42 Florenceville Avenue, Belfast

No. 42 Florenceville Avenue is a very fine High Victorian house built around 1872, forming part of a significant terrace of three similar but not identical semi-detached properties. Together with its neighbours at No. 40 and No. 44, it was designed to create a palace front composition and represents the earliest and most important historic houses in Florenceville Avenue and among the most significant in this part of South Belfast.

The house is a two-storey structure of mixed materials. The front elevation faces north and is constructed of random coursed sandstone ashlar with a semi-rock face finish on the ground floor, with red clay brick laid in Flemish Bond to the first floor. The two floors are separated by a painted smooth string course. The front elevation projects forward approximately one metre from its adjoining neighbours, with rendered cheeks on the ground floor. The roof is hipped and clad with natural slate, with two red brick corbelled chimney stacks positioned on the party walls with the neighbouring properties.

The doorway is centrally positioned and is original, consisting of a painted four-panel door with a plain glazed overlight inscribed with the number 42. The decorative surround comprises painted pilasters with foliate capitals and a large rectangular hood featuring a keystone, stringcourse, and a band of quatrefoil mouldings above, possibly in sandstone. Either side of the door on the ground floor are painted single-glazed 1/1 top-hung painted timber windows. The first floor has three similar windows symmetrically arranged. All windows on the front elevation have raised decorative architraves with flower motifs, and the ground floor window sills are supported on ornate brackets. The eaves project and are supported on painted timber brackets.

The rear elevation is constructed of red clay brick. The upper floor contains two square-headed 1/1 top-hung painted timber windows on the right side with thin painted concrete sills, and a 1/1 top-hung window to the left set in a segmental-headed opening. There is a flush door with glazed top panel positioned centrally, which appears to date from when the property was divided into two flats and served as a fire exit for the upper flat. Evidence of a former segmental-headed window now blocked with clay brickwork is visible above this door. A wide segmental arch spans an enlarged ground floor opening, the full details of which could not be recorded.

The house stands in a small raised paved and gravelled front garden, bounded by twentieth-century red brick walling with vertical boarding between No. 42 and No. 40, and horizontal boarding on the other side. The garden is accessed by four steps through a replacement painted steel gate bearing the name CLOREEN. The front boundary is red brick walling with steel railings above, supported on red brick pillars.

The terrace was first recorded in the valuation book in 1872 and is shown on the Ordnance Survey town plan of 1871-73. The land previously formed part of the garden of Locust Lodge, a house of probable pre-1833 construction, one of several small semi-rural gentleman's residences that characterised the Ormeau and Ravenhill areas before suburban expansion in the late Victorian and Edwardian periods. The group was developed by William Fitzpatrick, a Belfast builder who acquired Locust Lodge in 1865. Fitzpatrick undertook other building projects in the vicinity and donated the plot for and contributed to the building costs of nearby St. Jude's Church (1871-73). The architect responsible for Florenceville is not known.

For the two decades following construction, Florenceville Avenue itself served merely as a drive connecting the three houses to the Ormeau Road, then known as Old Ballynafeigh Road. The south side of the Avenue was developed in the mid-1890s, while buildings on the north side were largely constructed in the 1920s.

The original occupant of No. 42 appears to have been Peter Miller or Mills, described in directories as a warehouseman and later as a commission agent. He was followed around 1885 by Mrs. Elizabeth Steel, succeeded around 1891 by Reverend William Tanner Hughes, minister of Donegall Street Congregational Church, and by H. Angliker (linen business) around 1894. Mrs. Margaret Kertland was resident at the time of the 1901 census, occupying the house with her three daughters and a domestic servant. The house is recorded as a second-class dwelling containing between ten and twelve rooms, five of which were occupied by the family. Mrs. Patterson was the next leaseholder from around 1905, followed around 1909 by Robert Gardner Laughlin, an ironmonger and hardware merchant, noted in the 1911 census as occupying the house with his wife Catherine Maud Mary, their two young sons and a domestic servant. The Laughlins retained the property until around 1921. Mrs. Helen Corry was resident by 1924, J.G. Hamilton (butcher) by 1932, and Hamilton appears to have remained until the mid-1950s. Subsequent residents included Mrs. Vera Swindells by 1960, William E. Gregory by 1967, and Ms. Ellis by 1980.