19 College Gardens, Belfast

19 College Gardens is an end-of-terrace, three-storey-with-attic (and semi-basement) red brick late Victorian townhouse, built in 1881 by an unknown architect. It forms part of a block of four with Nos. 20, 21 and 22 College Gardens, the block being largely symmetrical to the front, with No. 19 mirroring No. 22 at the gable ends and Nos. 20 and 21 between them. The building sits midway along College Gardens — a tree-lined street of similarly scaled late Victorian townhouses running from Malone Road to Lisburn Road within the Queens Conservation Area — facing south and overlooking the grounds of Methodist College.

Historical Background

College Gardens (originally College Gardens Avenue) occupies land that, before the early 19th century, formed part of a series of strip farms running from what are now Malone and University Roads to the Bog Meadows, probably laid out in the early 1600s. The integrity of these farms was broken up by the cutting of Lisburn Road in 1816–19 and the construction of the Ulster Railway in 1837–39. Around the same time, greater security of tenure from the Donegall estate led to the gentrification of the remaining plots, with small country villas being built or upgraded and small demesnes laid out within the former farmland.

The land immediately north and south of College Gardens belonged to one such villa, Vermont, a pre-1770 house possibly rebuilt or enlarged around 1815 and enlarged again in the 1840s by John Riddell, a Belfast ironmonger. The construction of Queen's College to the north-east in 1845 triggered the suburbanisation of the area. In 1865, Vermont itself was sold for the building of Methodist College, completed in 1868, with a new private avenue laid out on the lower ground immediately to its north and building plots established on the northern side. Development proceeded eastward: Nos. 1–6 were built in 1871, Nos. 7–18 in 1877, Nos. 33 and 34 in 1879, Nos. 19–22 in 1881, Nos. 23–26 in 1882, and Nos. 27–32 in 1883. The developer of everything from No. 11 to No. 32 appears to have been the Reverend George Cron, then minister of the Evangelical Union Church in Wellington Place, though the identity of the architect remains unknown.

Occupancy History

The 1884 street directory records the first occupant of No. 19 as Samuel Young, a spirit merchant. By 1887 the lease had passed to James Moore, listed simply as a merchant, followed around 1891 by Nicholas W. Grimshaw, a linen merchant from a Belfast family long established in the local textile industry. Johnson Symington was the next occupant around 1893, followed by A. A. Lockhart around 1898. At the time of the 1901 census the house was occupied by John Irvine, a Dublin-born wine merchant, living there with his wife Alice, two grown-up daughters and two domestic servants; the building was recorded as a first-class dwelling with the family occupying fifteen rooms. Robert Gault, a flax merchant, is listed as resident in 1907 and recorded in the 1911 census as occupying the house with his wife Sophia, their infant son and three domestic servants. A surgeon, T. K. Wheeler, had taken up residence by 1918, with another medical doctor, J. R. Wheeler — presumably a relative — as householder from the later 1940s, by which time the building appears to have become a surgery. It remained in medical use until the mid to later 1960s, when it became the offices of V. B. Evans and Co., Chartered Quantity Surveyors. It was still in their hands in 1996 but appears to have been vacated in 2007.

Exterior

The roof is covered in natural slate with red clay crested ridge tiles, except over the three-storey flat-roofed rear return and attic dormers, which have a PVC membrane. There are wide flat-roofed dormers to both the front and rear pitches, and two rooflights to the rear pitch, one modern and one conservation-style. The red brick chimney has been rebuilt in salvaged brick and carries several circular clay pots.

The front eaves are particularly elaborate: a projecting moulded cornice is carried on scrolled modillions, below which runs a deep frieze composed of fluted pilasters alternating with panels containing a central roundel within a moulded rectangular frame, and paired raised and fielded panels. The base of each pilaster is embellished with a bestial head moulding. This eaves and frieze detail is returned at the south-west corner onto the gable end. At the rear, the eaves are simpler, formed from alternating angled bricks, though the decorative eaves and frieze are repeated at the north-west corner, where they form the base for a simple rendered verge band and a projecting moulded timber bargeboard.

The walls to the south and west elevations are red brick in Flemish bond; the north elevation is in English Garden Wall bond. Rainwater goods to the south are ogee-profile cast metal gutters and circular-section rainwater pipes; those to the north are uPVC.

Front Elevation (South)

The south elevation is asymmetrical, with the entrance to the left (west) and a projecting square bay with two windows to the right at ground floor. There are three windows at each of the first and second floors, aligned with the openings below, and a flat-roofed dormer centred on the eaves with three pairs of casement windows. All openings are segmental-headed and diminish in height from ground to second floor. At second floor, original sliding sash windows with 1/1 panes appear to be retained. At first floor, timber-framed casements are top-hung and match the proportions of the sliding sashes. At ground floor, the bay windows are boarded up.

