6 Shandon Park, Belfast, Co. Antrim, BT5 6NW

6 Shandon Park is a semi-detached Arts and Crafts-style villa built in 1906, forming one half of a pair with the adjoining No. 8 Shandon Park to its south side. The two houses were originally known together as 'Woodlee' and were constructed on land owned by William Kerr, a local builder and contractor who lived at Lindesfarne on the Holywood Road. They predate the majority of houses on Shandon Park, most of which were built in the late 1920s and early 1930s. Although the building retains some of its Edwardian character and is well-proportioned, it has lost much of its original interior and there are considered to be better examples of this style already listed. It is not regarded as being of special historic or architectural interest.

The house is three bays wide, two storeys tall with a dormer attic, and is built of brick and roughcast render. It has a projecting gable to the west, a mono-pitch conservatory to the north, and a gabled rear return to the east. The building sits within its own grounds, set back from and parallel to Shandon Park, with a tarmac driveway and parking to the north, a paved parking area to the west, and gardens to the east.

The roof is covered in natural slate with saw-tooth terracotta ridge tiles and a finial to the dormer. There are decorative painted bargeboards and eaves boards, with uPVC ogee-moulded guttering draining to uPVC square downpipes. To the north there is a two-stage roughcast rendered chimney stack with a flat sandstone coping and circular yellow terracotta pots. The central chimney, shared with No. 8, is brick with a cornice to the sandstone coping and circular terracotta pots. The conservatory has a mono-pitch glazed roof, and the rear return has a pitched slate roof.

The three-bay front elevation faces west, with the conservatory attached to its north side. The ground floor is red brick and the upper floors are roughcast rendered, with a projecting rendered cornice stringcourse between the two levels. There is a rendered plinth to the conservatory with a horizontal timber-sheeted apex, and a projecting rendered plinth to the canted bay. To the north bay there is a two-storey canted bay with a leaded hipped roof. The central entrance porch is single storey with a leaded hipped roof. To the south-west there is a dormer with a pitched slate roof, decorative bargeboard with finial, rendered walls, and a square-headed opening containing a timber casement window.

The ground floor windows are square-headed with one-over-one timber sliding sash windows, while the first floor windows have segmental-headed openings with moulded surrounds and six-over-one timber sliding sash windows. The central window of the canted bay has an eight-over-one timber sliding sash window. There is a painted stone sill course to both ground and first floor windows, and a painted header course to the ground floor windows. The conservatory has square-headed openings. The entrance door is a timber panelled door with a multi-pane fanlight over and flanked by sidelights, approached by a short flight of concrete steps with a metal handrail and balustrade on a concrete plinth with chamfered coping. The entrance porch has timber-framed glazing.

The north elevation shows the ground floor conservatory and, at first floor level of the main house, a six-over-one segmental arched window. The rear return is three bays wide and two storeys, with red brick to the ground floor and roughcast rendered upper floor and a decorative brick string course. It has square-headed openings with rendered sills, two-over-two timber sliding sash windows to ground and first floor, and one replacement timber casement window to the upper floor. There is also a single-storey extension to the east. The east elevation features the central gabled rear return, a two-storey flat-roofed extension to the south bay, and a single-storey extension to the north. The north bay of the main house has two-over-two timber sliding sash windows at ground floor level. The single-storey extension has a flat felt roof with a projecting rendered eaves course. The rear return has a square-headed door opening with a rendered header, a timber-framed glazed door, and a sidelight. The south elevation is attached to No. 8 Shandon Park.

The setting includes a tarmac driveway and parking to the north and west. A single-storey outbuilding to the north-east is connected to the single-storey rear extension by a metal gateway leading to the rear garden. The garden is enclosed by a mature hedge boundary. There is paving to the west with raised planting beds adjoining the building, mature planting and a hedge boundary to the west, and trees to the north.

The house was built on land in the townland of Knock, which remained predominantly rural in character at the turn of the 20th century. Shandon Park first appeared in the Ulster Town Directories in 1895, and by 1902 approximately ten dwellings had been built along the street. Annual Revisions records confirm that Nos 6 and 8 had been completed and occupied by 1906, when they were valued for the first time. No. 6 was initially valued at £33 and was first occupied by O'Connell Shaw, a retired harbour official. The 1911 census described his house as a first-class dwelling comprising nine rooms. Shaw continued to live at Woodlee until his death in 1918. Under the First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936–57), the house was occupied by W. J. McAlister, a local estate agent, and its valuation had risen to £47. McAlister remained there at least until the 1970s and was recorded as owner of both buildings in the Second Revaluation (1956–72), by which time the value of No. 6 had been further raised to £68. The fourth edition Ordnance Survey map of 1920–21 depicted both houses along their current layouts, with two-storey rear returns already in place, suggesting that no major structural changes have been made since the early 20th century.