2 College Green, Belfast

2 College Green is a two-storey-with-attic red brick terraced house built in 1870–71 to designs by the Belfast architect James Francis MacKinnon. It faces south onto College Green, to the north-east of the main quadrangle at Queen's University, Belfast. The listing covers the house itself together with its boundary walling and gate pillars.

HISTORICAL CONTEXT

College Green was laid out in 1866 on what was then the semi-rural 'Plains' of Malone, on land to the east of the recently established Queen's College (completed 1849) and around the Union Theological College (completed 1853). The founding of Queen's prompted several decades of southward residential expansion, with regularly planned streets filled with mainly High Victorian terraced housing for Belfast's professional and merchant classes as they moved away from an increasingly commercial and industrial city centre. The present nos. 6–8 were the first houses built along the new street, in 1866; nos. 2–4, College Green House (originally 'Culfeightrin House', later rebuilt around 1882), and nos. 24–26 followed in 1870–71; nos. 10–12 and 20–22 came in 1876; and nos. 14–18 in 1878. The street was originally conceived as part of Fitzroy Avenue, and was still regarded as such for the first few decades of its existence — the name 'College Green' appeared on the 1871–73 Ordnance Survey map only in reference to Culfeightrin House and nos. 2–8.

MacKinnon designed nos. 2–4 and Culfeightrin House for Archibald McCollum, a general broker and commission agent of Skipper Street, both client and architect possibly sharing north Antrim connections. A tender notice was issued in mid-July 1870, all three dwellings were completed the following year, and the finished properties shared a coach house and stables to the rear. Culfeightrin House, originally occupied by McCollum himself, was reportedly destroyed by fire in January 1882 and left as a blackened ruin; it was subsequently rebuilt, apparently incorporating at least part of the original shell, though with a possibly altered internal layout.

The first recorded occupant of no. 2 was Angus James Mulligan, an employee of the Ulster Bank, who was still in residence in 1877. By 1880, Matilda Johnston had taken up the lease, followed by John S. Shaw (a hatter) by 1884, William A. Watson by 1887, and James A. Dewar (described as a merchant) sometime between 1890 and 1892. In the 1901 census, the 61-year-old Scots-born Mr Dewar — by then describing himself as an advertising manager — was sharing the house with his wife Ann and a domestic servant; the building was recorded as a first-class dwelling with nine rooms in use. By 1911 the now retired and widowed Mr Dewar was living there with his widowed sister, Mrs John Struthers. Before 1918 the property was acquired by W. R. Ogle, assistant superintendent of postal telegraphs at the GPO, who remained there until at least 1924. James McCartin, an ironmonger, was householder by at least 1932, and John Gallagher by 1943; the house then passed to Patricia Gallagher by 1960, who was still there in 1980. Between that date and 1986 the building was divided into three flats. An application was made in 2001 to convert the ground-floor flat to a doctor's surgery, though it is uncertain whether this was carried through. The property appears to have remained subdivided until at least around 2004. The building was listed in 1979.

GROUP VALUE AND SETTING

No. 2 has group value with the adjoining no. 4 College Green and College Green House, all three having been designed and built together by MacKinnon. They also originally shared a coach house, harness room and stables to the rear, now converted to a restaurant. Nos. 2 and 4 form part of a longer Victorian terrace overlooking the Theological College of the Presbyterian Church, all within the Queen's Conservation Area. College Green runs west to east from Botanic Avenue to Rugby Road, with nos. 2 and 4 located near the western end.

EXTERIOR — GENERAL

The roof is natural slate with a duo-pitched form, black clay ridge tiles, and a rear return also slated. The ground-floor bay has a hipped roof, and there are gabled dormers to the front elevation. Photographic evidence from around 1900 indicates that these dormers are later additions; their styling suggests the change was made shortly after 1900, with the western dormer added and the originally smaller eastern dormer replaced at the same time. To the rear there is a wide dormer with a flat roof covered in PVC membrane. There are two red brick chimneys, both rectangular on plan: one centred on the ridge and shared with no. 4, featuring engineering brick corbelled specials and six octagonal yellow clay pots; the other centred on the gable end of the rear return, rebuilt in red brick with a simple projecting brick coping and one remaining octagonal clay pot. A modern rooflight serves the rear return.

Rainwater goods to the south elevation are cast iron with an ogee-profile gutter and replacement circular-section rainwater pipe; those to the north are uPVC. The principal south walls are red brick in Flemish bond; the rear north walls are brownish-red brick in English Garden Wall bond. Windows to the south elevation are single-glazed double-hung timber-framed sliding sashes with 1-over-1 panes; those to the north are double-glazed replacement timber-framed sliding sashes, except where noted otherwise below.

