593 Ormeau Road, Belfast

593 Ormeau Road is a three-storey red-brick late Victorian terraced house, built in 1871 on the west side of Ormeau Road, approximately 3 kilometres south of Belfast city centre, just south of the intersection with Ravenhill Road. It forms the southern end of a terrace of seven similar houses and is one of only two in the group that have an expressed attic level. The listing covers the house and its yard walling.

The house is rectangular on plan with a dormer level to the front, a two-storey rectangular rear return, and an enclosed yard to the rear. The front brickwork is smooth red clay brick laid in Flemish bond; the rear is laid in English Garden Wall bond. The roof is finished in fibre-cement slate. Cast metal rainwater goods serve the front elevation; uPVC goods are used to the rear.

The front (east) elevation features a replacement painted timber six-panel door with a plain-glazed overlight, positioned to the right. The doorway is segmental-headed with a painted masonry keystone and stepped reveals. To the left is a 2/2 double-glazed sliding-sash window with margin panes, in a factory-finish timber or uPVC frame, also segmental-headed. Both the door and ground-floor window have soldier course headers. At first floor level there are two similar windows with square-headed openings, again with soldier course headers. At second floor level, a centrally positioned half-dormer window features a double-pitched roof with moulded bargeboards and a round-headed arched opening containing a 2/2 double-glazed sliding-sash window with margin panes. All window openings throughout the front elevation have smooth painted plaster reveals. A series of slightly projecting decorative polychromatic brick courses, painted white, runs across the front elevation at second floor level. The eaves are detailed with painted timber soffits with dentils. A large profiled red-brick chimney stack sits to the left-hand side, featuring a yellow brick cornice with modillions and red clay pots. The roof is natural slate and the guttering is metal. The original sliding sash windows have been replaced, which detracts somewhat from the building's character, though it otherwise retains most of its external appearance.

The rear (west) elevation was not directly accessible at the time of survey and was recorded from the rear laneway. At first floor level on the right-hand side of the main rear wall there is one square-headed window opening with a uPVC double-glazed top-hung window; a smaller similar window sits to the far left at second floor level. Window openings have smooth painted plaster reveals and soldier course headers. The ground floor level of the rear is finished in painted smooth render, while the upper sections of the rear and the rear return are red brick, partly painted white above first floor level. The two-storey rear return has a blank south elevation at first floor level. The west gable of the return adjoins a single-storey yard wall finished in painted smooth render. One uPVC double-glazed top-hung window is set to the left-hand side of the return gable at first floor level. The north elevation of the return has one large uPVC double-glazed window to the far left at first floor level. The enclosed yard is entered through a square-headed doorway with a painted timber boarded door; yard walls are generally red brick in English Garden Wall bond. A modern rooflight is present on the main roof, and uPVC rainwater goods and soil stacks serve the rear. The return roofs are finished in fibre-cement slate.

The north side elevation abuts No. 589 Ormeau Road and the south side elevation abuts No. 595.

To the front, a small garden is finished with gravel and a quarry tile path, set behind sandstone kerbstones with a hedge above and a replacement metal gate. To the rear, a long narrow garden extends westward with a gravel finish and lawn area. The rear of the terrace is bounded by a laneway. The yards and original garden allotments at the rear of this and the adjacent houses are remarkably intact and form a particularly coherent group in this respect.

No. 593 and its near-matching neighbour to the south, No. 595, were built in 1871 as additions to a short terrace of five slightly smaller dwellings to the north — Nos. 583 to 591 Ormeau Road, originally known as Belvoir Place — which were largely constructed around 1864, with the exception of No. 591, which dates from around 1871. The whole group was probably developed by Thomas Courtney, who is recorded as the immediate lessor in the valuation book. An advertisement in the Belfast Telegraph of 2 May 1871 refers to the new additions as "new two-storey houses, with good attics, situate in Ballynafeigh...neatly and comfortably finished...good gardens front and rere...in the most healthy locality, with a dry soil and mild, salubrious air." The house was built at a time when Belfast was expanding rapidly southwards from the city centre along the main thoroughfares of the Ormeau, Lisburn and Malone Roads, and is a good example of a modest late Victorian urban terraced house of its period.

The recorded sequence of occupation of No. 593 begins with James Carter, described as a muslin manufacturer, from 1871 to around 1878; followed by Mrs. Whalley (c.1878–c.1882); Jacob B. Green, described as a gentleman (c.1882–c.1893); Mrs. McDade (c.1893–1900); Thomas McCandless, an accountant (1901–02); J. McCormick, a shop assistant (1902–c.1905); J. O'Brien, a commercial traveller (c.1905–07); Mrs. Elizabeth Wilson (1907–c.1910); and George L. Duncan (c.1910– ), a cabinetmaker recorded in the 1911 census as living in the house with his wife Margaret, a daughter, a mother-in-law and two boarders. The census described the house as a second-class dwelling containing eight rooms. Subsequent occupants included S. Stevenson (c.1920–24); J. O'Brien, commercial traveller (1924–c.1929); W. Williamson, painter (c.1929–c.1933); Thomas Duncan (c.1933–c.1941); W. Williamson (c.1941–c.1943); S. Stevenson (c.1943–c.1949); W. Williamson (c.1949–c.1964); J. Porter, post office official (from c.1964); and Josephine Porter, noted as residing there in 1995.