23 College Gardens, Belfast

23 College Gardens, Belfast

This is an end-of-terrace, three-storey red brick town house with basement and attic, built in 1882 by an architect unknown. It forms part of a symmetrical block of four properties (Nos 23, 24, 25 and 26 College Gardens), with No.23 and No.26 marking the gabled ends. The building is situated at the west end of College Gardens, a tree-lined street of similarly proportioned townhouses that runs from Malone Road to Lisburn Road. It lies within the Queens Conservation Area and faces south, overlooking the grounds of Methodist College.

The building has historic associations with Vere Foster, an renowned educationalist who campaigned for teachers' rights and served as president of the Irish National Teachers Organisation. A blue commemoration plaque from the Ulster Historical Circle is fixed above the entrance.

The south-facing front elevation is Italianate in style with classical proportions. The entire ground floor is rendered in painted stucco, with red brick walling above dressed in moulded stucco. An asymmetrical composition features an aedicule at the entrance to the right and a single-storey bowed bay with five windows and an openwork parapet to the left. The bowed bay contains replacement double-glazed sliding sashes with timber slips and metal security bars. Three windows occupy each of the upper floors, diminishing in height, all with segmental arches. First-floor windows have plain stucco surrounds with projecting hoods—pedimented to the middle window and shallow-pitched to the side windows. Second-floor windows display moulded stucco surrounds with corresponding brackets below the cill course. A projecting base plinth with moulded top, cill, head and cornice contains a plain frieze to the bowed bay. Painted stucco toothed quoins mark the south-east corner.

The timber-framed four-panelled entrance door has a plain glass fanlight with bolection moulding to fielded and pitched panels. It is flanked by Corinthian-style pilasters and topped by a deep moulded pediment with a foliated tympanum bearing the date '1882'. The inner face of the fanlight glass displays applied gold lettering reading '23' and 'I.N.T.O'. A single-storey flat-roofed extension set back to the east side is constructed in matching red brick in stretcher bond, with one segmental-headed double-glazed sliding sash window and a uPVC roof membrane dressed over projecting eaves board.

The north elevation overlooks Elmwood Mews and is asymmetrical, with a full-height projection built at half-landing level. This projection is abutted by a double return comprising a three-storey hipped-roofed section and a two-storey flat-roofed section, all offset to the right and built over the basement. The design is plainly detailed by comparison to the front, with brownish-red brick and soldier courses above flat-arched windows with simple stone cills. A single window occupies each floor of the main building to the left of the return; that to the second floor retains historic glass. A painted metal grill provides ventilation to the basement. A modern polished metal flue extends from the basement to above eaves level. Evidence of a former chimney removed from the centre of the full-height projection is visible. The hipped-roof return has a single window at second-floor level centred on the ridge, otherwise blank. The flat-roofed return is informally arranged with a timber-framed top-hung casement window offset to the right and a diminutive metal-framed fixed light to the left at first-floor level. Smooth rendered and painted walling extends below first-floor cill height, with no openings at ground floor and a single recessed basement doorway with a curved reveal to one side only.

The east elevation forms a gable end, largely blank in appearance. A frieze and projecting moulded eaves on corbelled brackets sit at the base of a projecting moulded timber bargeboard; a plain painted timber band sits flush with the verge. Small round-arched sliding sash attic windows are located near the eaves at both sides. A chimney is centred on the apex. Painted toothed quoins return from the front façade. A flat-roofed single-storey extension abuts the east boundary with No.24, where the walling is blank and rendered smooth. The east face of the full-height rear projection has one window at each half-landing level: to the ground floor, a replacement timber-framed casement; to the first and second floors, original sliding sashes with 1/1 and 2/2 panes respectively; and the same to the attic with 2/2 panes. All are plain except the second-floor window, which has square leaded stippled glass panes. The east face of the double return is informally arranged with windows. Two sliding sashes survive at first-floor level, one with 1/1 panes and another with 2/2 panes, with a small casement between the two that also appears historic. Elsewhere, windows are replaced with top-hung timber-framed casements, though the openings appear original with soldier-coursed headers, rendered reveals and stone cills. A sheeted timber replacement door at basement level is painted.

The west elevation abuts No.24. The west face of the full-height projection and return is largely blank with a smooth rendered base plinth, a casement window at ground-floor level near the main building, a modern zinc-clad bridge spanning the yard at No.24, and an adjacent two-part modern casement window. Both windows have precast concrete lintels and cills.

Roofing comprises natural slate with black clay ridge tiles. Two large red brick chimneys are centred on the ridge, each with a simple corbelled cap and several circular clay pots; one is shared with No.24 (replaced in part) and one is positioned at the gable end. A modern flat-roofed dormer occupies the front pitch, and two roof-lights sit on the rear pitch—one modern and one conservation-style. Projecting moulded stucco eaves and fluted corbel brackets on a plain frieze band address the front and return at the far north and south sides of the gable. Alternating angled headers feature at the projecting eaves to the rear.

Materials include a natural slate roof; cast-iron ogee-profile guttering; square-section aluminium rainwater pipes to the main roof (south) and circular-section uPVC from the bowed bay, north elevation and return. Walls consist of red brick in Flemish bond with painted moulded stucco dressings to the south; red brick in English Garden Wall bond to the rear (north) and return. Windows are single-glazed double-hung sliding sashes with 1/1 panes (south) and 2/2 panes (north), unless otherwise described.

The building is set back from the tree-lined street by mature hedging and planting on the south side of College Gardens, forming the end-of-terrace to the block of similar town houses. It is rectangular on plan and aligned east-west parallel to the road. Mature hedging and modern metal railings align the boundary with adjacent front gardens at Nos 22 and 24. A dwarf rendered wall curved on plan terminates in circular pillars with conical caps to either side of the entrance door. The front garden and path to the rear are paved with precast concrete flagstones with mature planting in gravel beds. A cherry tree stands next to the front gate. The rear overlooks Elmwood Mews, a shared alley running the full length of College Gardens and connected to Elmwood Avenue. Red brick walling in English Garden Wall bond with a curved terracotta cap and simple metal railings divides the yard from No.22. A modern red brick wall with a galvanised steel lintel and metal roller shutter above marks a wide vehicular entrance to an off-street parking area within the rear yard, shared with No.24. Modern concrete steps retained by red brick walling lead from a fire exit door within the flat-roofed extension at ground-floor level down to a tarmacked yard at basement level.

The building is currently used as offices in combination with No.24.