71 University St, Belfast, BT7 1HB

71 University Street is a three-storey, High Victorian, mid-terraced brick townhouse built in 1878–79, now in use as offices for the School of Education at Queen's University Belfast. It is the middle building of a terrace of five, flanked on its right by No. 69 University Street, with which it is now internally connected, and on its left by No. 73. Despite retaining some historic interior features and its characterful front façade, the building is not listed due to a reduction in authenticity and intactness resulting from the loss of the original staircase, the conversion of the front entrance into a window opening, and its integration with No. 69.

The building is rectangular on plan and faces north onto University Street, a long thoroughfare running between University Road to the west and Ormeau Road to the east, within the Botanic Avenue Area of Townscape Character. A two-storey, flat-roofed extension dating from around the 1980s has been added to the rear, accessed via No. 69.

MATERIALS

The roof is finished in natural Welsh slate with black clay ridge tiles. The walls are red brick in Flemish bond, with header bond used at the bowed window, painted stone, and painted stucco. Rainwater goods to the front consist of painted metal downpipes and cast iron ogee guttering, with PVC goods to the rear. Windows are timber sliding sash with horns, single-glazed, and possibly replaced.

FRONT ELEVATION (NORTH)

The three-storey north-facing façade is built in Flemish bond brick and is composed of three elements: a three-storey bowed bay to the left with a conical slate roof, a former central front entrance (now a window), and a three-storey shallow square bay to the right with a truncated château roof. The pitched natural Welsh slate roof has black clay ridge tiles. Brick chimney stacks are shared with the neighbouring properties on both sides.

All front windows are single-glazed 1/1 timber sliding sash with horns and are possibly replacements.

The bowed bay on the left has, at each storey, a painted stone surround to three large square-headed window openings, with plain engaged painted sandstone capitals at shoulder height and rounded-edge mouldings above the capitals. There is a continuous painted stone cill course, and each floor level is separated by brick laid in header bond coursing. Below the brickwork, a rough-coursed sandstone plinth with a chamfered painted stone coping supports the bay. The bow is topped by a natural slate conical roof with a decorative lead apron and cast iron finial, set above a decorative stuccoed eaves band carrying a fleur-de-lis motif.

The former central doorway has been converted into a window: the section below the window has been infilled in Flemish bond brickwork beneath a painted round-edged stone cill. The original surround survives largely intact, comprising a segmental-headed painted sandstone arch with carved edges above corner colonettes with simplified foliated capitals to each side. Rather than the tall raised chamfered stone bases seen on No. 69, the colonettes here rest on rough rendered and painted quoins above brickwork. At first-floor level, aligned above the former doorway, are two narrow window openings within a painted stone surround with Corinthian-type decorative plaster capitals and chamfered stone bases, but with the column shafts missing. At second-floor level, a centrally placed diminutive window opening has a carved stone surround. Between the bowed bay and the square bay, the eaves of this central section are decorative, with carved stone brackets above a stone string course.

The shallow square bay to the right has two large window openings per storey within a painted stone surround with painted stone corner colonettes. At ground-floor level these have Doric-type capitals and chamfered stone bases; at first and second-floor levels the capitals are decorative Corinthian-type, with chamfered stone bases, but again with the column shafts missing. A rough-coursed sandstone plinth with chamfered painted stone coping sits below the brickwork. The square bay is crowned by a truncated château roof with bands of fish-scale patterning in natural Welsh slate, a decorative lead apron to the flat top section, and a decorative stuccoed eaves band with a curving leaf motif. Continuous painted stone cill courses run across all floor levels of the bay.

Two-stage brick chimney stacks are located to the left and right, both rebuilt, centred on the ridge with corbel detailing and multiple yellow clay pots with triangular tops; both are built in stretcher bond. Cast iron ogee guttering runs across the front, receiving rainwater from both the conical and château roofs via the central gutter section, then discharging to painted metal downpipes.

