4 College Green, Belfast

4 College Green, Belfast

A two-storey terraced house with attic, built in 1870–71 to designs by James Francis MacKinnon. It faces south on College Green, north-east of the main quad at Queens University, and forms part of a Victorian terrace that includes the adjoining No. 2 College Green and College Green House. The three houses were built together and originally shared a coach house, harness room and stables to the rear, now converted to a restaurant. The terrace overlooks the Theological College of the Presbyterian Church in Queens Conservation Area.

The building is constructed of red brick in Flemish bond to the south elevation and brownish-red brick in English Garden Wall bond to the north. It has a natural slate duo-pitched roof with black clay ridge tiles, a hipped roof to the ground-floor bay, and gabled dormers to the front. Two red brick chimneys sit centred on the ridge: one is shared with No. 2 and has engineering brick corbelled specials with six octagonal yellow clay pots; the other is rebuilt in red brick with simple projecting brick coping. Cast iron ogee profile gutters and a circular section rainwater pipe are shared with No. 2 on the south side; uPVC rainwater goods are on the north. Windows are single-glazed double-hung timber-framed sliding sashes with 1/1 panes on the south elevation and 2/2 panes on the north, unless otherwise described.

The south elevation is the principal façade and is asymmetrical, with the entrance to the left and a single-storey canted bay to the right at ground floor. Three segmental arched windows sit at first-floor level, one centred above the door and two paired above the canted bay. Heavy overhanging eaves on scrolled corbel brackets (incised carving to side faces) are surmounted by twin gabled dormers to the attic, each containing a pair of top-hung casement windows with faux horns. Decorative projecting bargeboards feature spike finials and exposed rafter tails at the eaves. The gable to each dormer is clad in diagonal painted timber sheeting above the windows, with slate to the side cheeks. The bargeboards feature a round arched lower edge with Norman-style moulding and trefoil carving to the spandrel above.

The gabled entrance projection has stone copings and a finial, supported by Corinthian-style columns on a substantial stone plinth. Incised rosettes depicting flower heads appear below the apex and at the eaves to the gable. The wide flat-arched timber-framed four-panelled door has raised and fielded panels and bolection moulding. A central vertical bead creates the impression of double doors. The original brass letterbox and octagonal door handle survive, and a plain glass fanlight bears the number '4'. A Norman-style arched opening sits above the columns, with roll-edged detailing to the arched door surround.

The canted bay is entirely rendered in stucco above cill height, with foliated stone capitals to pilasters between windows and a continuous deep cornice of wide leaf mouldings to the parapet roof. Other painted dressings, likely a combination of stone and stucco, include a projecting base plinth with chamfered top; a continuous cill at ground-floor windows, set flush with the walling; a plat band and projecting moulded string course at first-floor cill height, with similar moulding at impost level that continues as a hood above a deep surround to the segmental arched heads. The same moulding is repeated at attic level, lining the base to the corbel brackets. An incised rosette sits between the paired first-floor window heads, and below the string course, the jamb reveals feature stop-chamfered brick.

The north elevation faces rear on to a small alley shared by No. 2 and No. 4 College Green and College Green House, accessed from College Green Mews and overlooked opposite by a former gabled stable block, now Molly's Yard restaurant. As the back of the house, this elevation is less formal than the principal façade, with simpler detailing. The walling is painted up to first-floor cill height at the return. Two courses of projecting brick form the eaves. A two-storey gabled return to the right (west) contains a single window at attic half-landing level to the far right side, and one window each at ground and first-floor level to the left—the first-floor window is replaced as a single-glazed timber casement, top-hung with a precast concrete thin cill. The other two windows retain thick stone cills. A bricked-up opening above the left side of the return, clearly later, has precast concrete lintels (painted). A wide flat-roofed attic dormer spans almost the full width of the rear elevation and contains three timber-framed single-glazed casement windows with painted timber framing between. The gabled end of the return is blank, with a roughcast rendered lower half and evidence of a former opening in a remaining brick soldier course at ground floor, just above the line of render. Clipped eaves form the roof.

The east elevation faces No. 6 College Green, which abuts the main building. The east face of the two-storey return is informally arranged with two windows at ground floor and a timber-framed glass door, and two windows at first floor. The walling is rendered up to cill height at first floor and has a single row of projecting brick headers at the eaves. All windows are replaced in timber-framed single-glazed casements. Notable patches of brick in-fill and thin precast concrete cills indicate that the proportion of openings has been altered.

The west elevation faces No. 2 College Green, which abuts the main building. The west face of the two-storey return appears largely blank where visible, detailed similarly to the east face and painted. The house is set back from College Green behind a low red brick wall with chamfered stone coping (stone tooling marks visible through the paint finish). Substantial red brick pillars, square on plan with projecting base plinths and stop-chamfered corner edges, have flush stone caps with square-based pyramidal tops. These may have been rebuilt, as the brick is textured in contrast to the pillars at No. 2. A matching pillar stands at the far end of the dwarf wall, at the boundary with the front of No. 6 College Green. Replacement galvanised steel railings and a gate, painted, provide access to a path and small front garden of precast concrete paving flags with two bull-nosed stone steps to the entrance door. A galvanised steel grille sits above a small square light-well; basement walls below are a mix of unfinished concrete block and red brick. The rear boundary retains brownish-red variegated brick walling with cambered terracotta coping on the north side only. A ledged and braced sheeted timber gate (replacement) leads to the shared alley. The yard is surfaced in brushed concrete with two concrete steps to the back door. The former stable block opposite the alley, aligned parallel to No. 2 and No. 4 and contemporary with both these buildings and College Green House, was originally shared between the three houses.