15 Upper Crescent, Belfast, Co Antrim, BT7 1NT

15 Upper Crescent is a relatively large and fine three-storey rendered town house, built in 1846 as one of a Regency-style crescent of ten similar, though not identical, properties. It has since been converted to offices and flats. The building is one of the plainer examples within the group.

Upper Crescent sits to the east of University Road and faces southward over a small public park towards Lower Crescent, a similarly styled development of 1852 that, unlike its counterpart, is arranged as a straight terrace rather than a curved crescent form.

The front elevation is asymmetrical. At ground floor level to the left is the entrance, formed by a panelled door with a rectangular fanlight above; the upper door panels have arched heads, and the door surround consists of panelled pilaster jambs. To the right of the entrance are two tall, plain sash windows, their lower lights currently boarded up. The ground floor level is finished in rusticated render. At first floor level, two larger windows sit on a continuous sill course; these have sash frames with Regency-style horizontally orientated panes to the top sash in a four-over-eight arrangement. The upper floors are finished in plain render. A broad plain course runs above first floor window height, below the second floor sill course, and carries a thin moulded string course. At second floor level are two much smaller windows with Georgian-paned sash frames in a three-over-six arrangement, resting on a more pronounced, cornice-like sill course. Above second floor window height a plain course leads up to a parapet with a plain stone coping.

The rear elevation was not fully visible during inspection. To the right-hand (east) side is a two-storey gabled return with a plain sash window to the left at first floor level. To the left (west), this return merges with a two-storey projection with a mono-pitched roof, which has a metal-sheeted door at ground floor level and a window with a modern frame at first floor level. Both the gable and the south face of the projection are finished in plain cement render. The rear facade of the main building, which is in brick, has a window to the left at ground, first and second floor levels. The upper floor windows have Georgian-paned sash frames — six-over-six at first floor and three-over-six at second floor — while the ground floor window has a modern frame. Between first and second floor level to the right is a tall six-over-six Georgian-paned sash window serving the stairwell. The inner west face of the return and the inner north face of the projection could not be clearly seen.

The roof is slated and gabled, with a large fire escape gabled dormer to the rear. There is a tall rendered chimneystack with a projecting coping and uniform pots to the west. Cast iron rainwater goods are fitted throughout.

Upper and Lower Crescent: Historical Context

The sale of much of Lord Donegall's Belfast estate in the early to mid 19th century opened large areas of land around the town to development. The lands to the south, along the Malone Ridge, proved particularly attractive to developers and gave rise to many fine late Georgian-style terraces from the mid 1830s onwards, a trend accelerated by the establishment of the prestigious Queen's College in the area in the later 1840s. These new grand terraces were taken up by Belfast's professional and business classes, who left their older residences in the town centre, which gradually converted to shops and offices.

Upper Crescent was perhaps the grandest of these southern terrace developments: an elegantly curving row of three-storey dwellings in a late Regency style, built in 1846 by the timber and shipping merchant Robert Corry. The authorship of the design is uncertain, though Dr Paul Larmour has suggested that Charles Lanyon may have had a hand in it. Corry himself undertook the building work and took up residence at the east end of the row, and for the first few years of its existence the development was known as Corry's Crescent.

To the immediate south of the Crescent, where a church and small park now stand, Corry held a large lawn as a garden. Shortly after it was laid out, however, he had it ploughed up and used for growing vegetables to relieve local workers suffering as a result of the Great Famine. To the north of this garden ran an old watercourse flowing northward into the Basin, a reservoir east of the Dublin Road. To the east lay smaller gardens belonging to other residents of the Crescent, and further to the east and north-east ran Albion Lane, a narrow semi-rural laneway stretching from the north end of Bradbury Place to the east end of what is now University Terrace.

In 1852 Corry built another terrace to the north of his garden and just south of the old watercourse. This new development — the erroneously named Lower Crescent — was much in the same style as the earlier one and was occupied by a similar mix of professionals and businessmen, though by as early as 1860 some ground floor units were already in office use. In the later 1860s a railway line was cut immediately to the north of Lower Crescent, following the line of the old watercourse. In 1873 a large sandstone building, originally Victoria College for girls, was added to the west end of the terrace. By the close of that decade two further houses had been added to the east end, the most easterly of which — Rivoli House, designed by William Hastings — originally contained a dance academy run by a Frederick Brouneau. The new railway line cut across Albion Lane and led to the laying out of a new, broader thoroughfare, Botanic Avenue.

Upper Crescent itself saw further building in the 1860s and 1870s. Two large properties designed by William Hastings were erected to the west end in 1869, one of which, Crescent House (now the Bank of Ireland), also fronted onto University Road. In 1878–79 two further houses were added on the ground between those of 1869. Between 1885 and 1887 the large Presbyterian Crescent Church was erected to designs by the Glasgow architect John Bennie Wilson on the west side of Corry's former garden. In 1898 a two-storey terrace, the present Crescent Gardens, was built on the site of the smaller garden plots to the east end.

During the first half of the 20th century most properties in Upper and Lower Crescent and in Crescent Gardens remained private dwellings, but by 1960 many had been given over to business use or subdivided into flats, with the former Rivoli House — later known as Dreenagh House — becoming the Regency Hotel. This trend continued, and by the beginning of the 21st century none of the properties were in private residential occupation. In the mid 1990s three of the 1860s to 1870s houses at the west end of Upper Crescent were demolished and replaced with a modern office block. In 2000 the railway cutting to the south of Lower Crescent was built over in preparation for a new development.

No. 15 Upper Crescent: Occupancy History

In 1849 this property was occupied by Robert Cassidy, a solicitor, who remained there until around 1853 before moving to the newly built Lower Crescent. He was followed by Reverend Robert Wilson, whose family were in turn succeeded by a John Downing. By 1899 a Mrs Manley was in residence, by 1920 a druggist named John Clarke, and by 1930 a Mrs Rankin. By the following decade the property was operating as a nursing home. During the 1950s this building and its two immediate neighbours — nos. 14 and 16 — together served as the Ulster Nature Cure Clinic. In the 1960s all three were acquired by the nearby Queen's University and converted to student residences. It was probably at this point that the most significant internal alterations were carried out, though the earlier presence of the Ulster Nature Cure Clinic likely also entailed some changes, possibly including the creation of doorways between the formerly separate properties.