559 Ormeau Road, Belfast

559 Ormeau Road, Belfast

A two-storey terraced house with attic, built in 1886 on the upper Ormeau Road, approximately 4 kilometres from Belfast's centre. It forms part of a terrace of nine houses (547 to 563 Ormeau Road), originally known as Rosetta Terrace, developed by H. Scott, a pawnbroker. The building displays considerable Victorian architectural detail both internally and externally, and was constructed during Belfast's rapid southward expansion along the main thoroughfares of Ormeau, Lisburn and Malone Roads.

The house is rectangular on plan with a two-storey return and features a small front garden and paved rear yard. The ground floor walls are finished in smooth painted render, while the first floor is built in red clay brick laid in Flemish Bond. The return combines render and red brick. The roof is covered in natural Bangor Blue slates. Windows are predominantly 1/1 painted timber double-glazed sliding sash to the front elevation, with mainly 2/2 painted timber sliding sash windows to the rear and return, some single glazed. Rainwater goods are cast iron.

The front elevation (east) displays smooth painted render to the ground floor with red clay brick above, featuring two rows of blue brick beneath a decorative brick cornice. A 4-panelled door to the right is set under a hood supported on ornate brackets. To the left sits a canted bay containing 1/1 painted timber sliding sash windows. The first floor is separated from the ground floor by a plaster string course and contains two 1/1 painted timber sliding sash windows. A pitched roof dormer with a 1/1 sliding sash window (the top light being semi-circular) crowns the wall head. A Velux-type roof light sits to the right of the dormer, and a large clay brick chimney stack detailed to match the front elevation is positioned on the ridge to the left. The side elevations abut the neighbouring properties at 557 and 561 Ormeau Road.

The rear elevation (west) contains a lower two-storey return to the left side and the return of No. 561 across a narrow yard. The main rendered section has a replacement painted timber double door on the ground floor and a large Velux-type roof light above. A smaller 2/2 sliding sash window occupies the attic storey. The red brick return, facing the internal yard and containing the kitchen, features a 4/4 original single-glazed window to the right, a replacement painted timber door with 6 top panes centrally, and a large picture window to the left with two top-hung lights. Above are two 2/2 painted timber sliding sash windows. Beyond the return stands a painted render single-storey former garage with a mono-pitched corrugated iron roof; its former vehicular door has been replaced with fixed painted timber sheeting topped by three square lights. The paved T-shaped yard, now incorporating the former small garden, is separated from a rear lane by tall stained timber gates and fencing. The front garden is bounded by a modern dwarf brick wall and tall hedge, accessed through a modern stained timber gate with a concrete path leading to the front door landing.

The terrace appears in valuation records in two stages: the four southernmost dwellings (now 557–563) were completed in 1886, with 547–555 finished the following year. An October 1886 letting advertisement describes one of the finished properties as a "large house" with three reception rooms, five bedrooms, hot and cold water and "all modern improvements" in a "warm, healthy situation, with gardens; trams pass door". A July 1887 advertisement for the five newly finished dwellings refers to "those new houses; well finished" with "two reception rooms on ground floor" and "six bedrooms". The architect remains unknown.

The property's documented occupancy includes A.T. Osbourne (inspector) circa 1887–89, David McGonagle (solicitor) circa 1889–95, Mrs Templeton circa 1895–98, and Frederick R. Strafford from 1898 onwards. The 1901 and 1911 census records Strafford living there with his three daughters. In 1911, James Scott (a civil engineer and architect, possibly the son of developer Hugh Scott) occupied the house with his wife Emily, their son, and a domestic servant; the property was then noted as a first-class dwelling containing 12 rooms. One of Strafford's daughters retained the property until the early 1960s. Later recorded occupants include G.H. Giffin (bank official, 1967), Maureen Giffin (circa 1974 onwards), Catherine Quinn (1990–1995), and others. The building was listed in 1986.

The house possesses group value with the other listed dwellings in this terrace.