Gate Screen and railings at Colenso Parade Botanic Gardens Belfast BT9 5AN

Gate screen, pillars and railings at the northern end of Colenso Parade, erected in January 1934 to replace an earlier wooden structure. The gates, pillars and adjoining railings are all original to this date and represent a rare survival of decorative pre-war ironwork within Botanic Gardens Park.

The gate screen is oriented on a north-south axis and consists of a pair of wrought iron carriage gates flanked by tall, square piers. The piers are constructed with stone quoins and brick infill, and have flat-topped, projecting moulded cornices and copings. The metal gates are composed of elegant vertical uprights with pointed tips, interspersed at the lower section with intermediate uprights of matching style. Each gate has two inset panels of simple scrolled wrought ironwork. The top profile of each gate features a reduced central section defined by a horizontal transom bar, above which is positioned an upward-oriented scroll terminating in a raised end section; when the gates are closed, the two gate heads mirror each other to create a harmonious symmetrical arrangement.

In terms of setting, the gate screen stands at the northern end of Colenso Parade flanked by a short section of open railings to the west, and an extensive length of similar railing running at right angles to the south, defining the eastern boundary of Colenso Parade.

The gates and railings at the other three main entrances to Botanic Gardens are believed to have been removed during the Second World War as part of the drive to collect ironwork for the war effort — a campaign that, while of great propaganda value, resulted in only around a quarter of the metal collected across the United Kingdom actually being used for munitions, with the majority reportedly dumped. An advertisement in the Northern Whig of April 1933 invited tenders for the supply and erection of approximately 385 linear yards of iron railing 6 feet 9 inches high, together with ornamental gates and gate piers for Botanic Gardens Park; this most likely refers to the Colenso Parade installation. Plans and specifications were held in the Engineering Section of the City Surveyor's Department, suggesting the pier design was produced by a civil engineer employed by Belfast Corporation. A photograph of the completed gates and piers was published in the Belfast Newsletter of 23rd January 1934, providing confirmatory evidence that the gates and railings present at the site today are original to 1934 and have not been replaced.

The Colenso Parade entrance was one of three new entrances created during this period, at least two of which used identical designs for gates and piers (no information survives regarding the third entrance). An image published in the Northern Whig in May 1932 shows the King's Bridge entrance gatescreen — completed approximately eighteen months before the Colenso Parade structure — with piers and gates identical to those at Colenso Parade. Neither of the two gatescreens along Stranmillis Embankment has survived; the Colenso Parade entrance is therefore the only remaining gatescreen dating from the park's expansion in the early decades of the 20th century.

The broader history of the site is closely linked to the development of Botanic Gardens as a whole. Belfast Botanic Gardens were established following the formation of the Belfast Botanic and Horticultural Society in February 1827, under the presidency of the Marquis of Donegall. On 1st May 1829, a lease was signed on a 14-acre site at the junction of Malone and Stranmillis Roads, and by the end of that month a large number of shrubs and trees had been planted. Admission was charged after 1830 for non-members of the Society. For a short period after 1865, funds were raised to admit working people free on Saturday afternoons, but these schemes lapsed when Ormeau opened as a free public park in 1871. Entry was therefore generally by ticket until Belfast Corporation took over the gardens in 1895, renaming them the Belfast Botanic Gardens Park and opening them free to the public from 1st January of that year. Because admission had previously been controlled, the number of access points was deliberately restricted to manage revenue, and the opening of multiple new entrances — including Colenso Parade — reflects the gardens' transition from a controlled private amenity to a free public park.

The first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1832–33 shows the Botanic Gardens set within fields and country houses approximately a mile outside Belfast, with tree-lined paths in roughly the same layout as today and two ponds towards the south-eastern end, the lower of which was drained in the 1930s (the upper pond is now the location of a Japanese sunken garden). Initially the gardens were enclosed by a nine-foot wooden fence, the breaking of which was a continual problem. A wall between the gardens and Friar's Bush graveyard was agreed with the trustees of the burial ground in 1829. Today the park is bounded by metal railings along most of its perimeter.

The distinctive early Victorian Palm House — also initially known as the conservatory — was designed by Sir Charles Lanyon and partially executed by Richard Turner of Dublin, a pioneer in the use of curved iron ribs and curved glass. It is one of the earliest surviving examples of curvilinear cast and wrought ironwork, pre-dating the palm houses at Glasnevin and Kew. Turner was engaged as contractor between 1839 and 1840, constructing only the wings of Lanyon's design — the west wing as a cool house and the east wing as a tropical house. In 1840, the Society received the title of Royal from Queen Victoria, at the instigation of the Marquis of Donegall. Charles Denoon Young (1822–1887), ironworker of Edinburgh — who was also responsible for the Dublin Exhibition Building (1853) and the Kensington Gore Museum of Science and Art (1856) — was subsequently engaged to complete Lanyon's original design for the centre house with the addition of a dome. The dome was constructed between 1852 and 1853, showing the influence of Turner's Palm House at Kew, and was glazed by Messrs. H. McKendry & Co of Waring Street using Hartley's patent rolled plate glass. A Pinetum established in 1838 to the south-east of the main entrance displayed over 170 species of conifers by 1851; adjacent to it a collection of deciduous and evergreen oaks was planted, and some trees from both collections remain in the park today.