The terrace of Nos. 69–73 sits behind an original low, heavy coursed rough sandstone wall with a painted cut stone coping, running between original painted sandstone piers. These piers have square bases, diminutive engaged corner colonettes with Corinthian-like capitals, and a square chamfered coping. Replacement painted metal railings run along the frontage. A path between the central piers leads to a disabled access ramp within the former front garden area, with modern paving flanked by heavy-coursed pink sandstone walling with cut stone coping. The ramp rises from the front of No. 71, curves around the bowed bay of No. 69, and leads to the front door of No. 69, which now serves as the main entrance for both properties.

SIDE ELEVATIONS

The west side elevation is fully abutted by No. 69 University Street, and the east side elevation is fully abutted by No. 73 University Street.

REAR ELEVATION (SOUTH)

The three-storey rear elevation is built in Flemish bond brick, with a painted render section to the left side of the ground and first-floor levels. There is no rear return or extension to this building itself. The building faces onto a shared courtyard enclosed by the rear elevation, the two-storey flat-roofed circa-1980s extension to the left (of little interest to this survey), a continuation of the modern building on the south side, and the rear return of No. 73 to the right. The courtyard is paved in concrete slabs at both upper and lower levels, with brick retaining walls forming the edges and large planters for shrubs and trees.

A three-storey, shallow square advanced bay with a pitched roof projects to the right side of the rear elevation. At ground-floor level it contains a wide opening with double doors and plain overlights; above this are two window openings on each of the first and second floors, with the second-floor openings extending as a wall-head dormer. The left section of the rear elevation has two high-level top-hung windows at ground-floor level to the left and centre, and a wide opening to the right containing a door within a glazed screen. At first-floor level there is a single window to the left and narrow paired windows at half-landing height to the right. At second-floor level there is a single opening to the left within a wall-head dormer, and narrow paired windows at second-floor half-landing level to the right. Both dormers have pitched natural Welsh slate roofs, painted timber bargeboards with decorative brackets carrying knopps and cross-tie members, and exposed rafter ends to the sides. All rear windows are uPVC. Rear openings have splayed brick heads. The eaves are corbelled and bevelled brick. The rear roof slope is finished in natural Welsh slate with black clay ridge tiles, and rainwater goods to the rear are plastic.

The two-storey rear extension and building back onto College Green Mews, which runs between Botanic Avenue to the west and Rugby Road to the east. The south side of College Green Mews is backed by the rear boundary walls and extensions of the houses along College Green to the south.

HISTORY

University Street was only laid out as far east as Botanic Avenue on the second edition Ordnance Survey of 1857, and its plots were at that time undeveloped. The fully developed street first appears on the third edition of 1901, by which time the terrace known as Princess Gardens, built 1878–79, was in place. No. 71 was originally No. 3 Princess Gardens. The terrace forms part of the late-19th-century suburban development around Queen's College, lying between Botanic Avenue and Fitzroy Presbyterian Church. It was built by the developer Robert Corry, and the lease was held by William Gabbey, who sublet the properties individually. Gabbey was a builder and contractor who operated the Hope Street Steam Saw Mills and Joinery Works.

When the properties first appear in the valuation records in 1878, No. 3 was occupied by David Allen and valued at £85, reduced to £80 in 1880. Allen occupied the house until around 1900. His printing firm, D. Allen and Son, was founded in 1857 and had premises in Corporation Street from 1884. By 1910 the firm was advertising itself as the world's largest placard manufacturer, with offices in Leicester Square, London, and agencies in New York, Melbourne, and Sydney. David Allen is recorded as a Justice of the Peace in 1900.

The Belfast Revaluation records of 1900 note that the house was still sublet by William Gabbey and was at that time occupied by a seed merchant named Alexander Bryce. It was valued at £73, contained eleven bedrooms or sitting rooms excluding the kitchen, and its original construction cost is recorded as £1,394.

Around 1918, the house was purchased by the ladies' school based next door at No. 4 (now No. 69), and the two houses were combined to form Princess Gardens School. That school had been founded in Lisburn in 1862 by Mrs William Steen Hunter and moved into Princess Gardens in 1887 under the leadership of her daughter Hannah Hunter. The school later merged with Ashleigh House School in 1987 to become Hunterhouse College, taking its name in part from its foundress. No. 71 currently serves as part of the Queen's University School of Education.