18 University Square, Belfast

18 University Square, Belfast

This is a three-storey-with-attic, three-bay, mid-terraced red brick former townhouse, built in 1848–49 as part of a terrace constructed in stages between 1848 and 1853. It now serves as university offices for the Senator George J. Mitchell Institute for Global Peace, Security and Justice at Queen's University. The listing covers the offices and the plinth walls either side of the front door.

Setting and Context

University Square was laid out around 1847 under the direction of Charles Lanyon — the architect of Queen's College itself — on land provided by the then-owner Jane Gregg. The street was originally intended to be named Victoria Square and was created directly as a consequence of the construction of Queen's College between 1845 and 1849. The terrace faces south onto University Square, which links University Road to the west with Botanic Avenue to the east, and looks out over the Old Library (now the QUB Student Graduate Centre) and the grounds at the northern end of the Lanyon Building. Number 18 sits approximately midway along the row of 30 former houses, flanked by No. 17 to the west and No. 19 to the east.

Although Lanyon determined the street layout, the architect of the terrace itself remains unconfirmed. Building agreements from 1847 indicate that the frontages were to be modelled on Glenfield Place, a terrace then under construction on the Ormeau Road (present Nos. 121–135). The architect of Glenfield Place is not known, but architectural historian Paul Larmour has suggested that the University Square houses derived from it were the work of the prolific Belfast-based architect Thomas Jackson. No documentary evidence has yet surfaced to confirm this, though both the style of the buildings and the fact that Jackson was later responsible for Nos. 1–3 University Square suggest he may well have been involved with the whole terrace. That said, many of the interiors contain unusual layout quirks — most notably that the entrances are awkwardly off-centre when viewed from their respective hallways — which seems uncharacteristic of Jackson's work.

Nos. 18 and 19 are distinguished from the rest of the terrace by stepping forward to form a breakfront, with full-height toothed painted rendered quoins at the left corner of No. 18 and the right corner of No. 19. Despite elevational variations — bay and bow windows were added to several of the houses during the late 19th and early 20th centuries — the terrace retains strong coherence as a group. The broad unity of Nos. 4–30 began to be broken in 1865 when a single-storey canted bay was added to No. 19, with a two-storey version appearing on No. 23 before 1873, and similar projections following on Nos. 20 and 22 by 1883, with several others added in the early 1900s — some canted (Nos. 7 and 11) and some rounded (Nos. 12, 14 and 30). Most of the dormers also appear to date from the early 1900s, as does the pebbledash to No. 20. The whole terrace underwent a major renovation around 1990–94, and the small front gardens were landscaped and adapted for disabled access around 2004.

The street was populated in its early years by a mixture of Queen's academics and prosperous Belfast merchants and professionals seeking quieter surroundings away from the rapidly commercialising town centre. By around 1920 the terrace was largely occupied by medical men and their families. Following the expansion of higher education in the late 1940s, Queen's gradually acquired the properties for departmental use. By 1960 the University had taken possession of around two-thirds of the buildings, occupied all but one by 1974, and held all of them by the mid-1980s. Two mews houses recorded from around 1880 at the rear of the terrace — one of which remained a private dwelling into the 1960s — have since been demolished to make way for Queen's extensions.

Exterior — Front (South) Elevation

The front elevation is a flat red brick facade in Flemish bond, three storeys with attic, three bays wide. The entrance is positioned to the right side of the ground floor. There are two single window openings to the left of the door at ground floor level, and three openings on both the first and second floors, aligned vertically above. There is a plain rendered plinth at the base, and a corbelled painted stone cornice with lead to the parapet edges.

The doorcase is the most distinctive feature: it has an elliptical arched head with brick voussoirs and a moulded plaster reveal, deeply recessed, with fluted columns with Doric-type capitals to each side. These columns support a plain painted rendered entablature with moulded cornice. This doorcase detail is repeated throughout the terraced row. The door itself is a painted raised-and-fielded panelled timber door, possibly a replacement from the 1920s or 1930s, with three tall rectangular panels to the lower section and three top panes with Georgian wired glazing. There is a leaded stained glass fanlight with the number 18 at its centre. The ironmongery is replacement. Original low painted stone dwarf walls survive to either side of the front door.

All windows to the front are timber sliding sash, single-glazed, with painted rendered reveals and splayed brick heads, and are possibly original. At ground floor level there are two 6-over-6 sashes with separate painted stone cills. At first floor level there are two 6-over-6 sashes over a continuous painted stone cill course. At second floor level there are two 6-over-6 windows — historic glass is apparent — with separate painted stone cills. All sashes at ground and first floor level have horns; those at second floor do not.

There are no rainwater goods on the front elevation; the roof drainage is handled by a hidden parapet gutter, likely formed in lead.

The pitched roof is clad in natural Welsh slate (replacement) with red clay ridge tiles. There are brick chimneys with corbel detailing (rebuilt) to both left and right, shared with neighbours, each with seven yellow clay pots. Two dormer windows project from the roof: a larger one to the left and a smaller one to the right, both with pitched natural Welsh slate roofs, red clay ridge tiles, lead cheeks, painted timber apexes, and timber casement windows.

