26-30 Cliftonville Road, Belfast, Co Antrim, BT14 6JY

26–30 Cliftonville Road, Belfast

This is a symmetrical, semi-detached two-storey-over-basement classical villa with attic, built around 1830 to designs by the architect Thomas Jackson. It forms part of an early speculative residential development — one of the first suburban developments in the Belfast area — conceived and named 'Cliftonville' by Jackson, who had trained in the Regency-era Clifton district of Bristol and drew on that influence for both the name and the architectural character of the scheme. The building was originally constructed as three separate dwellings and has been subsequently converted, first into a Home for the Blind in 1901, then into six apartments in 1986, with further improvements carried out in 2010–11. The listing extends to the house, steps, boundary wall and railings.

Architectural Character and External Appearance

The building is rectangular on plan, facing north, and is finished in ruled-and-lined render with a projecting stone stringcourse over the basement. The roof is hipped, covered in natural slate with a leaded ridge, lead valleys, and two smooth rendered chimneystacks with multiple pots. Ogee-profile cast-iron rainwater goods are carried on broad eaves enriched with guttae. Four solar panels are located on the south slope. Windows throughout are square-headed timber sliding sashes with 6/6 pane arrangement, set within rendered reveals with painted stone sills, except where otherwise noted.

The Regency Greek style detailing and proportions survive largely intact, though the modern fire escapes compromise the overall composition.

North Elevation (Principal Front)

The three-bay north elevation has a recessed centre and is dominated by a single-storey Doric portico bridging the basement walkway. The portico is supported on two square columns and pilasters, and its opening is divided by four fluted columns carrying a deep architrave, a frieze with guttae, and an ovolo-moulded cornice. It is surmounted by a flat leaded roof with concealed guttering, and is accessed by three stone-flagged steps. Two cast-metal grilles set into the stone flagging within the portico provide daylight to the basement below. Within the portico, the north elevation has a single glazed timber panelled entrance door to the left and two windows to the right, each divided by plain rectangular pilaster responds. Above the portico, three first-floor windows are surmounted by a decorative arabesque frieze. The left and right bays each contain two windows at each floor, set within two-storey elliptical-headed recesses, with a laurel wreath motif above the second-floor window. At attic level there are six diminished 3/3 timber sliding sash windows with a continuous sill course, each flanked by oversized guttae. The basement contains an entrance door and window below the portico, and two windows at each side.

East Elevation

The east elevation has a central Doric portico similar to the north but narrower, with two fluted columns, accessed via two stone-flagged steps. The portico contains a single timber panelled entrance door with a margin-paned transom light over. Three equally spaced first-floor windows are recessed and detailed as on the north elevation, with two ground-floor windows directly beneath flanking the portico. Three diminished 3/3 timber sliding sash windows appear at attic level, detailed as on the north. The basement has an entrance door at centre below the portico, a window to the left, and a blind opening to the right.

South Elevation

The south elevation is almost symmetrical, with the exception of the attic and basement levels. The central bay is recessed as on the north elevation, and the ground slopes steeply down to basement level, accessed via stone steps and grass banks. At ground floor there are three windows at the centre; the outer bays each contain a window and a flat-roofed porch added around 1985, each having pilasters supporting a plain entablature, a timber panelled door, and fixed timber windows to the cheeks. The first floor is abutted by a metal fire escape staircase and projecting walkway providing access to three apartments. At first-floor level, a glazed timber entrance door at centre is flanked by a window on each side; to the left and right, a glazed timber entrance door is flanked by a window above the entrance porch, with openings in the projecting outer bays contained within elliptical-headed recesses as on the north. There is an irregular arrangement of nine 3/3 timber sliding sash attic windows. The basement central bay has a glazed timber panelled door to the right and two windows to the left; the left bay has paired windows and the right bay a single window. Retaining walls at left and right are fitted with timber-sheeted gates giving access to the basement walkway.

West Elevation

The west elevation matches the east, except that the basement has an entrance door at centre below the portico, with a window both to the left and to the right.

A continuous walkway runs around the basement at the north, east, and west sides. This walkway is bounded by a retaining wall surmounted by a rendered plinth with saddleback stone coping and ornate cast-iron railings, with replacement railings at the south side of the east and west porticos.

Setting

The building occupies a prominent site on the south side of Cliftonville Road, north of Belfast city centre, in a built-up urban setting. It is enclosed to the north by decorative cast-iron railings on a plinth wall with saddleback coping. The drive is accessed via double cast-metal gates at east and west. Car parking is provided to the south.

