5 Mount Charles, Belfast

5 Mount Charles is a three-storey with attic, mid-terraced brick townhouse with a pitched roof, designed by Alexander MacAlister (c.1821–97), a native of Carlow who spent his entire career in Belfast working almost exclusively in counties Antrim and Down. It was constructed in 1859 and forms the second house from the right within a terrace of nine (Nos 3–19 Mount Charles). The land was developed by Bernard ('Barney') Hughes (1805–78), an Armagh-born baker who became Belfast's master baker and the owner of Ireland's largest milling concern, and who was also a noted philanthropist. The listing covers the house itself, the rear yard wall, and the dwarf stone wall to either side of the front door.

The terrace faces north and lines the south side of Mount Charles, a tree-lined street running between Botanic Avenue to the east and University Road to the west, within the Queen's Conservation Area. The building is rectangular on plan with a projecting return to the rear. The rear return and yard back directly onto University Street, where a tall wall with false windows at high level creates the appearance of a three-storey façade — a deliberate and accomplished design feature that gives the terrace a genuine dual aspect and adds considerable character to the surrounding streetscape.

Materials and Construction

The roof is natural Welsh slate with black clay ridge tiles. The walls are red brick laid in Flemish bond with painted render, with what appears to be lime pointing. Rainwater goods are cast iron. Windows are timber sliding sash throughout: those to the ground and first floors have horns, those to the second floor do not.

Front Elevation (North)

The three-storey façade is built in Flemish bond brick. At ground floor level, a single-storey canted bay sits to the right and a deeply recessed doorway to the left. Above, there are two windows on each of the first and second floors, and a single rooflight at attic level, the type of which is not visible from the street.

All windows to the front are single-glazed timber sliding sash and are possibly original. Windows to the canted bay and first floor are horizontally split 2/2 panes. Second floor windows are 8/8; the window on the right has a modern plastic vent installed within the top panes. First and second floor window heads are straight with splayed brick soldiers. There is a continuous painted stone cill course to the first and second floors, a deep painted rendered plinth to the base, and a similar rendered frieze beneath the eaves.

The canted bay to the right is painted render with moulded plaster detailing; the lower section beneath the cill is formed by the deep plinth. The bay has a flat roof with roofing felt over a projecting cornice. A cast iron downpipe runs from cast iron ogee guttering to the right side of the canted bay, and a metal pipe from the parapet of the bay discharges to a separate narrow cast iron downpipe to the right side of the bay. A cast aluminium ogee gutter runs along the main eaves.

The doorway has an elliptical arched head with brick voussoirs and a moulded plaster reveal. It is deeply recessed with Ionic columns to each side, set on raised moulded plaster panelled bases. The columns support a moulded plaster entablature with a plain fanlight over. The cornice, columns, and bases sit on two replacement concrete steps with an original stone dwarf wall to each side. Remnants of an iron boot scraper are visible to the right side. The timber four-panelled door itself appears to be original, though fitted with replacement ironmongery and modern surface-mounted bolts.

Brick chimney stacks are shared with Nos 3 and 7 to either side, centred on the ridge with corbelled detailing and circular clay pots (number unknown); they appear to have been repointed and possibly rebuilt.

Side Elevations

The east side elevation is fully abutted by No 7 and the west side elevation is fully abutted by No 3.

Rear Elevation (South)

The three-storey rear façade is abutted by an original three-storey return on the right side, built at half-landing height. The main block has a pitched natural Welsh slate roof with one rooflight to the left side (type not visible from the street); the return has a hipped natural Welsh slate roof with black clay ridge tiles. A small brick chimney on the right side of the rear return has a modern concrete pot.

The rear yard was not accessed at the time of survey but was partially visible through the false windows at first and second floor level from University Street. Walls within the yard are painted brick to the eaves of the return and plain brick above. Ground floor windows were not seen. First and second floor windows of the main rear elevation, where visible, are 8/8 single-glazed timber sliding sash without horns and appear to be original; they are boarded over on the inside face with timber panelling.

