11 Lower Crescent, Belfast, Co Antrim, BT7 1NR

Number 11 Lower Crescent is a relatively large, three-storey rendered town house, built in 1852 as part of a terrace of eleven similar — though not identical — properties in a Regency style. It now serves as offices. The terrace known as Lower Crescent sits to the east of University Road and faces, across a small public park, Upper Crescent — a comparable development of 1846 which, unlike its neighbour, is arranged in a true crescent form. Number 11 is positioned near the east end of the terrace and is one of a pair of the more ornate buildings in the group, distinguished by large two-storey giant-order Corinthian pilasters to the front.

The front elevation is asymmetrical and faces roughly south. To the right on the ground floor is the entrance, comprising a recessed timber sheeted door with a rectangular fanlight, reached by two steps. To the left of the doorway are two tall plain sash windows. At first-floor level, three larger windows sit on a sill course; these have moulded surrounds and sash frames with Regency-style panes in a 4-over-8 configuration. At second-floor level, three semicircular-headed sash windows — each with a vertical glazing bar to the upper sash in a 2-over-1 arrangement — rest on a more pronounced, cornice-like sill course decorated with dentillations. The ground floor is finished in rusticated render, with a decorative moulded keystone over the doorway. The upper floors are in plain render. Four large, evenly spaced Corinthian pilasters span the ground and first-floor heights, supporting a slightly projecting frieze below the second-floor sill course. Corresponding with these pilasters at second-floor level are four panelled pilasters which rise to form parapet piers, with a pierced, balustrade-like parapet between them.

The rear elevation is wholly in brick. To the left-hand, eastern side is a two-storey gabled return, to the gable of which there is a small window opening now boarded up. At ground-floor level on the gable there are indications that a doorway has been blocked up. To the right, western side, the return merges with a two-storey projection with a monopitched roof; the north face of this projection cannot be seen as it is abutted by a large two-storey corrugated shed. To the rear, north face of the projection there is a sash window with Georgian panes in an 8-over-8 configuration, and at ground-floor level a plain sheeted door. This face of the projection is in brick. The inner south face of the projection and the inner west face of the return could not be observed.

On the rear façade of the main block, there is a window to the right at second-floor level with a relatively recent-looking frame that appears to have been formed by joining two different frames together. At first-floor level to the right there appears to be a window, though this could not be seen clearly. Between the first and second floors on the left there is a half-landing window consisting of a Georgian-paned sash in a 6-over-6 configuration. The left half of the second-floor level of this rear façade is in a noticeably different shade of brick from the right half. The main roof is gabled and slated, with a tall rendered chimneystack to the west carrying a projecting coping and uniform pots. Two small roof lights are present to the rear, one of which appears to be a Velux window. The return roof is also slated and has a small roof light to its west side. Rainwater goods are a mixture of cast iron and PVC.

Historical Background

The development of Lower Crescent and its neighbour Upper Crescent is closely linked to the break-up of Lord Donegall's Belfast estate in the early to mid 19th century, which released large areas of land around the town for development. The lands to the south, along the Malone Ridge, proved particularly attractive to developers and gave rise to many fine late Georgian-style terraces from the mid-1830s onwards, a trend accelerated by the establishment of the prestigious Queen's College in the area in the later 1840s. These new grand terraces were taken up by Belfast's professional and business classes, who vacated their older residences in the town centre, which were in turn gradually converted into shops and offices.

Upper Crescent was perhaps the grandest of these southern terrace developments: an elegantly curving row of three-storey dwellings in a late Regency style, built in 1846 by timber and shipping merchant Robert Corry. Its authorship is uncertain, though Dr Paul Larmour has suggested that Charles Lanyon may have had a hand in its design. Corry himself undertook the building work and took up residence at the east end of the row, which was known for its first few years as Corry's Crescent. Immediately to the south of the crescent, where a church and small park now stand, Corry maintained a large lawn as a garden; shortly after it was laid out, however, he had it ploughed up and used for the cultivation of vegetables to relieve local workers suffering as a result of the Great Famine. To the north of this garden ran an old watercourse flowing northwards into the Basin, a reservoir east of the Dublin Road; to the east were smaller gardens belonging to other residents of the crescent; and further east and to the north-east ran Albion Lane, a narrow semi-rural laneway stretching from the north end of Bradbury Place to the east end of the present University Terrace.

In 1852 Corry built a second terrace to the north of his garden and just south of the old watercourse — the development that became known, somewhat erroneously, as Lower Crescent. Much in the same style as its southern neighbour, it was occupied by a similar mix of professionals and businessmen, though by as early as 1860 the ground floors of some properties were already in use as offices. In the later 1860s a railway line was cut immediately to the north of Lower Crescent, following the line of the old watercourse. In 1873 a large sandstone building — originally the Ladies Collegiate, later Victoria College — was added to the west end of the terrace. By the close of the decade two further houses had been added to the east end, the most easterly of which, Rivoli House, was designed by William Hastings and originally contained a dance academy run by a Frederick Brouneau. The new railway line cut across Albion Lane and led to the laying out of the broader new thoroughfare of Botanic Avenue.

Upper Crescent also saw further building in the 1860s and 1870s: two large properties designed by William Hastings were erected to the west end in 1869, one of which — Crescent House, now the Bank of Ireland — also fronted onto University Road. In 1878–79 two further houses were added on the ground between those of 1869. Between 1885 and 1887 the large Presbyterian church, the present Crescent Church, was erected to designs by Glasgow architect John Bennie Wilson on the west side of Robert Corry's former garden. In 1898, a two-storey terrace — the present Crescent Gardens — was built on the site of the smaller garden plots at the east end.

During the first half of the 20th century most properties in Upper and Lower Crescent and Crescent Gardens remained private dwellings, but by 1960 many had been given over to business use or divided into flats, with the former Rivoli House, later known as Dreenagh House, becoming the Regency Hotel. This transition continued and by the beginning of the 21st century none of the properties remained in private residential occupation. In the mid-1990s three of the 1860s–70s houses at the west end of Upper Crescent were demolished and replaced by a modern office block, while in 2000 the railway cutting to the south of Lower Crescent was built over in preparation for further development.

History of Number 11

Number 11 Lower Crescent is one of the original eleven houses forming the 1852 section of the terrace. In 1858 it and its eastern neighbour were in use as offices for the Ordnance Survey, though by 1860 the property was once again a private dwelling, occupied by a Charles Gaussen. Gaussen was followed in 1861 by a Henry Cuppage, who remained there until at least 1882. A William Pedlow, listed as District Inspector of National Schools, Belfast South, is recorded as resident in 1899; a David Wright, described as a bottle merchant and representative of the Chilean Nitrate Committee, followed; then a T. Kernaghan in 1920, and one S. E. Fitchie, a wholesale stationer, in 1930. By 1940 the property was operating as a nursing home, and by 1951 as a guest house, before reverting to use as a private residence from the late 1950s to the 1970s. By 1980 it had become offices, a use it has continued to serve ever since.