547 Ormeau Road, Belfast

547 Ormeau Road is a two-storey terraced house with attic, built in 1887 as part of a row of nine properties originally known as Rosetta Terrace, situated on the upper Ormeau Road in a predominantly residential area approximately four kilometres south of Belfast city centre. It forms part of a listed terrace running from 547 to 563 Ormeau Road and shares group value with those neighbouring properties. The house is well detailed both internally and externally and represents a fine example of Victorian domestic architecture, built during a period of rapid southward expansion from Belfast city centre along the main thoroughfares of the Ormeau, Lisburn and Malone Roads.

EXTERIOR

The house is rectangular in plan with a two-storey return to the rear and small gardens front and back. The ground floor of the front elevation is finished in smooth painted render, while the first floor is faced in red clay brick laid in Flemish bond. Two rows of blue brick are laid beneath a decorative brick cornice at first-floor level. A plaster string course separates the two storeys. The return is wholly rendered throughout.

The front door is the original four-panelled design, set to the right of the ground floor beneath a hood supported on ornate brackets. To the left is a canted bay window containing a 1/1 painted timber sliding sash window. At first-floor level there are two further 1/1 painted timber sliding sash windows. A pitched roof dormer sits at the wall head and contains a replacement top-hung window with a fixed semi-circular light above it. To either side of the dormer are Velux-type roof-lights. A large clay brick chimney stack, detailed to match the front elevation, is set on the ridge to the left. The right-hand side of the first floor is separated from the adjoining terrace by cement alternating quoins. The south side elevation abuts number 549 Ormeau Road and the north side abuts number 545.

The rear elevation is smooth rendered. At ground-floor level it retains an original margined-pane window, with a 2/2 painted timber sliding sash window above and a PVC-clad double-pitched dormer with side-hung windows in the attic. The lower two-storey return to the left-hand side has new French doors at ground-floor level, replacement sliding sash windows also at ground floor, and mainly 2/2 sliding sash windows to the first floor. Beyond the two-storey return, a single-storey section has been converted from former outbuildings, with a smooth rendered wall to the yard containing hopper windows and original red brick walls on the other two facades.

The roof is clad in natural Bangor Blue slates to the main house and fibre cement to the return. Rainwater goods are cast iron.

The small front garden is separated from the pavement by a modern dwarf rendered wall with painted steel railings and gate. The original quarry tile path leads from the gate to a concrete landing at the front door. A U-shaped access ramp, installed in 2013 to facilitate disabled access, takes up most of the remaining garden space alongside a recently planted tree and shrubs. The rear yard is separated from a small back garden, which now contains a substantial garden structure built of lightweight materials. Beyond it is a communal alley on the other side of a timber fence.

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

Prior to the early 19th century, the southern stretch of the present Ormeau Road around Rosetta was a long-established continuation of what is now the Ravenhill Road — the main route from Belfast via Ballymacarrett and Newtownbreda to Saintfield. During the late Georgian period, several generally small country villas with attendant grounds were established along this road, including Anna's Cottage, Annadale, Cherry Vale, Hay Park, Lagan Vale, Locust Lodge, Ormeau, Raven Hill, and Rosetta House itself, the last of these built prior to 1807, probably by the Coulson family.

In 1809 a new bridge — replaced between 1812 and 1814 — was built on the site of the present Ormeau Bridge to carry a more direct route from the growing town of Belfast, linking to the existing road where it passed the grounds of Rosetta. Originally known variously as the New Ballynafoy Road or the Road to Newtownbreda, this new highway remained largely rural for much of the 19th century. The opening of the former Ormeau demesne in 1871 as Belfast's first public park marked the beginning of intensive development along the route and the gradual breaking up of the small surrounding estates. Some haphazard small-scale building had already taken place along the main road close to Rosetta House before 1833, including a small hamlet that encompassed the still-extant Rosetta Cottages at numbers 513 to 529 Ormeau Road. Development then accelerated in an increasingly suburban manner: Belvoir Place (present numbers 583 to 595) was built around 1863 and extended in 1871; semi-detached dwellings along what became Rosetta Avenue were in place by 1873; Marguerita Terrace (numbers 531 to 545) was completed by 1882; and Rosetta Terrace (numbers 537 to 563), the row to which this house belongs, followed in 1886 to 1887. Building along what is now Knockbreda Road began around 1889, by which time development had also commenced in Rosetta Park. These later streets effectively surrounded Rosetta House itself at close quarters; the old house survived into the late 20th century.

The Rosetta Terrace row appears in the valuation books in two stages: the four southernmost dwellings (present numbers 557 to 563) were completed in 1886, and numbers 547 to 555 followed in 1887. The developer appears to have been one H. Scott, who occupied what is now number 557 and who is recorded in the earliest valuations as the immediate lessor. Contemporary trade directories list him as a pawnbroker with premises at 117 Shankill Road; he is presumably Hugh Scott, or a close relation, who also developed much of the south-eastern end of Sunnyside Street in the early 1900s. The architect is not known. A letting advertisement of October 1886 described one of the properties completed that year as a large house with three reception rooms, five bedrooms, hot and cold water, all modern improvements, a warm and healthy situation with gardens, and trams passing the door. A subsequent advertisement of July 1887, relating to the five dwellings finished that year, referred to new, well-finished houses with two reception rooms on the ground floor and six bedrooms.

OCCUPATION HISTORY

The recorded sequence of occupation of number 547 is as follows: William R. Cranston, described as a clerk and later as a bank official, from approximately 1889 to 1896; Mrs. Greer from around 1896 to 1899; Thomas Scott, a commercial agent, from around 1899 to 1900; and John White, a pawnbroker, from around 1900 to 1947. The 1901 census records Mr. White living there with his wife Sara, their three children, and a domestic servant. By 1911 the household comprised five children and no servant, and the house was classified as a second-class dwelling containing nine rooms. Mrs. White, presumably Sara, is listed as householder from the later 1940s until around 1964, followed by David Scott from approximately 1964 to 1969, Ella Scott from 1969 to 1972, Garry Sage from 1972 to 1977, Patrick McElhinney from 1977 to 1993, and Muir Graham from 1993 onwards. At the time of the listing record (February 2017), the property was in the hands of a charitable organisation and had been adapted for multiple occupation. The whole terrace was listed in 1986. Minor alterations were carried out in 2013 to provide disabled access.