As the area to the north-east of the gardens (formerly known as the 'Plains') began to be developed for housing, a second lodge — built 1865 and extended to the rear before 1902 — and gatescreen were built at a new Botanic Avenue entrance at a cost of £200. Gates costing £75 were provided as a gift by Robert Corry, the main developer of housing in the Plains area. A new gate lodge replacing the earlier entrance building at the main University Road entrance was designed by William Batt (d.1910), who conducted a vigorous practice in the High Victorian style and designed numerous Belfast churches and villas, as well as Ballynafeigh and Clifton Street Orange Halls. Construction was completed in April 1878, the lodge containing public toilets and commodious living accommodation for the gatekeeper. Carving on the lodge and gate piers was by Alexander Stevens, sculptor of Chichester Street, who was active in the 1870s and also executed carving on the Theatre Royal and on Fitzroy Presbyterian Church. The contractors were Messrs. Dixon & Co and the total cost was £1,300 including the gates.

The Fernery — now known as the Tropical Ravine, and formerly also known as the 'Intermediate House' or the Glen — was constructed between 1887 and 1889 on the site of a former Orchid House and propagating house, largely by curator Charles McKimm and his gardeners. McKimm had been appointed in 1877 and remained in post until his death in 1907. The Fernery, a building of stone walls and glazed roof enclosing a sunken ravine, was initially roughly half its present length. Following the Corporation's takeover in 1895, it was extended under McKimm's supervision, providing a heated lily pond and separating the house into tropical and temperate areas; the new Fernery, double the length of the original and brick-built with a lantern ridge, opened in 1902. No architect for the extended building is recorded in contemporary sources, though it has been speculated that the Dutch gable at the eastern elevation may be the work of William Batt. The Tropical Ravine was restored as part of a joint programme with the Palm House completed in May 1983, and underwent a further £3.8 million renovation between 2016 and 2018.

A site for the Belfast Museum and Art Gallery within the gardens was reserved in 1912 and the museum opened in 1929, with an extension completed in 1972 that required the demolition of the former curator's house (built 1844). Images of the museum shortly after opening show a low wall and railings built between the museum and the main entrance to the park, replacing a wall of 1887; the museum appears to retain its original pre-war gates and railings at the Stranmillis Road entrance to the present day.

The area to the south-west of the gardens remained relatively free of development until around 1900, when a series of streets — known informally as a 'ladder' — was laid out to the east of Stranmillis Road. By 1920, all the houses now facing onto Colenso Parade were in place and a wooden entrance into Botanic Gardens had been provided at the location of the present gate screen, most likely similar to the wooden structure at the Agincourt Avenue entrance (now Botanic Court), where wooden gates built around 1910 were replaced by stone piers and iron gates in 1925.

The area of park between Colenso Parade and the former boundary of the gardens was acquired following a resolution by Belfast Council in November 1903 to lease an additional approximately 3 acres for the use and enjoyment of the people of Belfast. This area was laid out in parallel walkways — a layout that survives — initially planted with roses and known as a rosary, and replanted in the early 1930s as wide herbaceous borders.

In the 1920s and 1930s, further land was acquired to the south of the park, including 12 acres alongside the River Lagan formerly laid out in allotments. A road, Stranmillis Embankment, was constructed in the early 1930s along the west bank of the Lagan, bordering these new parklands. Two new entrances to the park along Stranmillis Embankment were created around this time — one opposite King's Bridge and one at the location of the present-day children's playground — but neither of these gatescreens has survived.

In the early 1960s, Queen's University reached an agreement with the Council to exchange its athletic fields at Cherryvale for part of Botanic Gardens, using the new acquisition to build a physical education centre initially used as part of the Ulster '71 exhibition commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Stormont parliament. Road-widening measures were also undertaken around this time, including the rebuilding of King's Bridge (originally built 1911, substructure rebuilt 1973 when Governor's Bridge was added as an additional Lagan crossing to form a one-way system). New fencing and gates were erected along the embankment as a consequence, and it is most likely at this point that the two Stranmillis Embankment gatescreens were demolished, leaving Colenso Parade as the sole surviving gatescreen from the park's early 20th-century expansion.

The Palm House was threatened with demolition around this period but benefitted from a major restoration programme in the late 1970s including ironwork cleaning, preservation and replacement where necessary. In the late 1980s, a Department of Environment scheme was launched to upgrade the streetscape within the Queen's Conservation Area; work on the Botanic Gardens entrance was ongoing in June 1989, and it appears likely that remodelled gates at the University Road entrance were installed at this time. The new gates with an overthrow bearing the name 'Botanic Gardens' in Art Nouveau-style lettering are visible in a photograph dating from 1990–91.

The gardens have gained additional acreage on several occasions, but the layout of the original 14-acre site acquired in 1829 has remained largely unaltered since the 1840s. The park remains heavily used for leisure and as a thoroughfare, and the Colenso Parade entrance continues to provide an important access point for residents of the Stranmillis streets, while signifying the increasing permeability of the park as it changed from private to public space.