42 Sunnyside St., Belfast

42 Sunnyside Street is a two-storey red-brick terrace house built in 1904, located on the south side of Sunnyside Street approximately 3 kilometres from Belfast city centre. It forms part of a terrace of twenty-one similar dwellings, of which this house is one of the later additions, entered into the valuation book in 1904, while earlier numbers in the sequence date to 1903 and later numbers to 1910. The developer was Hugh Scott, listed as the lessor for properties numbered 14 to 42 in 1906, though the identity of the architect remains unknown.

The house is rectangular on plan with a large two-storey L-shaped return extension to the rear, featuring a double-pitched roof that extends the full width of the rear elevation. The main structure is built from smooth red clay brick laid in English Garden Wall bond, with clay ventilation bricks at each level. The roof is natural slate, with a replacement red-brick chimney stack on the right-hand side featuring a projecting brick course and clay pots. A blue-brick course and projecting moulded brick course at eaves level support cast metal ogee guttering.

The front elevation faces north and features a painted timber four-panel door with overlight (obscure glazing) positioned to the left, and a painted timber top-hung double-glazed window to the right. The door has a semi-circular head with moulded architrave, and the window has a segmental head with matching moulded architrave. A smaller window of similar design is positioned almost centrally on the first floor. A reproduction painted metal lamp and modern post-box are attached to the wall on the right-hand side of the doorway. The small front garden is finished in concrete block paviors and set behind a replacement red-brick boundary wall with gateway, painted metal railings and small painted metal arched gate. This boundary treatment was installed around 1988 as part of an improvement scheme encompassing the whole terrace, at the same time as new front doors and windows were fitted.

The rear elevation faces south and comprises a two-storey double-pitched L-shaped extension that extends the full width of the rear elevation. It has red-brick walls, fibre-cement slate roof covering, painted timber boards to the verges, and uPVC rainwater goods and soil stack. The extension runs to the original boundary of the inner yard and is set behind a rear garden area. The rear garden is enclosed by modern stained timber boarded fence at the boundary with number 40 and by the red-brick outbuilding of number 44. To the south of the garden area, a yard wall bounds the laneway, modernised with cement render, concrete coping and a square-headed doorway with varnished timber boarded door.

The east side elevation abuts number 40 Sunnyside Street, and the west side elevation abuts number 44 Sunnyside Street.

The house retains considerable external character, including its panelled timber front door, stucco surrounds and slate roof. However, the original windows have been replaced with painted timber top-hung double-glazed windows to the front and uPVC casements to the rear. The large rear extension significantly alters the original form, though the building has strong group value with the rest of the terrace.

The wider context shows that Sunnyside Street first appears on the Ordnance Survey town plan of 1871–73 as a lane stretching from the Ormeau Road to the current junction with Whitehall Parade, with only a terrace of six houses on the north side marked as "Sunnyside" (present numbers 43–53). Marcus Ward's 1879 map designates it "Sunnyside Street", taking its name from the original terrace. Development accelerated in the early twentieth century: the Ordnance Survey map of 1901–03 shows the present numbers 14–24 (the earliest section of the later long terrace), and the street itself extended as far as the junction with Walmer Street. The opening of King's Bridge in 1912 allowed the street to reach its current extent, becoming a thoroughfare linking directly through to Ridgeway Street on the other side of the River Lagan.

No. 42 represents a good example of modest Edwardian terraced housing, built at a time when Belfast was expanding rapidly southwards from the city centre along the main thoroughfares of the Ormeau, Lisburn and Malone Roads. The first occupant was Robert Wright, noted in street directories as a labourer. The 1911 census records the building as a second-class dwelling containing five rooms, with Mrs Mary Anne Wright recorded as occupying the property with her four daughters and a grandson. The Wright family remained in residence until at least 1935. Mrs Donaldson was noted as resident in the 1951 directory, and John Boyd (bread salesman) occupied the property from 1967 until at least 1995. The property was listed in 1986.