Five replacement reconstituted stone steps lead from street level to a landing of reconstituted stone paving slabs, with modern metal railings on either side. A small front garden with shrubs is enclosed by a low brick boundary wall in Flemish bond (not original) with reconstituted stone coping beneath replacement painted metal railings. A concrete paved path links the property to No. 19 on the east side.

Exterior — Side Elevations

No. 18 is fully abutted by No. 17 on the west side and by No. 19 on the east side.

Exterior — Rear (North) Elevation

The main rear elevation is in painted render and is three storeys high with attic. To the rear, No. 18 is abutted by a two-storey flat-roofed return built at half-landing level, which is in turn abutted by a two-storey return with a hipped roof. A modern flat-roofed extension links the two-storey extension of No. 18 with the mews building at the rear of No. 17. A shared yard with No. 17 is enclosed by the main rear elevation, the rear return of No. 17, the mews building behind No. 17 with its attached single-storey extension, and the rear returns of No. 18. All walls to the rear are painted render with a painted rendered plinth. Rainwater goods are painted metal, with guttering supported on metal rise-and-fall brackets.

Windows to the rear vary in style; some appear original and others may be replacements. All have plain reveals and painted stone cills unless otherwise noted.

At ground floor level on the main rear elevation, the right side has a large window opening containing a multipane metal window with leaded lights, likely an Edwardian alteration. This window has a large central pane flanked by opening casements, a row of panes above, and a small square opening light above the large central pane.

At first floor level there is a 6-over-6 timber sliding sash window on the right side, and at high level to the left (above the flat roof of the return) a rectangular window opening with a triple timber window with patterned leaded lights. To the left again, at second floor half-landing height, is an 8-over-8 timber sliding sash window, with the outer panes narrower than the middle panes. At second floor level on the right side there are two window openings, both with 1-over-1 timber sliding sash windows. To the left at second floor level is a flat-roofed wall-head dormer (with lead or similar material to the roof, lapped over the edges) containing a metal casement leaded window. To the right of this is a pitched-roof dormer with a natural Welsh slate roof, red clay ridge tiles, lead cheeks, painted timber apex, and a timber casement window. A metal soil vent pipe runs from the left side of the flat-roofed return, horizontally between the second floor windows, and then vertically past the wall-head dormer.

Within the yard, the flat-roofed section of the rear return is two storeys, built at half-landing height. The roof is lead with standing seams and a modern metal conical rooflight with a metal finial. The west face of this return (overlooking the yard) has two window openings at ground floor level, both with 1-over-1 timber sliding sash windows, the left-hand one being narrow. Above, at first floor level, there is a canted oriel window with a metal frame and leaded lights, with lead (or similar material) to its flat roof.

Continuing along the west face into the hipped-roof section, there is a single window opening at ground floor level. The south face of the modern flat-roofed extension linking Nos. 17 and 18 has a flush timber door to the left and a 3-over-6 timber sliding sash window to the right. The west elevation continues above the flat roof of the single-storey extension: at first floor level there are three window openings — from right to left, a metal casement window with top-hung pane, and two 1-over-1 timber sliding sash windows; and at ground floor level, beyond the extension, a large window opening with a triple window comprising a large plain central pane flanked by 1-over-1 timber sliding sash windows. This window is behind metal bars and overlooks an alleyway running between the rear of the mews buildings behind Nos. 14–17 University Square and the modern buildings relating to the Queen's Film Theatre, which back onto University Square Mews. The north face of the single-storey extension also faces onto the rear alleyway and has a window opening with paired 3-over-6 timber sliding sash windows behind metal bars. The north and east faces of the hipped-roof section of the rear return are fully abutted by the large modern extension at the rear of Nos. 19 and 20. There is a modern rooflight on the east slope of the hipped roof.

Interior

The original floor plan has been altered internally, though some original features survive. The rooms now serve as offices and meeting rooms. One of the known quirks of the terrace — that the entrances appear awkwardly off-centre when viewed from the respective hallways — is present in the houses as a group.

Historical Occupancy

No. 18 was one of the original eight houses in the terrace, built in 1848–49 alongside the present Nos. 19–25. John Finlay, described as a merchant, is recorded as the occupant in the 1850 street directory; Henry Black, a wholesale grocer of Waring Street, appears in the 1852 directory; and a Mrs. Murray in that of 1858–59. Mrs. Jane Roddy is recorded in the valuation of around 1861, with the representatives of Jane Gregg as the immediate lessors and the property valued at £44 for rateable purposes. Subsequent residents included the Reverend J.H. Moore (around 1867–75), Hugh Moore (around 1875–78), Waring Manley, a linen merchant (around 1878–1900), Alexander Gribbon (around 1902–07), and Arthur B. Mitchell, a surgeon, from 1907 until around 1931. In the 1911 census, Mitchell was recorded as living at No. 18 with his wife Mabel, their three young children, a governess, and two domestic servants; the house was described as a first-class dwelling with 14 rooms in use. Fellow surgeon Charles H. McAfee was the next resident, remaining until around 1965, after which the property was acquired by Queen's for use — together with neighbouring No. 19 — as the University's Faculty of Law, a role it retained until at least 1996.

The building was listed in 1979. The refurbishment of the whole terrace in the early to mid-1990s included renewal of No. 18's roof covering and chimney, and the construction of the single-storey rear extension. Around 2003–04 the front garden was adapted for disabled access.