63 King's Road, Belfast, Co.Antrim, BT5 7BT

63 King's Road, now known as Linbrook (and formerly as Syringa), is a two-storey, three-bay red-brick house built in 1907 to designs by the Belfast architectural partnership of Blackwood & Jury, formed between William Blackwood and Percy Morgan Jury in 1901. The building is situated in the townland of Ballycloghan, set back from the south side of King's Road behind stepped red-brick boundary walling with reconstituted stone coping and square-section red-brick piers, enclosing a gravel yard to the front. Painted timber side gates to east and west lead to the garden at the rear.

The house is recorded only and is not considered of sufficient architectural or historic interest to merit listing, primarily because replacement uPVC windows and fibre cement roof tiles have detracted from its character, though it retains some interesting detailing.

ARCHITECTURAL DESCRIPTION

The building has a rectangular plan form facing north, with a two-storey rear return, a single-storey canted extension to the rear south, and a detached red-brick gabled garage to the east. The roof is pitched with fibre cement tiles, terracotta roll-top ridge tiles, and projecting eaves. Painted timber bargeboards are fitted to the east and west gables, with a timber soffit and fascia, ogee-section uPVC guttering, and circular-section uPVC downpipes. There are rectangular-section red-brick chimneys to each gable, each with a moulded capping; the east chimney carries terracotta pots and the west a mixture of buff and terracotta pots. The walling is laid generally in English Garden Wall bond with cement pointing, set on a raised red-brick plinth. Windows are typically square-headed, top-hung uPVC casements with bevelled-edge surrounds.

PRINCIPAL (NORTH) ELEVATION

The front elevation is composed of a central doorcase flanked by two-storey, three-sided canted bay windows with hipped roofs. The doorcase features a square-headed painted timber six-panel door with a semi-circular decorative fanlight above, a matching red-brick drip mould, and moulded red sandstone corbel stops — identified as the most notable surviving feature of the building. An original brass doorbell and letterbox are retained, alongside a later metal plaque bearing the name 'Linbrook'. The door opens onto three brick steps. Above the doorcase at first-floor level is a segmental-arched red-brick window opening. The canted bays have continuous painted stone cills at each floor level, a dog's-tooth brick course above the ground-floor window heads, and a moulded brick course below the first-floor cills.

EAST ELEVATION

Window openings on the east elevation were not recorded as access was unavailable at the time of survey. There is a rectangular-section red-brick mid-ridge chimney to the roof, a painted timber bargeboard to the gable, and red-brick walling throughout. A mono-pitch block is set back from the main building and has a window at first-floor level that has been blocked with red brick, though it was originally square-headed. A recent extension projects southward from this mono-pitched block, with a canted southern end, a hipped roof, and corner windows. The building connects on the east to a single-storey red-brick garage via a red-brick wall containing a square-headed gate opening with a brick pediment above and a painted timber gate. The garage has a varnished boarded timber vehicular door to the north, stepped brick kneelers, and reconstituted stone coping to raised gables.

SOUTH ELEVATION

The south elevation was not recorded as access was unavailable at the time of survey.

WEST ELEVATION

There are no openings to the west elevation. It features a rectangular-section red-brick mid-ridge chimney, a painted timber bargeboard to the gable, and red-brick walling throughout. The mono-pitch two-storey rear block is set back from the main building, with a single-storey flat-roofed block filling the intervening space. A recent extension projects southward from this mono-pitched return.

HISTORICAL CONTEXT

The house was built on land in Ballycloghan, an area that remained predominantly rural in character into the mid-19th century, as recorded on the second edition Ordnance Survey map of 1858, which shows only a small number of gentlemen's or merchants' mansions in the vicinity, including Cabin Hill, Thornhill, and Belmont House. King's Road was known as Church Road until around 1902 and formed the main road to Comber; the stretch between the Sandown and Knock Roads had not yet been constructed by the time of the 1858 map, though it was shown in plan form on the contemporary Griffith's Valuation map. The extension of the railway between Belfast and Comber drove the rapid suburban development of the area, with Knock Railway Station sited immediately to the south-west of the property, at the intersection of the railway line and the Knock Road.

The land on which the house stands was owned by Edward Emerson, a corn merchant and agent who operated from the Corn Exchange on Victoria Street and resided at Enderly House on the Knock Road. Blackwood & Jury, who designed the building, were also responsible for a number of other houses on the Knock and King's Roads, and carried out a large volume of work for the Ulster Bank as well as domestic and commercial contracts across Belfast, as noted in the Dictionary of Irish Architects.

Upon completion in 1907, the Annual Revisions set the total rateable value of Syringa at £40. Emerson leased the site to William George Tweedie, described in trade directories as a 'fancy pot maker', who lived there with his wife Margaret and their four children. The 1911 census classified the house as a first-class dwelling comprising nine rooms. The Tweedie family remained at the property until around 1920, when a Mr Matthew Burns took possession; the Burns family stayed until the 1950s. Under the First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936–57), the rateable value was increased to £60. From 1956 the house was occupied by a Mr J. D. Farrell, who remained until the end of the Second General Revaluation (1956–72), by which time the total rateable value stood at £64. The single-storey extension to the rear has been identified as a recent addition. The building continues in use as a private dwelling.