SOUTH (PRINCIPAL) ELEVATION

The principal façade is asymmetrical. At ground floor, the entrance is to the left and a single-storey canted bay window is to the right. At first floor there are three segmental arched windows: one centred above the door and the other two paired above the canted bay. Heavy overhanging eaves are carried on scrolled corbel brackets with incised carving to their side faces. Above, twin gabled dormers rise from the attic, each containing a pair of windows and having a decorative projecting bargeboard with a spike finial and exposed rafter tails at the eaves. The gable face of each dormer is clad in diagonal timber sheeting above the windows, and the side cheeks in horizontal timber sheeting, all painted. The bargeboards feature a round-arched lower edge with a Norman-style moulding and trefoil carving to the spandrel above.

The entrance is framed by a gabled projecting doorcase with stone copings and a finial, supported on Corinthian-style columns set on a substantial stone plinth. Incised rosettes depicting flower heads appear below the apex and at the eaves of the gable. The door itself is a wide flat-arched timber-framed panelled replacement with a stained and leaded glass fanlight bearing the number 2. Above the columns there is a Norman-style arched opening, and the arched door surround has a roll-edged detail.

The canted bay is entirely rendered in stucco above cill height, with foliated stone capitals to the pilasters between windows and a continuous deep foliated cornice to the parapet roof. Other painted dressings — likely a combination of stone and stucco — include a projecting base plinth with a chamfered top; a continuous cill at ground-floor window level, set flush with the walling; a plat band and projecting moulded string course at first-floor cill height; a similar moulding at impost level that continues as a hood above the deep surround to the segmental arched heads; and the same moulding repeated again at attic level, lining the base of the corbel brackets already described. An incised rosette sits between the paired first-floor window heads. Below the string course, the jamb reveals feature stop-chamfered brick.

NORTH (REAR) ELEVATION

The rear elevation faces north and overlooks a small alley shared with nos. 2 and 4 College Green and College Green House. The alley is accessed from College Green Mews and is overlooked on the opposite side by a former gabled stable block, now operating as Molly's Yard restaurant. Being the back of house, this elevation is less formal than the principal façade, with simpler detailing. The walling is painted up to eaves height at the return. Two courses of projecting brick eaves support a painted timber fascia fixed to the upper course.

The two-storey gabled return projects to the right (west). It contains a single-glazed sliding sash window at attic half-landing level to the far right; and one window each at ground and first floor to the left. The two windows on the left side are replacements, but their openings retain soldier-coursed brick headers and projecting stone cills. The attic half-landing window appears to be original, with a stone cill and 2-over-2 panes retaining some historic glass. Diminutive fixed lights flank the first-floor window; these are obviously later insertions, with precast concrete lintels and cills. A modern glazed timber door gives access to the basement, with steps up to the yard enclosed by concrete walling and covered by a modern rooflight. The wide flat-roofed attic dormer spans almost the full width of the rear elevation and contains uPVC-framed casement windows with horizontal timber sheeting between them. The gabled end of the return is blank, with clipped eaves.

EAST ELEVATION

No. 4 College Green abuts the main building on this side. The east face of the two-storey return is informally arranged, with two windows at ground floor and a timber-framed glass door, and two windows at first floor. The walling is rendered up to first-floor cill height and whitewashed up to and including a single row of projecting brick headers at the eaves. Although the windows are replacements, the proportions of the openings appear original, and the first-floor windows retain thick stone cills.

WEST ELEVATION

College Green House abuts the main building on this side. The west face of the two-storey return, surveyed from College Green Mews, appears largely blank where visible, and is detailed similarly to the east face of the return.

BOUNDARY FEATURES AND GROUNDS

The house is set back from College Green behind low red brick walling with chamfered stone coping — stone tooling marks are visible through the paint finish. Substantial red brick gate pillars are square on plan with a chamfered edge and central groove, topped by a flush stone cap with a square-based pyramidal apex. Replacement galvanised steel railings and gate, painted, open onto a path of squared paving sets with a single step to the entrance door; the front edge of the step has been replaced in reconstituted stone. The remainder of the front garden is laid to grass, apart from a galvanised steel grille above a lightwell to the basement window, the walls of which are roughcast rendered and painted white.

To the rear, the boundary retains brownish-red variegated brick walling with a cambered terracotta coping. A replacement ledged and braced sheeted timber gate leads to the shared alley. The rear 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 on the opposite side of the alley, aligned parallel to nos. 2 and 4, is contemporary with both these buildings and College Green House, and was originally shared between all three.

SIGNIFICANCE

Despite a wide flat-roofed rear dormer with uPVC windows, the building retains much of its historic character, including its plan form and many fine interior features. The principal façade, with its projecting doorcase, canted bay, decorative stuccowork, heavy overhanging eaves and gabled dormers, marks it out as a good example of Victorian domestic architecture. The substantial red brick gate pillars, low front boundary walling, and rear yard walling significantly enhance its character within the Queen's Conservation Area.