A painted render base plinth has a moulded top and vermiculated toothed quoins at the south-east corner. The entrance door is square-headed and timber-framed, comprising two panels with raised fields and bolection moulding, with a plain glass overlight on a simple transom. The surround is an elaborate stucco composition of concentric arches with egg-and-dart and chevron moulding, a pitched keystone and simple pilasters, all painted.

The ground-floor bay has a flat felt-membrane roof and a cornice and frieze matching the main roof eaves detail, which is continued across the main façade and repeated below a continuous projecting sill at second-floor level. The ground-floor window openings have deep moulded stucco surrounds with corresponding moulded brackets below the continuous projecting sill; the same arrangement appears at second-floor level, with simple chevron moulding in place of brackets. The first-floor windows have plainer surrounds up to impost level, where a continuous stucco band enriched with classical-style mouldings runs between the windows; above this band, the surrounds are ornamented with elaborate floral detail and exaggerated pitched keystones.

Rear Elevation (North)

The rear elevation is dominated by a full-height projecting bay to the right (west) side, abutted by a double return built at half-landing level, which steps down from four to three storeys. There is one opening to each of the basement, ground, first and second floors on this side.

Within the main body of the building at first and second floors, openings have been widened to accept modern steel-framed Crittall-type windows, though the original soldier-coursed brick headers remain in place. The same widening has occurred at basement level, where the original window has been replaced with cement render. At ground floor, the original timber-framed sliding sash window with 2/2 panes appears to survive intact, with square-edged painted stone sills; the reveals are rendered and painted. The decorative alternating angled brick eaves of the main building are repeated at both return roofs. The full-height lean-to projection is otherwise blank except for a projecting timber eaves board.

The north face of the hipped-roof return has two openings at second-floor level, offset to the right. The north face of the flat-roofed return has a deep rendered and painted plinth and three blocked-up basement windows; salvaged brick above concrete blocks suggests the far-left opening was originally a door, as indicated by the segmental-arched soldier-coursed brickwork above. At ground and first floors there is a single wide opening on each floor, offset to the right, and at second floor a three-part steel-framed casement. The first-floor opening of the same proportion is boarded up.

East Elevation

The east elevation comprises the gable end of the main building together with the east faces of the projection and double return. The toothed quoins from the main façade are returned onto the gable, as is the decorative eaves detail at both the north and south ends. At ground floor there are two openings: one segmental-arched with a stucco surround matching the bay windows on the main façade, now boarded up, and one near the centre of the gable, infilled with concrete block and fitted with a precast concrete lintel and sill. At first and second floors, a single wide opening centred on the apex is boarded up, proportioned similarly to the steel-framed windows on the north elevation. Near the eaves at attic level, towards the south end, there is a small round-arched opening that has been bricked up. A full-height concrete spiral staircase rises on the far right side from ground to attic level, where a further escape window near the eaves is boarded up.

On the projection, each half-landing level has one opening, all boarded up but retaining projecting stone sills and soldier-coursed brick headers, with a flush timber door at basement level. The hipped and flat-roofed returns have three basement windows, all infilled with concrete blocks, two windows at each of ground and first floors (the ground-floor pair boarded up; those at first floor are wide steel-framed casements), and three modern casement windows at second floor with a shared concrete sill. The surviving soldier-course headers above the second-floor windows provide evidence that the original proportions of these openings have been altered.

West Elevation

The west elevation abuts No. 20 College Gardens. The west face of the return, surveyed from Elmwood Mews, is detailed similarly to the rear of the main building and is largely blank where visible; the brick walling to the hipped-roof return is painted white to first-floor level.

Setting and Boundaries

No. 19 is set back from the tree-lined street behind a low red brick wall with a chamfered stone coping, with a hedge behind. A temporary flush timber board gate is locked shut. The hedge returns along the east boundary with the front garden of No. 18; to the rear yard, red brick walling separates the two properties. The front door opens onto a broad step, possibly stone, with a bull-nosed edge, flanked by dwarf walls without the balustrading that survives on adjoining properties. A path of precast concrete paving slabs leads from the entrance gate to the front door step, and the remainder of the front garden has planting and a lawn, including a semi-mature beech tree next to the hedge. The rear boundary with Elmwood Mews has been removed and replaced with temporary fencing.

Alterations

Alterations carried out in the 1960s — including the large extension to the rear return, the attic dormers, the concrete external fire escape staircase and the changes to the rear fenestration — are considered to detract from the historic character of the building. These works were almost certainly undertaken by V. B. Evans and Co. during the building's use as offices. Despite these alterations, No. 19 remains important to the integrity of the group of four, and to the wider sequence of terraces within College Gardens.