18 Sunnyside St., Belfast

18 Sunnyside Street, Belfast

A two-storey red-brick terraced house built in 1903 and located on Sunnyside Street, a busy thoroughfare connecting the Ormeau Road with Annadale Embankment, approximately 3 kilometres from Belfast city centre. The house forms part of a long terrace of twenty-one similar dwellings set on the south side of Sunnyside Street in a residential area comprising mainly small terraced houses built at the end of the nineteenth century and some semi-detached houses dating from the beginning of the twentieth century.

The main part of the house is rectangular on plan with a two-storey rectangular-shaped return featuring a double-pitched roof. The walls are constructed of smooth red clay brick laid in English Garden Wall bond with clay ventilation bricks at each level. The roof is natural slate with a replacement red-brick chimney stack on the right-hand side with projecting brick courses and clay pots.

The front elevation (north) comprises a painted timber four-panel door and overlight with plain glazing to the left, set beneath a semi-circular head with moulded architrave, and a uPVC top-hung double-glazed window to the right with segmental head and moulded architrave. A similar but smaller window is almost centrally positioned on the first floor. A projecting moulded brick course at eaves level supports cast metal ogee guttering.

The rear elevation (south) of the main house at first-floor level is rendered in smooth cement plaster and has a uPVC top-hung double-glazed window to the left-hand side. A two-storey extension to the rear, added circa 2010, is built with rustic red-clay brick and features a double-pitched roof with painted timber boards to eaves. The extension has uPVC top-hung double-glazed windows on the west elevation and uPVC rainwater goods and soil stack, with blank south and east elevations. A square-headed yard doorway with painted timber boarded door and concrete head with brick courses above provides access to the rear. The side elevations abut adjoining terraced properties.

A small front garden finished in concrete block paviours is set behind a replacement red-brick boundary wall with painted metal railings and a small painted metal arched gate, installed circa 1988 as part of an improvement scheme encompassing the whole terrace. The rear of the terrace is bounded to the south by a communal laneway shared with Whitehall Gardens.

The house retains external character including the panelled timber front door with stucco surrounds and slate roof. Original windows have been replaced with uPVC. Despite these alterations, the building maintains group value with the rest of the terrace, representing a good example of modest Edwardian urban terraced housing built during a period of rapid expansion southwards from Belfast city centre along the main thoroughfares of the Ormeau, Lisburn and Malone Roads.

The property was listed in 1986, and external renovation works were carried out by the Northern Ireland Housing Executive circa 1999–2000.

The terrace was developed by Hugh Scott, who was lessor for the properties numbered 14–42 in 1906. The developer's architect, if any, remains unknown. The first occupant of No. 18 was William Neill, followed by Patrick Rice, a fruit salesman. William Graydon, a tram conductor, was recorded as householder in the 1911 census when the building was classified as a second-class dwelling containing five rooms. Subsequent residents included Sarah McDonald from circa 1918, William Neill (a gardener) by 1925, and W. R. Craig (variously described as a chauffeur and fitter) from at least 1955 to 1990.