a tri-partite arrangement with a 6/6 timber sliding sash window to the centre and 4/4 either side. The far west section features a single-storey hipped natural slate roof with deep overhanging eaves and timber brackets to a Garden Room at ground floor level, fitted with modern multiple-paned timber windows across the full width, top-hung opening lights, and paired timber glazed doors to the centre with lower mullion sections decorated with recessed panels topped with small capitals.

The west elevation shows the single-storey Garden Room with modern multiple-paned window. A single-storey canted bay with parapet roof at ground floor level has one square-headed window opening with a 6/6 timber sliding sash window under a straight running mould. A single-storey curved semi-circular bay at ground floor level has a hipped natural slate roof, timber brackets to the soffit, and three square-headed windows with 6/6 timber sliding sash windows. Two window openings to the first floor contain 6/6 timber sliding sash windows.

The setting comprises mature hedges bounding the site to the east, south, and west. To the north, low roughcast rendered walls with deep coping and regularly spaced piers with pyramidal caps are topped with cast metal railings finished with arrow-heads. A curved gate screen to the east has circular piers with conical caps and a pair of modern metal gates. The boundary wall curves to the entrance to the west with circular piers having conical caps and a pair of modern metal gates.

Materials include natural slate for the roof, metal rainwater goods, roughcast render for walls, and timber sliding sash windows.