2 College Green, Belfast

2 College Green, Belfast

A two-storey red brick terraced house with attic, built in 1870-71 to designs by architect James Francis MacKinnon. It faces south on College Green, north-east of the main quad at Queens University Belfast. The building has group value with its adjoining neighbour at No. 4 College Green and College Green House; all three were constructed simultaneously and originally shared a coach house, harness room and stables to the rear, now converted to a restaurant. No. 2 and No. 4 form part of a longer Victorian terrace overlooking the Theological College of the Presbyterian Church within the Queens Conservation Area.

The house is asymmetrical in plan, with a natural slate duo-pitched roof featuring black clay ridge tiles. Two red brick chimneys stand on the ridge, with one shared with No. 4 and featuring engineering brick corbelled specials and six octagonal yellow clay pots. The second chimney, centred on the gable end of the return, is rebuilt in red brick with projecting brick coping and one remaining octagonal clay pot. A hipped roofed ground floor bay and gabled dormers face the principal south elevation. Photographic evidence from around 1900 indicates the dormers are later additions. A wide dormer with PVC membrane covering spans the rear pitch, and a modern roof-light has been inserted to the rear return.

The principal south elevation is asymmetrically composed with the entrance positioned to the left and a single-storey canted bay to the right at ground floor level. Three segmental arched windows occupy the first floor, with one centred above the door and the others paired above the canted bay. Heavy overhanging eaves rest on scrolled corbel brackets featuring incised carving to the side faces. Twin gabled dormers to the attic each contain a pair of windows with decorative projecting bargeboards topped by spike finials and exposed rafter tails at eaves. The dormer gables are clad in diagonal timber sheeting above the windows, with side cheeks in horizontal timber sheeting, all painted. The bargeboards feature round arched lower edges with Norman-style moulding and trefoil carving to the spandrels above.

A gabled entrance projection with stone copings and finial is supported by Corinthian-style columns on a substantial stone plinth. Incised rosettes depicting flower heads appear below the apex and at eaves. The entrance features a wide flat arched timber-framed panelled door (replacement) with stained and leaded glass fanlight displaying the number '2'. A Norman-style arched opening above the columns and a roll-edged detail to the arched door surround complete the composition. The canted bay is entirely rendered in stucco above cill height, with foliated stone capitals to pilasters between windows and a continuous deep foliated cornice to the parapet roof.

Painted dressings throughout, likely combining stone and stucco, include a projecting base plinth with chamfered top, a continuous cill at ground floor windows set flush with the walling, and a plat band with projecting moulded string course at first floor cill height. Similar moulding continues as a hood above the deep surround to the segmental arched heads and repeats again at attic level, lining the base of the corbel brackets. An incised rosette decorates the space between paired first floor window heads, and jamb reveals feature stop-chamfered brick.

The north (rear) elevation overlooks a small alley shared by No. 2, No. 4 and College Green House, accessed from College Green Mews and overlooked opposite by a former stable block now converted to a restaurant. This elevation is less formal than the principal façade with simpler detailing. Walling is painted up to eaves height at the return. A two-storey gabled return stands to the right with a single glazed sliding sash window at attic half-landing level on the far right and one window each on ground and first floor to the left. Windows on the left side are replacements, though the openings retain soldier-coursed brick headers and projecting stone cills. The attic half-landing window is likely original with a stone cill and 2/2 panes retaining some historic glass. Diminutive fixed lights flank the first floor window with precast concrete lintels and cills, evidently later insertions. A modern glazed timber door to the basement with steps up to the yard, enclosed by concrete walling, is covered by a modern roof-light. A wide flat-roofed attic dormer spans almost the full width of the rear elevation with uPVC framed casement windows and horizontal timber sheeting between. The gabled end of the return is blank with clipped eaves.

Roofing materials include natural slate with black clay ridge tiles and cast iron ogee profile gutters with replacement circular section rainwater pipes to the south and uPVC to the north. Walls are constructed of red brick in Flemish bond to the south and brownish-red brick in English Garden Wall bond to the north. Windows are single-glazed double-hung timber-framed sliding sash with 1/1 panes to the south, and double-glazed replacement timber-framed sliding sash to the north unless otherwise described.

The east elevation shows the two-storey return abutting No. 4 College Green, informally arranged with two windows at ground floor and a timber-framed glass door, and two windows at first floor. Walling is rendered up to cill height at first floor and whitewashed up to and including a single row of projecting brick headers at eaves. Though windows are replaced, the proportions appear original with first floor windows retaining thick stone cills.

The west elevation faces College Green House, which abuts the main building. The face of the two-storey return is largely blank and similarly detailed to the east elevation. The house is set back from College Green behind low red brick walling with chamfered stone coping and substantial red brick pillars, square on plan with chamfered edges and central grooves topped by flush stone caps with square-based pyramidal tops. Replacement galvanised steel railings and gates (painted) open onto a path of squared paving sets with a single step to the entrance door, which has its front edge replaced in reconstituted stone. The remainder of the garden is grass with a galvanised steel grille above a light-well to a basement window, whose walls are roughcast rendered and painted white. The rear boundary retains brownish-red variegated brick walling with cambered terracotta coping. A ledged and braced sheeted timber gate (replacement) leads to the shared alley. The yard at No. 2 is paved in reconstituted stone flags with a wedge-shaped area of raised decking immediately in front of the return. The former stable block opposite the alley, aligned parallel to No. 2 and No. 4, dates from the same period and was originally shared between these three buildings.