Historical Background

Thomas Jackson designed and built this development in the early 1830s as speculative housing aimed at the rising mercantile and professional classes of Belfast. Jackson had trained in the Clifton area of Bristol and named his development 'Cliftonville' after that Regency district, thereby giving the surrounding area its name. Numbers 26–30 were built as a terrace of three houses in a Greek Revival idiom and, together with a semi-detached pair at 34–36 Cliftonville Road, were the earliest structures in the development to be built and are the only survivors from what was originally approximately six structures, some of which were themselves divided into multiple dwellings. Thomas Jackson himself lived in a house immediately to the left of the present building, which has not survived. The building is shown on the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1832–33, along with the semi-detached pair further to the west. At the time of construction, the buildings stood very much on the outskirts of Belfast, in what would have been a largely rural landscape dotted with the substantial houses of the well-to-do set within spacious grounds. 'Cliftonville' represented the first suburban development of the area — a row of terraced and semi-detached villas facing onto what was then part of the New Lodge Road.

The Townland Valuation of 1837 valued the two outer dwellings at £18 16s 1d each and the slightly smaller middle dwelling at £18 4s 1d. The valuer noted that the houses were 'quite new and beautifully situated with good gardens to each'. The houses had the use of stables, privies and coal holes, and dimensions were recorded for both the houses and outbuildings. The three occupiers at this time were George McTear, a merchant and agent for the Belfast and Glasgow Steam Shipping Company; George Ash, a wholesale grocer and general merchant with premises in Waring Street; and Samuel Gelston, a wine and spirit merchant with premises in North Street, as recorded in the Belfast Street Directory of 1839.

By 1858 the Cave Hill tramway had made the area more accessible from Belfast city centre, and the third edition Ordnance Survey map shows a total of six structures in the row, by then captioned 'Cliftonville'. Griffith's Valuation records number 26 as the home of William Spotten of the firm Dunbar, Dixon and Co in High Street, valued at £45 with a rent of £50 per year; number 28 was occupied by John R Neill with a valuation of £40; and number 30 by George Smith, also valued at £45. All the houses were leased from Thomas Jackson.

William Campbell, manager of the Workman Clark shipyard, was the last private occupier of number 26 — known as Willowmount — in the 19th century. Campbell, a native of Scotland, lived there with his wife and nine children; two sons worked as marine engineers, a third as an apprentice ironmonger, and his eldest daughter was an artist. The house was classified as first class in the 1901 census, with eleven rooms, and the family kept an American-born domestic servant. The other two dwellings were vacant at that time. Campbell had previously been employed by Harland and Wolff, and together with another former Harland and Wolff employee, Frank Workman, established a shipbuilding yard on the north bank of the Lagan in 1879. The following year, George Clark — a Scot with the financial means to back the enterprise — was brought in as a partner. By 1902, Workman Clark employed 7,000 people on a fifty-acre site and was a strong competitor with Harland and Wolff, turning out more gross tonnage in 1902 than any other yard in the United Kingdom.

By 1901–02, the rapid late-Victorian expansion of Belfast had overtaken 'Cliftonville', and the development now formed an island in a sea of red-brick terraces. In 1901, the three dwellings were converted for use as a Home Mission for the Blind, and the building was revalued at £118. A Mrs R B Pim and a number of other wives and daughters of the well-to-do had some years previously begun carrying out home mission work among the blind, finding many of those they visited living in wretched conditions. They initially rented a small house to assist the most deserving cases. In 1891 they purchased premises in Great Victoria Street, but by 1901, additional space was required and they bought the current building for approximately £3,000. The Street Directory of the time described the choice of site warmly: "No more suitable place could have been chosen. The houses stand some distance back from the roads surrounded by private grounds which can be used for recreation and exercise and by a few structural alterations they were converted into a complete residence with apartments for thirty females and twenty males." The accommodation of male residents was a new departure, but one that proved successful — most of the men were employed in the Workshops for the Blind in Royal Avenue and were described as 'practically self-supporting'. The new home was opened on 22nd June 1901 by the Marchioness of Dufferin and Ava.

The 1911 census records that thirty rooms of the building were in use as the Home, with staff comprising a matron and three domestic servants occupying four rooms. Forty totally and partially blind men and women were resident, all but one from Protestant denominations. Some had been blind from birth, but the majority had acquired the disability later in life from causes including shock, accident, and inflammation. Residents ranged in age from 20 to 93, and although some were unable to work, trades listed among those who could included music, wood bundling, basket making, knitting, and mattress making. Changes made to the building during this period included the addition of extensive fire escapes and large wings to the rear, as well as a bay window to the front of number 30. In 1923, the architect Robert Inkerman Calwell designed a public hall and further additions, as recorded in the Irish Builder.

During the Second World War, from 1942, the building was used for defence purposes as a 'Welfare Section', likely in connection with the local administration of rationing, which by that time covered many foodstuffs, petrol, clothing, coal, gas, electricity, and soap. From 1947 to around 1985 it resumed its function as a Home for the Blind, serving that purpose for nearly eighty years in total. With the onset of the Troubles, the Home wished to relocate, and in 1986 the building was converted into six apartments by the housing association Hearth. The original intention had been to restore the three original houses, but these were considered impractically large and each was divided into two apartments, while retaining original staircases, plasterwork, doors, and doorcases. The later wings, bay window, and fire escapes were removed at this time. In 2010–11, further improvements were carried out including thermal and acoustic insulation and secondary glazing to improve heating and reduce noise.