The three-storey high façade onto University Street is constructed of dark brown brick in Flemish bond with a rendered plinth and eaves band. At ground floor level, the replacement yard door to the left is painted timber panelled with a two-section obscure glass fanlight beneath a semi-circular arched head with brick voussoirs. To the right of the yard door is a 6/6 window, likely original, with wrought iron bars attached to the reveals and painted stone cills; the panes are obscure glass with some smashed. A diminutive square single-pane window opening to the right side is bricked up. At first floor level there is a false multi-pane window frame with no glass to the left, and a 6/6 window to the right, boarded over with timber panelling on the inside face; openings at this level have shallow arched heads. The second floor arrangement mirrors the first floor, except that the heads are straight. A cast iron gutter sits above the painted rendered eaves band.

The front of the house is accessed directly from the tree-lined pavement of Mount Charles; the rear is accessed directly from the pavement of University Street via the yard door.

Historical and Architectural Context

The development of this part of Belfast followed the granting of perpetual leases — and eventually outright sales — by the Donegall estate from the mid-1820s onwards, which opened up attractive plots along the Malone Ridge to developers. The following decades saw a number of relatively large-scale building projects on the northern lower slopes of the Ridge, along and branching off from what was then the Old Malone Road (now University Road), as far south as the newly laid out Botanic Gardens. This expansion intensified with the establishment of Queen's College in 1845, and by the end of the 1850s the area was characterised by large rows of graceful terraces, largely early Victorian in date but late Georgian in style.

Mount Charles occupies a trapezoidal plot between what was formerly Old Malone Road (now University Road) and Albion Lane (the forerunner of Botanic Avenue). This plot had previously contained a pre-1832 house, probably dating from around 1770, recorded in the 1837 valuation as a two-storey residence. In its original form the street comprised the present Nos 2–6, built in 1842, all three accessed by a short private lane off the main road. The old pre-1830s house was demolished around 1850. In 1854 the lane was adapted to serve No 1 to the south, and in 1859 it was extended further eastwards with the building of Nos 3–19 and 8–16; Nos 18–24 followed in 1869 and Nos 26–50 in 1892–94, the latter linking the street directly through to Botanic Avenue. Despite this growth, Mount Charles — unlike its near neighbours University Street, University Square, and the Upper and Lower Crescent — never became a public thoroughfare, maintaining its private, gated character throughout.

The terrace of Nos 3–19 was previewed in The Dublin Builder of 1 May 1859. The writer described the houses as 'not large', their plots 'too confined for our notion of how towns should be built, but the proprietor appears to be sparing no expense to render them durable and elegant dwellings for those whose aspirations do not go beyond paying £45 or £50 per annum rent.' The review noted the prevailing fashion for bay windows, observing that 'all Mr. Hughes' houses have their parlours enlarged and their exteriors decorated with this appendage', and recorded that the houses were 'fitted up with arrangements for hot and cold baths, sunk and covered ashpits in the yards, and everything necessary for comfort and convenience.' The review further noted that 'the workmanship alone is contracted for, the proprietor supplying all the materials and the whole superintended by Mr. McAlister.' Of the nine houses on the south side, the writer remarked on 'the peculiarity of a double frontage, the returns extending to University Street, with the yard wall in the same street built up to an equal height with the windows and cornice above', adding that 'this has the advantage of making the return bedroom one of the most cheerful and desirable in the house, which is far from usual.'

Occupancy History

The original tenant of No 5 appears to have been Frank Harrison Hill, then editor of the Northern Whig, followed around 1867 by David McTear, a shipping agent. McTear died around 1895, and the property passed to Miss Margaret Smith McTear — presumably his daughter, a governess — who in the 1901 census is recorded as living there with her sister, aunt, two cousins, and a domestic servant; the house itself was noted as a 'first class' dwelling with eleven rooms in use. The McTears remained until around 1909. Subsequent occupants include Miss McMurdie (recorded 1910), Maggie Topping (1911), Mrs H. Muirhead (1918), and R. Wilson, Registrar of Deeds for Northern Ireland (by 1924). Sometime between 1924 and 1932 the property was divided into three flats, a condition that persisted into the 1980s, though by that stage one of the flats appears to have been in use as an office for the Workers' Education Association. By 1991 the Association appears to have been occupying the whole building. By 1996 the property appears to have been acquired by Queen's University, after which it was left vacant.

Despite being divided into flats during the 1920s–30s and reverting to a single house by the 1980s, the building still retains its original historic detailing. The exterior retains much of its original character, proportions, and detailing. The terrace as a whole — Nos 3–19 Mount Charles — has strong group value, and the dual aspect onto both Mount Charles and University Street, carried out with considerable design confidence, adds significant character to the setting within the Queen's Conservation Area.