54 Sunnyside Street, BELFAST, BT7 3EX

54 Sunnyside Street is a two-storey red-brick end-of-terrace house built in 1909, situated on the south side of Sunnyside Street — a canted thoroughfare connecting the Ormeau Road with Annadale Embankment — approximately 3 kilometres from Belfast city centre. It forms part of a row of 21 similar terraced houses and sits within a predominantly residential area of small late-19th-century terraces and early-20th-century semi-detached houses. The building is an example of modest Edwardian urban terraced housing, constructed during a period of rapid southward expansion of Belfast along the main thoroughfares of the Ormeau, Lisburn and Malone Roads.

The plan is broadly rectangular. Walls are of smooth red clay brick laid in English Garden Wall bond. The roof is natural slate, and rainwater goods to the front are cast metal; those to the rear are uPVC.

The north-facing front elevation features a painted timber four-panel door with overlight (plain glazing) to the right, and two narrow painted timber two-over-two sliding sash single-glazed windows to the left. The first floor has three similar windows, positioned in line with those below. All openings are square-headed with red-brick soldier course headers. A projecting moulded brick course runs at eaves level, supporting cast metal ogee guttering. A replacement red-brick chimney stack sits to the left-hand side of the roof, with a projecting brick course and clay pots.

The south-facing rear elevation at first floor level is red-brick and contains a painted timber top-hung casement window to the right and a smaller similar window to the left. At ground floor level, the kitchen is accessed via a fully glazed uPVC door, with a large picture window to its left in painted timber with top-hung opening lights. An original flat-roofed return has a painted vertically-sheeted timber door and a two-over-two painted timber sliding sash window, both opening onto the enclosed rear yard. The original red-brick yard wall has a square-headed doorway to the right-hand side with a concrete head and a painted timber boarded door. A narrow laneway to the rear of the yard wall is shared with nos. 44–52, bounded to the south by a corrugated tin fence enclosing an industrial yard. A large group of red-brick single- and two-storey industrial outbuildings lies to the south of the industrial yard.

The east side elevation abuts No. 52 Sunnyside Street. The west gable has been significantly altered. Approximately one quarter of the building — the right-hand side bay — was demolished at some point after 1984, most likely in the early 2000s, and only the foundations of a canted bay remain. The outline of the ground floor has been recently exposed following demolition of a partially rendered brick wall. The lower portion of the gable is now roughcast rendered, while the upper portion is cement rendered. The gable wall is slightly canted along the final third of its length at both levels. A painted timber top-hung casement window sits slightly off-centre to the right on the first floor. A large rectangular portrait sign is mounted to the left, marked 'Ormeau Road Boxing Club', and a small house number sign reads 'No. 54a'. The gable verges are clipped.

To the front, a small garden is finished in concrete block paviors, set behind a replacement red-brick boundary wall and gateway with painted metal railings and a small painted metal arched gate. This boundary treatment was installed alongside new front doors and windows around 1988 as part of an improvement scheme covering the whole terrace.

Abutting No. 52 to the rear and west is No. 54a Sunnyside Street, which was not accessible at the time of survey. This is a single-storey, flat-roofed rendered brick work-shed with a door to the west and a double door to the south. Its east elevation opens into No. 52's yard. A communal access lane runs to the west of No. 54a.

Sunnyside Street itself first appears on the Ordnance Survey town plan of 1871–73 as a lane running from the Ormeau Road to the current junction with Whitehall Parade, with a terrace of six houses on the north side marked 'Sunnyside' (the present nos. 43–53). By Marcus Ward's 1879 map of Belfast it is named 'Sunnyside Street' — almost certainly taking its name from that original terrace — and shown extending slightly further west, just past the present Rushfield Avenue intersection, though no new development is recorded there or on the Ordnance Survey plans of 1883–84 and 1896. The 1901–03 plan shows the present nos. 14–24 and greater development on the northern side, with the street extended to the junction with Walmer Street and brick fields beyond toward the River Lagan. The opening of King's Bridge in 1912 extended the street to its current length, making it a through route connecting to Ridgeway Street on the far side of the River Lagan.

No. 54 was originally a dwelling and dairy of larger footprint than the present structure. It was built in 1909, probably developed by John McBride, who appears to have been responsible for building part of the neighbouring terrace (nos. 44–52) in the same year. The identity of any architect is unknown. The first recorded occupant was Ferris Dennison, noted in the street directories as a dairyman. The 1911 census records the building as a second-class dwelling containing eight rooms, with a large plot to the rear accommodating a dairy, stable, two cow houses, a boiling house, shed and store. The household at that time comprised Mr. Dennison, his wife Maggie, their five children and a servant, John Kyle. By 1918 a Mr. R. Stevenson had taken on the business. By 1924 the directory records the property as the home of M. Gordon, described as a cattle dealer rather than a dairyman. Mr. Gordon was still there in 1932, but the property was recorded as vacant in 1935. By 1943 it appears to have been used solely as a private dwelling, occupied by an S. H. Hull. By 1951 the western third and the rear outbuildings had become a separate concern — No. 54a — operating as the premises of Craig & Houston, Oil and Paint Merchants. The 1970 street directory lists No. 54 as the home of F. C. Hanvey, with No. 54a operating as 'Radiator Services (NI)', and a W. Gourley recorded as the sole occupant in 1980. In 1990 the occupants were Maureen Snoddy and building contractors Cousins & Russell, with the latter recorded as sole occupant in 1995. Photographic evidence from 1984 shows the original longer front elevation with five windows to the first floor and what appears to have been a shop front at ground floor level. The western third of the building, which formed part of No. 54a, was demolished after 1984. No. 54 currently remains a private dwelling, while No. 54a consists solely of the rear outbuildings, now in use as a boxing club.

Although the building has group value as part of the wider terrace, it has been significantly altered and is not considered to be of special architectural or historical interest in its own right.