209 Belmont Road, Belfast, Co. Antrim, BT4 2AG

209 Belmont Road is one of a pair of semi-detached houses built in 1870, located on the south side of Belmont Road in the Strandtown townland of Belfast. The property is attached to 207 Belmont Road on its west side.

The house is a three-bay, two-storey structure over a basement, with a double pile roof. The principal elevation faces north and is set behind a low brick wall with hedging and a cast-iron pedestrian gate. The walls are constructed in red brick in Flemish bond. Canted bays flank either side of the central entrance, finished in smooth render. These bays have shallow lead-covered hipped roofs behind moulded ogee parapets. A continuous painted cill course runs across ground and first floor levels, with the wall below rendered in smooth finish and marked by a slightly projecting band at floor level.

The roofs are finished in natural slate with black terracotta ridge tiles to the main ridge. The return roof has natural slate with lead-covered ridges. Red-brick chimneystacks with three-band corbelling are positioned at the gable end of each roof pile and centrally on the ridge, topped with modern clay pots. Overhanging eaves to the gable expose purlin detail. Cast metal rainwater goods with ogee-shaped gutters supported on paired console brackets serve the main elevation, while half-round uPVC gutters on timber fascia serve the rear.

The north and east elevations are fitted with painted timber 1/1 sliding sash windows. On the first floor, paired windows with segmental arched heads are located at the east end, a single window sits centrally over the door opening, and paired windows repeat at the west end. The ground floor has square-headed window openings on either side of the entrance bay. The east elevation contains two square-headed basement windows in the north pile, a single square-headed ground floor window, and paired windows with slightly arched heads at first floor level. The south elevation, finished in smooth render, has a centrally placed return with a hipped slate roof with lead ridges at a slightly lower level than the main roof. uPVC windows are used throughout the south elevation.

The centrally placed ground floor entrance is accessed by an inclined ramp with handrails spanning the open basement area. The door opening has an arched moulded surround in smooth render, a plain arched fanlight, and a painted timber door with circular panel detail. A basement level door sits directly beneath the main entrance. The basement has no window openings. The east side of the property includes a driveway giving access to the rear.

The property was originally known as Essex House. It was built on land owned by Sir Thomas McClure of Belmont House, a local gentleman who held much of the land in Strandtown. Each house in the pair was valued at £46 when constructed. The first occupant of No. 209 was Mary Grimshaw, but by 1880 the house had passed to Richard C. Hyde, a commercial draper. The 1901 Census of Ireland described Essex House as a second-class dwelling consisting of nine rooms, with a stable and coach house as its sole outoffices. Richard C. Hyde continued to reside at the property until his death in 1909. In 1921 ownership passed to James Rooney, who leased it to Helena Wallace. Under the First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936–57), the value decreased slightly to £44. By the Second Revaluation (1956–72), the house was occupied by C. Davey and had been raised in value to £48. The 1954 Ordnance Survey Map records that the property originally possessed a rear outbuilding, which has since been demolished. The house has remained in use as a private dwelling throughout its recorded history.

The construction of these houses followed the development of the Strandtown area from the 1860s onwards, when mansions for Belfast's prominent politicians and merchants were built. Terraced rows of houses soon followed, and by the turn of the twentieth century, the upper part of Belmont Road had become one of Belfast's most affluent residential areas, inhabited by the city's merchant and professional classes. The architect of the pair is not known.